Motivation Statement for MS Game and Media Technology in Utrecht University

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Motivation letter for university admission

I want to apply for the Master of Games and Media Technology at Utrecht University. I like playing computer games, and I enjoy trying all kinds of niche games. While I play games, there are always some ideas about game mechanics that come to me. So I try to develop games, implement ideas with code. During the developing process, I found that designing, implementing with code, modifying, and improving the algorithms and logic related to the game all provide me a great sense of accomplishment. As a result, I decided to become a game development engineer. In the process of developing games, I feel that I need to further improve my professional knowledge in this field. After consulting some people who work in the game industry for their opinions and suggestions, I also learned that most of the important technical work in the game team is done by MSs or Ph.Ds with many years of work experience. Therefore, I have the idea of studying for a master's degree in game development. From what I know, the game industry in the Netherlands is very developed and is growing steadily, and UU has close exchanges with the game industry. In addition, the computer animation course and crowd simulation course offered by the major is also the courses I am interested in. So studying at Utrecht University allows me to better combine theory with practice, develop my interests, and lay a solid foundation for my future career.

In the field of game development, I am very interested in physically based and procedural character animation systems. physically based and procedural animation can make the movement of characters in the game look real and natural, and can be used to implement some complex movement mechanisms, which have been applied in many games. In my undergraduate study, kinematics is also covered in some control-related courses, but mainly is the control of industrial robots. In my personal project, I used procedural animation to implement the movement of multi-legged creatures on the surface of complex terrain, which was mainly based on inverse kinematics. I feel very interesting to see the results and plan to learn more related knowledge of procedural animation.

My undergraduate major overlaps with the computer science major in programming, mathematics and AI to a certain extent. In order to better understand and apply AI algorithms in the projects, and to write more optimized codes, I also learned data structures, algorithms and operating system. During my senior year internship, I practiced web development and software engineering in business scenarios, add a new module to the company's internal testing platform which can link the test procedures of different projects, and write documents for it. In my graduation project, in order to implement the function of using gestures to draw in 3D, I learned the basics of computer graphics and OpenGL language. During the development of two personal game projects, I implemented the event system in the game, the A* pathfinding algorithm which uses area partition to increase search speed, the procedural animation of the units, etc., and I have an understanding of some algorithms and technologies in the game engine and game development. I think I am ready for stepping into graduate study.

Currently, I am still learning and improving my personal projects. If I am lucky enough to be accepted and study in this program, I will learn more advanced technology of game development, and make friends with developers from different countries who are good at different technologies. We can learn from each other, share our ideas, and improve our ability to develop projects in cooperation. My goal is to become a game development engineer, and I will continue to work toward this goal. With my enthusiasm for games and desire to learn new knowledge, I believe I can perform well in this project, and I also believe that I can contribute to this program.

Like is not enough of a reason to want to study this MS course. Unless you can create a statement that indicates a dedication to developing games, I would not refer to "like" in the essay.


Specifically mention the overlapping points and why these have prepared you for the demands of the masters course. The reviewer will be interested to learn about how your multifaceted training managed to merge into one applicable learning process for you. It may even be a notable highlight of your application.


This is a very interesting point that needs further development. Be specific about how you see yourself applying your future studies to the projects. What aspects of your personal projects will benefit from the advanced studies?

The academic motivation is very clear in your writing. My last suggestion leaves room for additional development. Try to add a professional aspect to the motivation letter. Talk about your simple career plan and how these studies can help. For example, you can infer that you plan to start your own gaming studie after graduating from the MS course, making it more imperative for you to complete these studies.