This long-read provides a brief overview of the student projects for 1st and 2nd Year students in the Game Design program for the 2025/26 academic year, in which I served as a curriculum coordinator.
Each year, my teaching approach is built on identifying and developing the student’s strengths, taking into account their pace and interests.
As a Curator-Technologist specializing in the visual aspects of student projects, I focus on ensuring stylistic consistency, element readability, and feedback within student games. My role becomes more active in the latter half of the module, after the pre-production work is completed with the curator-game designer.
I create a safe environment with the students where they feel free to experiment, be playful, and grow, receiving emotional and practical support from the mentor.
2nd Year Student
Arina Borisanova, Daria Volosova,
Victoria Eremeeva, Ekaterina Slobodyan
Goblin Kitchen
One of the most charismatic projects of this academic year. The high level of game-ready character and environment models, complete with hand-painted textures, allowed for the creation of an intimate yet highly detailed location that immerses the player in a humorous world. The gameplay and core objective highlight the absurdity of the situation: cook for the evil goblin lady with whatever you have.Project Longreads:
⬦ Goblin Kitchen
⬦ Team Lead, Game Design, 3D Art
⬦ Level Art, Prop Art, VFX
⬦ Code, Game Design, Narrative
⬦ UI/UX, Code, Onboarding, SoundLink to the Game
When students actively employ the absurd as a part of the project’s language, they manage to find a sense of play even in familiar genres.
2nd Year
Maria Laskina
<h3Kelpi
A classic platformer with meticulous level design conquers the player through its endearing clumsiness and clever use of object proportions. A charming watercolor palette evokes the feeling of a book illustration, while the physics emphasizes the immediacy of the cat-fisherman.⬦ Project LongreadDownload Game
Pushing boundaries involves risk—the work might alienate audiences due to oversaturation or, conversely, attract them with compelling chaos.
2nd Year
Kira Kirilenko, Inna Maslyankova,
Yana Mikhaylova, Rodion Firsov
THE X–IT
By drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of early internet and pop-up spam windows, the students managed to forge a surprisingly cohesive aesthetic for their platformer. Limiting the color palette to raspberry and shades of blue, and utilizing fills and pixel art helped them balance the chaos without descending into incoherence.Project Longreads:⬦ Game Design, Code, VFX
⬦ Visuals Work
⬦ Lead, Visuals, Level Design
⬦ ProgrammingDownload the Game
First-year students study programs for creating digital graphics and animation to visualize game design concepts.
1st Year
Anna Kudinova
Biblically Accurate Tennis
Another dynamic project from this academic season, full of vibrant colors and surrealism in both gameplay and visuals. The project impresses with meticulous work on asset animation: taking the genre of bullet hell—which is quite complex to implement within the module—the student managed to achieve a natural feel for the movement of game objects.⬦ Project Long Read
The originality of the game world is very important, but a separate challenge is creating charisma for a setting that is familiar to the viewer.
2nd Year Student
Ekaterina Slobodyan, Daria Volosova
We Shouldn’t Have Touched This Pot…
Japanese aesthetics are a frequent guest in student projects within the program. Creating a game that stands out among similar titles is not a simple task—one the students addressed through its gameplay and graphics. Harsh lighting combined with a «cartoony» shader and a complementary yellow-purple palette creates a distinct visual style for this shooter, which features conceptually experimental weapons—a fan and geisha needles.⬦ Project Long ReadDownload Game
