20 Years of Games

Two decades of education, one year of celebration

In 1997, Abertay University embarked on a journey into computer games education that would shape the future of the institution, the games industry and the city of Dundee itself.

To mark 20 years since we became the first in the world to offer degrees in games, 2017 saw a year-long programme of celebration, featuring an array of events, workshops, design sessions, talks and tournaments.

Not only did these events shine a light on the contemporary work of our students, there was also recognition of the graduates who have created pathways into industry and helped shape modern day courses.

Much has changed since the 1990s and the mobile phone applications that many of today’s cohort are now devising were still years away from creation when our first courses launched.

Over that time, what is now the School of Design and Informatics has grown - in tandem with massive investment in teaching and infrastructure facilities at Abertay - to ensure our graduates have the best education on the market, including strong links to industry.

Indeed, in March 2017, the prestigious Princeton Review ranked Abertay as best in Europe and in the world top 20 for our undergraduate and postgraduate courses respectively, recognising the culture of excellence embedded here.

In the past 20 years, our campus has become a melting pot of Scottish, UK, EU and International games talent, with student accessing links to the likes of Sony, Disney and Ubisoft while learning from a host of seasoned academic staff.

That collaborative culture was celebrated in style across 2017 as - following on from our biggest ever Global Game Jam - Abertay has hosted an expanded Digital Graduate Show, Games PechaKucha and Game Changers Exhibition, as well as a host of other events including tournaments, live interviews, visiting speakers and our 20 Greatest Games list.