Making Games Available in Higher Education

This report investigates the benefits, challenges and potential solutions to making games more available at the University of Melbourne and higher education more broadly. Games — analogue, digital and everything in between — is the biggest entertainment industry in the world, earning over $184.4 billion in 2022. This is three times more than the music and movie industry generated in 2022 combined. Given their popularity, games are receiving increasing academic and pedagogical attention. They are a diverse medium of study given how many disciplines they cross, ranging from fine arts, performance, writing, music, media studies, screen studies, human-computer interaction, cultural studies, education, architecture, law and more. In Australia, games continue to receive support and funding from all levels of government, and Melbourne in particular is renowned for its thriving independent game development scene and producing international successes like Cult of the Lamb, Untitled Goose Game and many more. Given these factors, it is important to consider how games can be more strongly integrated into teaching at the University of Melbourne through improving their availability.