Overview

This unit familiarises students with psychological concepts useful for game design. It provides students with an understanding of both player and design psychology, producing greater awareness in their creative process. The intention is to provide them with tools to better understand the motivations of the people they design for and to examine their own creative practice in depth. The unit is divided into four arenas; player psychology, design considerations, design motivations and application to industry.

Requisites

Prerequisites
GAM20003 Digital Game Prototyping Lab
GAM20004 Writing for Interactive Narratives

Equivalent

GAM30005 Behaviour and Motivation in Games

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 1
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
02-March-2026
31-May-2026
Last self-enrolment date
15-March-2026
Census date
31-March-2026
Last withdraw without fail date
21-April-2026
Results released date
07-July-2026

Unit learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  1. Evaluate psychological theory, and apply it to their written and creative work
  2. Build a comprehensive framework for understanding the motivations of their intended audience
  3. Formulate informed psychology based strategies for marketing to specific audiences
  4. Apply psychological theory to the processes that inform their design decisions
  5. Articulate a deeper knowledge of the relationship between player, designer and the game industry, and apply this to vocational choices

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
On-Campus
Lecture		 1.00  12 weeks  12
On-Campus
Class		 2.00  12 weeks  24
Online
Learning Activities		 5.75  12 weeks  69
Unspecified Learning Activities
Individual Study		 3.75  12 weeks  45
TOTAL     150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Case Study Report Group 30%  1,2,3,4,5 
Design Project Group  40%  1,2,3,4,5 
Reflection Individual  30%  2,3,5 

Content

  • Player Psychology
  • Semiology
  • Colour
  • Violence and Sexuality
  • Design Motivations
  • Independent Development
  • Larger and AAA Studios
  • Focus Groups, Testing and Marketing
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Verbal communication
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Communicating using different media
  • Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Collaboration and negotiation
  • Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Teamwork roles and processes
  • Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy
  • Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Technical literacy

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.