Video games are now part of the Library collection
The University of Sydney Library has purchased access to Ludolio, a new platform that makes commercial video games available to students for their studies – the same way the Library provides books, journals and films. Ludolio is available through the Library and is free for students, with an easy setup guide to help you get started.
Ludolio is a world-first distribution platform built by the Sydney Games and Play Lab, the platform hosts a library of video games freely available to both students and staff. At the University of Sydney, games are studied across multiple disciplines, including digital cultures, library sciences, teacher education, design, and digital humanities.
Associate Professor Jen Scott Curwood, Director of the Sydney Games and Play Lab and Chief Learning Officer of Ludolio, said games are now a central cultural form – the global gaming industry is now double the film industry in revenue size – and research shows games can support learning, creativity and critical thinking.
Despite the growing importance of games in culture and education, schools and universities have lacked the infrastructure needed to provide students with free, easy access to commercial games.
Most games are distributed through consumer platforms blocked by institutional IT systems or requiring individual purchase.
"Games are one of the most influential cultural industries in the world, and schools and universities need an innovative platform to readily integrate them into teaching and learning," Curwood, who is Associate Professor in English Education and Media Studies in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney.
"If you’re studying film, the university provides access to films. If you’re studying literature, you can borrow books from the library. Games should be treated the same way. Students need to experience them first-hand, and educators need access to learning analytics to understand how students’ gameplay shapes their cognition."
Getting a game is as simple as borrowing a book
Giselle Tuetuekin, a final-year Master of Interaction Design and Electronic Arts student at the University of Sydney, said she first discovered Ludolio through the student club Game Design Society, for student developers, artists, designers and gamers.
She said access to games through Ludolio changed the way she thought about game design.
"Using Ludolio made me feel, for the first time, that I could be both a player and a creator,” she said.
"As someone new to game design, discovering games I wouldn’t normally have come across has expanded my idea of what games can look like, what they can communicate and what they allow us to experience.
"When I first heard about the platform, I was impressed by how accessible it was. You can simply log in with your university email and borrow games through the library.
"Having that access gave me the space to explore different approaches to storytelling and design beyond theory alone. Ludolio definitely showed me how learning can be fun and engaging, and as a student, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to do so."
Bringing games into the classroom
Ludolio enables games to be accessed securely through institutional systems, removing the technical and equity barriers previously limiting their use in formal education. It also creates a new educational market for game developers.
"Ludolio gives game developers a way to monetise the educational potential of their games," said Professor Marcus Carter, Chief Executive Officer of Ludolio and a Professor in Human-Computer Interaction in Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning.
"We believe this will support the development of more games with potential in educational contexts."
The platform launched at University of Sydney in 2026 with a curated starter collection of 20 games, such as the robotics-transport sim Mars First Logistics, puzzle-platformer Webbed and quantum-entanglement adventure Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar — titles chosen to reflect the range of opportunities for games to be more involved in education.
By 2027, the Ludolio catalogue is expected to expand to over 100 curated titles.
Contact
If you know of a game that you would like to use in your teaching, please contact Professor Marcus Carter to request it be added to the Ludolio catalogue.