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Design and Development Research Fellowship

The UCLA Game Lab is offering new fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students interested in game design and development research. This open call is an excellent opportunity for any UCLA students interested in doing focused, collaborative work on a game project in a supportive and well-resourced environment. The Fellowship will support students interested in initiating or joining team-based projects. Fellowship recipients will work in the Lab during Winter and Spring Quarters (January 2020 to June 2020) to create game-based projects consistent with the UCLA Game Lab’s experimental, creative approach.

The selected fellows will receive up to 8 units of credit, and technical, conceptual, and artistic support from Lab staff and faculty.

Eligibility

• UCLA students at any level and of any major are eligible.
• Commitment to completing a project with a faculty mentor during Winter and Spring Quarters.

How to apply

• There are two different ways to apply - choose one:
  • A) To apply either as an individual or as a group member looking to propose and initiate a specific project: Applicants applying to initiate and propose a project will be asked to provide a project description and provide information about each team member’s contribution and role. This application may be completed as an individual looking for collaborators or as a team with up to three students.
  • B) To apply as an individual looking to join any project: Applicants will be asked to provide information about their interests, preferences, and desired involvement in joining a project. If awarded, the Game Lab will identify the best project fit for this individual.
• All applicants will be required to include links to prior relevant work.
• The deadline for all applications is Friday, November 1, 2019, 11:59 p.m.
• For any questions or assistance with the application process, please contact Tyler Stefanich at tyler@games.ucla.edu.

Evaluation process

• Applicants will complete an application form, which will be reviewed by members of the UCLA Game Lab. If necessary, a follow-up in-person interview may be requested.
• Fellowships will be awarded to students proposing or seeking to join projects and research consistent with the UCLA Game Lab’s experimental approach to game making.
• Projects that challenge or stretch one or more of the following areas will be given top consideration:
  • the formal qualities or properties of gameplay (visual, aural, written)
  • the technical foundations of game-making (innovative technical development)
  • the thematic scope of gaming (genres, polemics, social practice)
  • the context of games related work (game art, interfaces, performance)
  • The mechanics of gameplay (game rules, approaches to play)

Awards

• Fellows will be given space, dedicated workstations, and technical resources needed to successfully complete the project, as well as support and consultation from Lab staff and faculty.
• Teams will be expected to meet in the lab the first week of Winter Quarter 2019 to consult with Lab Director Prof. Eddo Stern and Lab Manager Tyler Stefanich and discuss project workflows, timetables, resources, and expectations.
• Awards will be announced on November 15, 2019.

Requirements (of participation in the program)

• Enroll in a course 199 Independent Study (3 to 4 units) for each of the Winter and Spring quarters. These courses are taken as Pass/No Pass and the units are variable according to each student’s unique contribution to the research and development of the project. Course advisors could be Professors from any department.
• Expect to work 3 hours per unit per week on the project. (Example; a 3 unit 199 course would require 9 hours per week).
• Fellows are expected to adhere to a regular, weekly research work schedule in the UCLA Game Lab, and meet with Game Lab staff and Faculty.
• Present a completed project at UCLA Game Lab and submit final documentation by the end of week 10 of Spring Quarter 2020.

Fellowship and Financial Aid

• The UCLA Game Lab Design and Development Research Fellowship becomes a part of the awarded Fellow’s financial aid package; therefore the Financial Aid office may adjust the Fellow’s financial aid package to ensure that the student does not exceed financial aid eligibility. If such an adjustment is made, loans and work-study awards are reduced first, prior to grant and/or other scholarship reductions.

Work from past fellowships

• The UCLA Game Lab Design and Development Research Fellowship becomes a part of the awarded Fellow’s financial aid package; therefore the Financial Aid office may adjust the Fellow’s financial aid package to ensure that the student does not exceed financial aid eligibility. If such an adjustment is made, loans and work-study awards are reduced first, prior to grant and/or other scholarship reductions.

About the UCLA Game Lab

Founded in 2009 by Prof. Eddo Stern, the UCLA Game Lab fosters the production of games and game-related research within an experimental art and design context. It values conceptual risk-taking and development of new forms and modes of expression through games. Projects that establish new paradigms for gaming and espouse an expressionistic and humanistic approach are highly encouraged.

The UCLA Game Lab supports exploration of these areas of focus: Game Aesthetics through experimentation in the look, sound, language and tactility of game projects; Game Context through development of analog and digital projects that involve the body, new interfaces, physical space and performance in new ways, or hybridize games with other artistic media; Game Genres through examination of the socio-historic-political discourse around games and the development of new game genres that challenge the presently accepted boundaries of what games are about; and Game Technology and Game Mechanics through new and challenging approaches to game technology and sophisticated approaches to the conceptual design of game mechanics.

Sponsored by the School of the Art and Architecture and the School of Theater, Film and Television, the lab is located on the 3rd floor of the Broad Art Center.

For any questions about this open call, or to visit the lab and learn more about it, please email Tyler Stefanich, game lab manager, at tyler@games.ucla.edu.