Opinion

The Video Game Design Program

Charles emailed me a reminder to post that game design proposal, so without further ado, here is a start.

So I have been thinking about this, and I decided to finally start figuring out how to make this Game Design program. I don’t know where I will be going with this, but I guess it’s a start to making something bigger.

Production, Design, Theory

When discussing game design, there are three types of education that should be available. Production is what most schools vocational schools offer. I am talking about Full Sail and DigiPen, and even Guildhall at SMU. While you can argue USC and Carnegie Mellon are also production, I believe there are trying to be more design focused. Then you have the full theory schools, like Georgia Tech, MIT, and Michigan State. These are programs that are very interested in games interacting with other disciplines.

BA, MA, and PhD

So the question becomes which does NYU focus on? Well I believe it has to do all three, and have them properly timed so each can build off the others.

The Undergraduate program is more geared toward production, with students receiving Computer Science, Animation, English, Architecture, or Business type degrees with it, they will become integral players in the industry. Students will still take Game Design courses but must also Major (or Minor, perhaps) in another area of study involved in game design. The game design courses will focus on the aspect they deal with most, while later classes involve working in groups to make games.

The Graduate program will be more design based, with students taking crash courses in Computer Science, Animation, and other Design elements involved in game design. Then students will also begin with a paper prototyping class, that does not allow for computers to be involved. The next semester students will begin creating computer games, but can also continue with a board game class.

Each student will also have to work on a large scale game project involving 3+ students. The size of the group depends on the project. These projects will involve undergraduate students, who will also receive credit. Each grad student will have a semester to work on an idea, which at the end of the semester will be pitched to the faculty, who will choose the concepts they think are feasible, and help them find students to work on the team. Each game will have a faculty mentor attached. The game will not have to be digital.

The PhD program will involve a yearly ‘Deathmatch’ between Ludologists and Naratologists over which is superior.

Seriously, the PhD will involve students studying more of the theory behind the game, including discussions on classification of gaming archetypes, and development of new genres. It will be geared more towards what is coming in the near and far off future. This will be similar to the Cinema Studies field, but more about what will happen, rather than what has happened.

So now we need to know what I got right, and what I got wrong. Let’s get a good proposal together and we can put it in the right hands.