Games & Apps Development

The Games & Apps Development (code L-DJA) programme is a 3 years BSc with a total 180 ECTS credits. The programme is 100% taught in English. English is used in all classes, student and faculty interactions, readings, resources, project deliverables, etc.

The Games & Apps Development programme was designed with input from the industry (Microsoft Portugal, Novabase, WayNext e Biodroid) and is organized around project-based learning from the first to the last semester. All semesters are centered in a project with a general theme and a set of requirements appropriate for the learning objectives of that semester, but which leave the students free to develop their own ideas. With rare exceptions, all modules of a semester contribute to the project and assess the students, at least partially, for their work within that project. Students regularly receive feedback from members of the video game industry while developing their projects (Miniclip, Nerd Monkeys, Tio Atum, Chilltime, comOn, at this time).

The programme was built on the belief that the best way to learn concepts is to abstract them from the concrete, with an appropriate context. Hence, mathematics and physics are taught in an integrated manner, whenever possible contextualized by the needs of games.

Games & Apps Development includes a mandatory international semester. Students may choose to complete their last (6th) semester in the Media Design School, New Zealand, which is also a part of the Laureate Network. They may also choose any other university with which there is an Erasmus ou Garcilaso partnership for this programme.

The faculty was chosen so as to have a good mix of experiences, both from the academy and from the video game and related industries, which adds to the real world, hands on, learn by doing nature of the programme.