COVID-19 case study: The effects of distance education on the game design practices of students at Uppsala University in 2022

Abstract: As a result of the global pandemic COVID-19, Bachelor’s game design education at Uppsala University was moved to an online space. Multiple literary sources give insights into as to how students were affected by the pandemic, however, little research specifically explaining the connection between game design students and game production in online environments could be found to inform this study. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the effects remote work has on students’ game production and to explore how these factors connect to the fields of Scrum, flow, as well as burnout. For the purpose of researching this, eight semi-structured interviews have been conducted with third-year game design students who previously had experience with both online and on-campus education and the resulting data was then further examined in the form of a thematic analysis. Overall it was found that the remote environment enabled students to become more independent and increased their work efficiency. However, any aspects related to social factors such as communication, collaboration, as well as other social interaction were perceived negatively by the students. Furthermore, the general online environment as well as students’ motivation and energy levels were found to not significantly impact game production in any particularly positive or negative way.