Dr Alexander Muscat is a game designer, educator, and researcher. He combines game-making practice and theory to research game design, production, and player experience. Alexander’s work includes the award-nominated experimental game WORLD4, and work on the interactive therapy system EDNA. His doctoral research focused on the study of emerging game genres, design knowledge, and the application of ambiguity within games through specific techniques, to foster unique perceptual and spatial experiences.
Alexander has special interest in how games challenge sensory perception and compel curiosity through experimental approaches, and towards the intersection between design knowledge, methods, and production processes. His interests seek to bridge gaps between research and industry. He has exhibited his work at game festivals including Freeplay and A MAZE, and has disseminated his research at scholarly, arts, and industry venues including CHI Play, DiGRA, and Games Connect Asia Pacific.
Awards/Fellowships
- Highly Commended (Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) Australia, 2020)
- Finalist, ‘Explorer Award’ (A MAZE international games and playful media festival, 2019)
- Finalist, ‘Best Experimental Game’ (Freeplay independent games festival, 2018)
- IGDA Scholars (International Game Developers Association, 2014)
Professional Social Media
Research areas
- games
- design
- game design
- game studies
- player studies
- user experience
- media studies
- qualitative research
- higher education
Teaching areas
- Game Design
- Game Studies
- Game production and development
- Player and user experience
- Muscat, A. and Duckworth, J. (2018) WORLD4: Designing for Ambiguity in Exploration Games. In Proceedings of CHI PLAY 2018, Melbourne, Australia, 28-31 October, pp. 1-11. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3242671.3242705
- Muscat, A., Goddard, W., Duckworth, J., Holopainen, J. (2016) First-Person Walkers: Understanding the Walker Experience through Four Design Themes. In Proceedings of 1st International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG. Dundee, Scotland. DiGRA Digital Library. http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/designing-unconventional-use-of-conventional-displays-in-games-some-assembly-required/
- Muscat, A., Duckworth, J., Wilson D. (2019) Methods Beyond the Screen: Conducting remote player studies for game design research. In Proceedings of the 12th DiGRA International Conference (DiGRA 2019), Kyoto, Japan, 03-06 August. http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/methods-beyond-the-screen-conducting-remote-player-studies-for-game-design-research/
- Muscat, A. (2020) Mechanics & Materialities: WORLD4 and the Effort of Looking in Videogames. In Proceedings of DiGRA Australia (DiGRAA 2020), Brisbane, Australia, 10-11 February. http://digraa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/DiGRAA_2020_paper_36.pdf
- Goddard, W. and Muscat, A. (2017) Towards genre as a game design research approach. In Proceedings of the 10th Digital Games Research Association International Conference (DiGRA 2017), Melbourne, Australia, 3-6 July 2017, pp. 1-14. http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/towards-genre-as-a-game-design-research-approach/
- Goddard, W., Muscat, A., Manning, J., Holopainen, J. (2016) Interactive Dome Experiences: Designing AstroSurf. In Proceedings of the 20th International Academic Mindtrek Conference. 393-402. ACM Press. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2994310.2994339
Dr Alexander Muscat’s specialist areas of knowledge include: game design and game production, the study of user and player experience, applied game design, and the study of games within culture.