Dr Douglas Brown

Dean of the Faculty of Screen, Technology & Performance

Formerly employed by international games developer and publisher Square-Enix and credited on several of their high-profile titles including the award winning Final Fantasy XII, Doug made the move into higher education from the games industry just as games design courses were being founded, and has contributed to games being taken seriously by academia.
 
He holds a BA in English from Oxford University, and an MA and PhD in Digital Games from Brunel University. Having previously built up and led a leading games design university course at Brunel, Doug was attracted to the Falmouth approach to games development by its focus on entrepreneurship, teamwork and view of games as an art form.  
 
Fascinated by games of all kinds, from board games to text adventures to AAA titles, Doug has always seen games as a medium with the most immense potential for reshaping how we engage with stories and messages. He has published work on games and franchise adaptation, MMO-RPG design and game analysis, as well as contributing to consultations on game content regulation with the UK government. He has a wealth of experience teaching theory courses that complement and synergise with games design learning. His current project is a book on how 'suspension of disbelief' can be seen to be working in games, focusing on the Metal Gear Solid series. With numerous connections in the games industry and games academia, Doug's focus is on developing the Games courses at Falmouth towards a distinctive and effective programme of study, and helping unlock Cornwall's potential as a hub for indie game development. 

 

Douglas Brown

Contact details

Telephone 01326 259266
Email douglas.brown@falmouth.ac.uk

    Qualifications

    Qualifications

    Year Qualification Awarding body
    2012 PhD Digital Games Brunel University
    2007 MA Digital Games Theory & Design Brunel University
    2005 BA English Oxford University

    Research Interests

    Research Topics

    • Digital Games Design
    • Digital Games theory
    • Narrative in games
    • Suspension of Disbelief
    • Games and Storytelling
    • Games and Adaptation
    • Media convergence and Transmedia Storytelling

    Research Outputs

    Publications and research outputs

    • Summerley, Rory

      Wilbraham, Che and Brown, Douglas, (2023), Tandem Analysis and Other Methodologies Inspired by Interdisciplinary Approaches, In: Nordic DiGRA 2023, 27-28 April 2023, Uppsala, Sweden, (Submitted), Item availability may be restricted.

    • Scott, Michael

      Mitchell, Alexander and Brown, Douglas, (2023), Retention in First Stage Undergraduate Computing: Lessons Learned from a Collaborative Learning Intervention, In: Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, July 8--12, Turku, Finland

    • Mitchell, Alexander

      Scott, Michael, (2023), Peer Evaluation in Group Projects: Insight into Effective Student Critique and Feedback, In: AdvanceHE Assessment and Feedback Symposium, 7th November 2023, Reading, UK, (Submitted)

    • Mitchell, Alexander

      Walton-Rivers, Joseph, Watkins, Matt, New, Warwick and Brown, Douglas, (2022), An Exploratory Analysis of Student Experiences with Peer Evaluation in Group Game Development Projects, In: Proceedings of the 2022 United Kingdom and Ireland Computing Education Research Conference, September 1-2, 2022, Dublin, Ireland

    • McDonald, Brian

      Brown, Douglas, (2022), The Kerdroya Postmortem: Navigating the Labyrinth of Co-creative Design and Collective Vision, Athens, Greece

    • Mitchell, Alexander

      Scott, Michael, (2021), Student Perspectives on the Purpose of Peer Evaluation During Group Game Development Projects, In: United Kingdom and Ireland Computing Education Research Conference, September 2 - 3, 2021, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    • Scott, Michael James

      Krzywinska, Tanya, (2018), Towards an Interaction Blueprint for Mixed Reality Experiences in GLAM Spaces: The Augmented Telegrapher at Porthcurno Museum, In: Proceedings of the 32nd BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference, 2-6 July, 2018, Belfast, NI, pp. 1-5

    • Mitchell, Alexander

      Brown, Douglas, (2022), Peer Evaluation Questionnaire, (Unpublished)

    • Scott, Michael

      Herring, Phoebe, Greer, Terry, Hickey, Kat, Rothwell, Sandra, Krzywinska, Tanya and Goonhilly Earth Station, (2022), Space on Earth: Assessing the Feasibility of Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality for a Visitor Experience, Audiences of the Future: Design Foundations, (Unpublished)

    • Brown, Douglas

      (2020), Rerolling Boardgames, Mcfarland and Company, Jefferson, North Carolina, ISBN: 978-1-4766-7079-9, Item availability may be restricted.

    • Brown, Douglas

      (2019), To Disney Infinity and Beyond - Star Wars Videogames Before and After the Lucasarts Acquisition, In: Disney’s Star wars: Forces of Production and Promotion, University of Iowa Press, Iowa, USA, pp. 123-135, ISBN: 9781609386436

    • Krzywinska, Tanya

      Brown, Douglas, (2015), Games, Gamers and Posthumanism, In: The Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television, Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK, pp. 192-201, ISBN: 9781349577019, Item availability may be restricted.

    • Brown, Douglas

      (2015), Adaptive Harmonics - Star Trek's Universe and Galaxy of Games, In: The Star Trek Universe: Franchising the Final Frontier, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, USA, pp. 133-145, ISBN: 978-1-4422-4985-1

    • Krzywinska, Tanya

      Brown, Douglas, (2015), Games, Gamers and Posthumanism, In: The Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television, Palgrave Macmillian UK, London, pp. 192-201, ISBN: 9781137430328 (online) 9781349577019 (print)

    • Krzywinska, Tanya

      Brown, Douglas, (2015), Online Games and Genre, In: International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, John Wiley & Sons/Blackwell, Oxford, ISBN: 978-1-118-29074-3

    • Brown, Douglas

      (2016), Book Review: Game Play by Paul Booth, In: Intensities, Brunel University, London, UK, 1 (8), ISSN: 1471-5031

    • Brown, Douglas

      (2012), Game-Playing-Role, (Submitted)

    • Krzywinska, Tanya

      Ma, Eunice, Belinskiy, Anton and Bhui, Kamaldeep, (2025), Coziness in Games: Second Homes, Audiences and Esthetics, In: Games and Culture, Sage, Thousand Oaks, California, ISSN: 1555-4120

    Research Students

    Research degrees examined

    I have examined one PhD student at Brunel University. 

    Number of research degree examinations

    1

    Teaching

    Areas of teaching

    • Games Design
    • Games Theory
    • Game Writing

    Courses taught

    • BA(Hons) Digital Games
    • MA Digital Games