The game design and development program, which falls under UCCS’ Bachelor of Innovation program, is where students can cultivate a wide range of artistic and technical skills for creating digital games and programs.
The program integrates a variety of disciplines, with an emphasis on programming and game design topics, while pulling in a range of cross-disciplinary topics such as art and music.
According to Associate Professor Allen Westcott, the game design major teaches a holistic and objective-based approach to problem-solving.
“There’s a lot less numerical restrictions and sort of goals you have to hit. It’s more so: does this game work, is this game fun? There’s a lot of really subjective aspects to it, and that’s what I like about it,” Westcott said.
The curriculum uses a hands-on approach to teach a variety of topics essential to game design, including sprite creation, animation, and unity development. Once students have a basic understanding, they will begin prototyping their own games as they move through the program.
Westcott spoke about how the program can expand students’ skill sets. Students can refine a specific skill, such as digital art or programming, while growing their skill set and building new ones. “One thing we’re very proud of is we’ve taken a lot of artists who are terrified of programming and made them program, and then all of a sudden, they’re technical artists, right? And that’s awesome,” he said.
Students must take a minimum of 33 credit hours of computer science coursework, with an additional 15 hours in a required Specialty Area. These areas are game art, game design or game programming. The program also requires a minimum of 27 credit hours of upper-division computer science and game design coursework.
Upon graduation, many opportunities can open up for game design students beyond crafting their own video games. “It really depends on what you specialize in, but whatever you do, it will carry you through,” Westcott said.
The Game Design Club is the best way to get involved in game design on campus according to Westcott. The club is open to people of all majors.
According to Westcott, the club recently participated in a global “game-jam,” during which students and staff get together for a weekend to create games, only stopping to sleep. This is a coordinated weekend across the world. According to the game jam website, the mission is “to empower individuals worldwide to learn, experiment, and create together through the medium of games.”
The idea of programming can be scary, but according to Westcott, there is far more to game design than just programming. “If you feel like programming is a little stuffy, or it’s all just zeros and ones, (game design) is where the forefront of art is. So, we have interactive movies now. Do you want to make your own? Come on by,” he said.
Students interested in the game design and development major or game design-related extracurriculars can contact Westcott at [email protected].
Graphic via The Scribe archive.