A new list for the Institutions Active in Technical Games Research rankings reveals that the Institute of Digital Games (IDG) at the University of Malta (UM) is in the fifth position out of 100 game research centres around the globe. The Institute improved its position in these rankings: IDG entered the list of the most active game research centres in 2018 when it ranked ninth out of 100 game research centres worldwide.

A multi-disciplinary institute educating students from philosophy and digital humanities to artificial intelligence and machine learning, IDG is constantly striving to improve the educational service it offers with the aim for its students to be unique creative thinkers that can contribute to the video game industry and video game research.

The Institutions Active in Technical Games Research ranking evaluates universities and institutions, such as Google and New York University, based on their publishing activity over the past ten years in conferences and journals specifically dedicated to the technical aspects of games and interactive entertainment research, including artificial intelligence (AI), human-computer interaction (HCI), graphics, and more. The ranking takes into account the credit assigned to authors' current institutions and splits credit for multi-author papers fractionally.

The Director of the Institute of Digital Games, Prof. Georgios N. Yannakakis, expressed his delight and pride for this prestigious achievement. "I am very happy and proud of the work by my colleagues and our students that has led to this outstanding achievement", he said.

"Our Institute first entered the list of the most active game research centres in 2018 positioning itself 9th out of 100 game research centres globally. Only 5 years later we managed to climb to the 5th position of this list surpassing game tech giants and prestigious universities in North America and Europe!", he continued.

"Over the last decade our research staff and students have raised the bar to world-class standard when it comes to research in artificial intelligence, game studies, and game design. What the UM celebrates today is the result of years of hard work and commitment to the values of research excellence and dissemination. The IDG, once more, demonstrated that its strong focus on excellence and multidisciplinary can place Malta centrally on the world research map," he reiterated.

The Institute of Digital Games offers the Master of Science in Digital Games and Doctoral Degrees in the areas of Game AI, and Game Studies at the University of Malta. To get to know more about the Institute visit the website.