Video games, once considered a distraction by parents and school administrators, are now being produced and studied in some universities.
The industry’s success is hard to ignore. Video games earned about $7 billion in 2004, and almost half of all U.S. homes own one game-playing machine, according to media research organization Nielsen Entertainment.
John Scalzo, electrical engineering instructor, said there are no video gaming courses offered at the University.
“It would require a lot of departments going in a different direction and finding faculty in this area,” Scalzo said.
“It’s very challenging [to teach] – most video game design is for action-oriented games,” said David Koppelman, electrical and computer engineering associate professor.
Video games mimic special effects in movies, and many video game design companies want their designers to understand the underlying computer hardware so they can better develop these highly technical games, Koppelman said.
“Video games are richly animated,” making them complex to develop, Koppelman said.
A video game’s animation speed depends on the frame rate, the number of times the screen is updated per second.
“Speed is everything,” Koppelman said.
Southern Methodist University in Dallas offers The Guildhall, an accredited graduate program in which students can specialize in software development, level design or art creation, said Renee Archambaulp, director of recruiting and advertising. Guildhall professors have experience in the gaming industry.
“Level design is story telling,” Archambaulp said. “It evokes emotion from a game player. Software designers write the code for the game, and art creators draw characters and environments.”
Archambaulp said students specialize in one area, but they have to take interdisciplinary courses in all three areas of study.
“It’s better to have a broader focus, honing in on specifics,” she said.
Archambaulp said SMU worked with gaming companies to develop a curriculum.
Gary Brewbaker, a professor who teaches game studies and software development, said The Guildhall bridges the gap between academia and the video game industry.
It was hard to find qualified candidates to design video games as they became increasingly more complex, Brewbaker said.
Brewbaker began working in the video gaming industry in 1991, and he said teams of four to five programmers could develop a game when he began working in the industry, but now it takes teams of 150 to 200 people.
Brewbaker said a course of study in video gaming will be advantageous to recent graduates hoping to break into the gaming world.
“It’s an insider industry, much like Hollywood,” Brewbaker said. “Getting that initial breakthrough is hard.”