253Games

253Games is the game design and development studio of the Center for Game Research of Utrecht University. We develop games for learning and research purposes for clients within UU and UMCU. The design and development of the games is done by students at Utrecht University, supervised by lecturers and researchers. The projects are typically implemented in coordination with Educate-IT and Research-IT. We frequently collaborate with the Grafisch Lyceum Utrecht  (GLU), and the University of Arts Utrecht (HKU) for the graphic art design.

There are several ways to get a game made:

  1. An undergraduate Information Science student makes this as a graduation assignment. Size: 15 EC, or 10 weeks. These students are often not so technically skilled that they can program it all out themselves, so will use an existing platform.
  2. A Game & Media Technology master's student makes a game as part of their final research project. Size: 40 EC, approximately 7.5 months. These students are technically skilled, but then there must be a computer science research question linked to it.
  3. A group of 10 bachelor students Game Technology. Size: 15 EC per student, 20 weeks half time, a total of 100 weeks. A student of the Grafisch Lyceum Utrecht (GLU) will make the visuals. Costs: 15.000 €. A contract on intellectual and software property rights is handled through our project office. The emphasis is on programming, not on inventing a game.
  4. A group of 6 University of Arts Utrecht (HKU) students with a Game & Media Technology master student from us. Size: 15 EC per student, 20 weeks half time, a total of 60 weeks. The emphasis is on designing the game, there is only one programmer.
  5. Hire student assistants through 253Games, the game studio at UU. Cost (student assistant rate) and scope are variable because not tied to an educational program. 253Games works on a projects basis. Each project is defined by a project description stating the overall idea of the game, the main elements of the game, the stakeholders, and the size of the project in terms of number of hours and number of students assistants (internal link). The studio has a coordinator who holds consultations with the clients, acquires students, handles contracts, and supervises running projects.

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