Students will learn about team interactions, software project management processes, tools, and technologies, through observation, reflection, role-play and hands-on software project management. Students are introduced to project management as a discipline, compare various software project management methodologies, discover and reflect on individual strengths and practices, and apply the Agile methodology to game development using Scrum, including day-to-day techniques to lead a team to success without waste, technical debt or crunchtime.

Game History is an integrated, cross-disciplinary hands-on history class where students actively research the evolution and history of games through the lenses of design, art, technology, business, society and culture. Working with resources from the Game History Teaching Collection, and from the perspective of their discipline as a game developer, students will play, study and research historical to contemporary games. In this way, students will discover the nexus of relationships driving game development.

Introduces the skills of project management to define a project’s scope, specifications and assumptions, and develop a work breakdown structure using various methodologies. Students gain an understanding of the value of time lines and Gantt charts and utilize a leading project management software application.

In Game Studio I, students from all of the degrees of the Game Studio work together in small, multidisciplinary teams to rapidly conceptualize, plan and prototype a variety of 2D game prototypes. Students explore development for both PC and mobile technology, while learning collaborative skills in communication, agile project management techniques, and version control.

This is a fourth-year business course designed for Business and e-Business & Commerce majors; it is a capstone learning experience which should be taken in the student’s final semester. This course offers students an opportunity to participate in an intensive, hands-on management-level work experience in a business or not-for-profit setting that complements individual career aspirations. After finding an appropriate internship site, student interns will apply their business skills in a project-based context to help the organization address a problem or capitalize on an opportunity. In addition to the workplace projects, interns will research current information pertaining to their projects, conduct site analysis evaluations, analyze critical incidents, submit final written reports and present oral summaries to their peers. Upon completion of this course students should have gained valuable business experiences, acquired strong insights into an industry and an organization and made career-building contacts.

In Game Studio II, students from all of the degrees of the Game Studio work together in large, multidisciplinary teams to rapidly conceptualize, pitch, plan and develop a 3D game. Students utilize the latest in game technology, while perfecting their collaborative, communication skills, and agile project management techniques.

The college capstone is an opportunity for students to pursue a self-directed experience in their professional program that intentionally integrates their liberal learning in the Core curriculum with their program learning. In addition to the substantive professional-based hands-on project in this class, the capstone will include a professional ethics component and a self-evaluation/self-reflection component.

In EGD 420, Game Studio III, seniors successful in pitching their games during the college capstone in the Fall semester continue into full production. Forming large production teams, games are taken to the perfect polished state of gold master, ready for publication. Academic emphasis for the class is focused on working successfully in a professional studio environment, preparing for entrance into the job market, and taking personal craft to the next level.