[game_edu] type of degree for a new program?

[Ian Schreiber]

My own personal opinion is that the difference is largely, um, academic. The biggest challenge isn't what letters to put in front of it, but creating a useful program in the first place. Game design is one of the hardest subject areas because it's so broad, so it could really be anything.
   
  If anything, because the field is so broad, you can say something about your concentration. BS in Game Design implies that you specialize in systems/technical design. BA tells me your students probably take more art courses than programming. BFA sounds like the "purest" form of game design, in terms of treating games as their own artistic medium. Again, these are just my own gut reactions to the letters.
   
  At the end of the day, the curriculum and faculty should speak for itself.

Kim Gregson <kgregson at ithaca.edu> wrote:
  Hi everybody,

I putting together the paperwork to propose a new
degree in game design where I teach. Everybody is
pretty positive about it. We're working with folks in
computer science and art history. We're basing a lot
of it off the IGDA curriculum framework.

However, we can not figure out what kind of degree to
make it. I teach in a communication school (just for
context)

I ruled out a BA because I didn't want people to think
it was a game studies (critical-cultural) degree.

I am leaning against making it a BS because it's not
computer engineering or even heavy on math and
computer science.

The associate dean suggested a BFA because the
proposed degree has a lot of requirements, like our
other BFA degree. However,it kind of fits because
we're going to focus on aspects of game creation that
we have strengths in, such as the story telling, the
visual look, game audio, as well as the programming
and basic design. 

Does anyone have any suggestions or examples? Any idea
if folks in the industry would recognize the
difference (or care) in the letters (as opposed to the
actual courses)?

Thanks for any feedback...Kim Gregson at Ithaca College


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