[game_edu] It's an interdisciplinary field

[Roberts, Scott]

Luckily we're not in a powerless position.  There's a reason that game programs are popping up everywhere and in various departments: high student interest.  This is a valuable political commodity that needs to be leveraged by committed faculty.  Other fields would kill to have the level of interest that this field has.



One danger of this is that multiple departments will lay claim to parts of game development, chopping it up and making coordination more difficult (see other posts to the thread) and dispersing clout.  If this happens you've got an uphill battle to get areas to give up enrollment, and your position is seriously weakened.  Just imagine if film programs had been sliced into screenwriting (English), directing (theater), cinematography (art) and film studies (communication)?


One strategy of convincing administration of a coordinated approach is to use successful programs as evidence of how it's done. RIT's approach of a transcendent structure is one way, as long as you have chairs/deans who are going to allow faculty some freedom.  At DePaul we fight hard to keep the programming, design and art sides together under the same umbrella (and dean).

Ian mentioned that CS programs initially grew from Philosophy Depts., but at DePaul it grew from Math.  I don't think it matters too much.  Where we start has an influence on the path you take at the beginning, but as Ian put it, "The question is, before we get there, where is the best place to grow it out of? (Perhaps the answer is, anything, as long as we keep the endpoint in mind.)"  An optimal end result is something that I don't think we've fully seen anywhere yet, since this educational area is still in its infancy.  But that's why it's so exciting, right?

Scott


Scott Roberts

Associate Professor

School of Cinema & Interactive Media

DePaul University

sroberts at CIM.depaul.edu



http://GameDev.DePaul.edu/







-----Original Message-----
From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Jim Parker
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 9:11 AM
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: Re: [game_edu] It's an interdisciplinary field



Thanks to Darius for the appropriate story!



The key for me would be how to get a University to grasp this and to do

something sensible. As the tale shows, Universities cubbyhole folks, and

this is the wrong approach for some subjects (like ours). Any experience

with convincing schools to do this? (RIT is in some sense unique here)



Jim



Marla Schweppe wrote:


> It's an interdisciplinary field, so in my mind it doesn't really make



> sense to put all of 'games' into one program. A lot of where the



> curriculum will end up at a given school depends on where the



> expertise is in the faculty as well.



>



> Here, for example, we have aspects of game curriculum in a number of



> different departments. The *Information Technology *department has a



> program in *Game Development and Design*. They teach students to build



> game engines and design the interaction in the game. In the *School of



> Film and Animation* students work a lot on narrative, animation, and



> film language. In *Computer Graphics Design* (BFA in 3D Digital



> Graphics) students design and build game assets (levels, characters,



> lighting, materials) using references from different time periods,



> artists, styles, etc. In *Computer Science*, students do graphics



> programming. In *New Media,* students focus on 2D game design. All of



> the programs allow some flexibility so that students can take



> electives in other programs. Then students have the opportunity to



> work on interdisciplinary teams like in the real world.



>



> Since it is so interdisciplinary, is it really reasonable to assume



> that everything about creating games will be in one department or one



> program? Probably not. An interdisciplinary approach to an



> interdisciplinary field seems more appropriate.



>



> Professor Marla.Schweppe at rit.edu



> RIT, 73 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623 - 585-475-2754



>



> ------------------------------------------------------------------------



>



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