Tuesday, February 11, 2003

New Program at Southern Methodist U. Sets Its Sights on Game Designers By SCOTT CARLSON Young renegades who yearn to create abstract puzzles, postapocalyptic worlds, and cartoonish wonderlands may soon be flocking to Southern Methodist University, hoping to become the entertainers of the future. That's because Southern Methodist will soon offer a certificate program in video-game design. The program, called the Guildhall, will be selective, accepting only 100 students at a time, and will cover the business and art of game production. After 18 months and $37,000 in tuition, graduates can seek jobs in the burgeoning video-game industry and may even design the next Doom or Myst. Peter E. Raad directs the university's Hart eCenter, an office that focuses on network technologies and technology transfer, and that will run the program. He says the proposal to create the video-game certificate was initially a surprise to "anyone over 35" at the university. "But then you explain to people that games are not just about having fun," he says. "Fighter pilots train on simulators, war generals play games, and I have talked to business leaders who would kill for a good business simulator." "Once you explain those things," Mr. Raad says, "all of the people at the university said, Yes, that makes sense." Even the mindless shoot-'em-up games are serious business. Video games rack up sales of about $10-billion a year. "Computer games grossed more money than Hollywood box-office receipts in the past three years," says David Najjab, who directs the new game-design program. "It's looking like games will be the media of the future." Other institutions offer courses in video-game design -- the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University are among them -- but few hand out degrees or certificates to electronic-game designers. The University of California at Irvine offers game-design courses, but an attempt to create a game-design program was rejected by the academic senate. The DigiPen Institute of Technology, also known as Donkey Kong U., is one of the best-known academic programs in game design (The Chronicle, January 31, 1997). Officials at Southern Methodist say theirs will be an industry-designed and -approved program. As it turns out, Dallas is a hotbed of computer-gaming companies, and luminaries of the industry were heavily involved in creating the courses. "We've been working with them, asking what skill sets would they like to see from people who are coming through their door," says Mr. Najjab. He says that officials of video-game companies weren't satisfied with the skills that recent college graduates had been bringing to interviews. Computer-science majors knew a lot about theory, but little about designing games, for example. So several local companies have brought their expertise to many of the courses that will make up the SMU program. Tom Hall, chief creative officer and cofounder of Monkeystone Games, helped create the game-design curriculum. The program's students "will learn what is needed for making games, not a bunch of general stuff that a professor did their thesis on years ago that isn't really useful," he says. "All the chaff is gone." Mr. Hall says that courses will also deal with building practical business skills for the industry, like learning how to work with other people and what to do when a publisher rejects a game. "Sure, this is a dream job," Mr. Hall says, "but there are nightmare moments as well." Another luminary in the gaming industry, who goes by the name Levelord, helped design a program of courses on the art and science of creating game levels. Without the involvement of people from the industry, "it would be really hard to create something that specific," says Mr. Najjab. Even though the program is not yet accredited and will not take students until July, at the earliest, it's already getting attention from would-be game designers. "We seem to get a lot of inquiries," says Mr. Najjab. "We have had to hire people to help us because we can't handle all of the calls." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

MIT opens 2 programs to white and Asian applicants in response to federal inquiry Percentage admission plans fall short as substitutes for affirmative action, Harvard reports say Moody's report predicts dire outlook for smaller private colleges One-two punch of spending cuts and tuition increases is "assault" on higher education, report says Newspaper details allegations of academic fraud and payoffs in Fresno State basketball program Scholar just released from prison in Indonesia plans to resume human-rights studies there New program at Southern Methodist U. sets its sights on game designers