Overview
This interdisciplinary minor will provide students with the skills needed for a variety of careers in the field of Computer Gaming. Students in this minor will receive a foundation in artistic, mathematical, psychological and computer programming tools and techniques relevant to the design and development of computer games as well as in business methodologies applicable to Computer Gaming. Legal and societal implications of computer games will also be studied.
The design and development of computer games is a rapidly growing academic area. It is highly interdisciplinary and is having a major impact on all levels of education. The gaming industry that has become an important driver for the economy requires specialists with a variety of backgrounds. Game companies need artists, mathematicians and computer scientists, but also writers for story building, psychologists for creating a fun factor in games, and business-savvy professionals, who ensure financial soundness of the endeavors. In addition, the use of games by a growing part of the population has serious societal and legal implications that need to be studied.
This computer gaming minor is a blend of several disciplines, including a wide range of academic areas, such as Art, Business, Mathematics, Psychology and Computer Science. This minor is meant to meet the need of an interdisciplinary curriculum that prepares students with a working knowledge necessary to pursue a career in the gaming industry. As such it is consistent with the interdisciplinary mission of CSUCI.
The proximity of our university to numerous movie and game production studios in the Los Angeles area makes our program even more compelling. We constructed the program after consulting with the local game industry. The program is designed to address the immediate needs for specialists trained in their respective areas, who can work efficiently in multidisciplinary teams that are needed for developing games.
Students from any major will benefit from this degree. Although the links to game development from Arts, Business, Computer Science and Math are clear, other disciplines have more subtle relationships with computer games. For example, there are no good stories and scripts without English; Psychology of color and acoustic influences game design, and Physics defines the rules with which games are becoming increasingly realistic. There is room for everybody in computer game design.