Curriculum for Game Art Degree

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, students will play, study and research historical to contemporary games. In this way, students will discover the nexus of relationships driving game development. This course fulfills the requirement for FRM-118 Knowledge Making in the Creative Arts, Media and Humanities.

In this course, students will examine how historical forces have influenced the emergence of creative technologies and cultural production. Through the study of various artists, art works, and artistic movements, along with theories and philosophies of art, they will develop research questions, analyze, and apply critical frameworks to discussions of artistic practice. Students will consider how global power structures have affected and continue to affect the work of artists and scholars. Being the most theory-based course in the FRM block, ART 120 will bolster students' analytical understanding of activities in the cultural sphere, advancing their critical capacities that complement technical skills, artistic practice, and creative development. This course fulfills the requirement for FRM-128 Global Contexts in the Creative Arts, Media and Humanities.

The course provides students with opportunities to develop specialized projects in art, humanities, and media production. Students will apply critical frameworks, including theories, and use interdisciplinary methods to explore how culture is shaped by popular appeal, innovation, and mechanisms of power. Students will work individually and collaboratively to bring creative work-narratives, images, multimedia forms-and rigorous scholarship to complex challenges in varied contexts.

Students will use traditional drawing techniques to understand the concepts of form, volume, structure, anatomy, proportion, foreshortening, lighting and composition while realistically drawing the human form.

Students learn and practice essential art and design topics including the elements and principles of design, color theory and composition and concept art pipelines, while creating 2D digital art.

Students will explore the creation and implementation of visual assets for immersive 2D games, including environment art, character art, animation, lighting, visual effects, and UI elements, while analyzing 2D game genres and aesthetics to inform their work.

Students learn the foundation principles of 3D modeling and texturing while using quad modeling and physically based rendering techniques to create textured hard surface models.

Students learn the fundamentals of 3D animation while applying the 12 principles of animation to 3D character locomotion and object animations.

Students will explore how 3D visual assets are implemented within game engines, examining topics such as environment assets, character animation, lighting, materials, and visual effects. They will also analyze 3D game genres and aesthetics to develop a broader understanding of immersive game worlds.

As a game artist, creating a portfolio with professional quality work is required for graduation and for transitioning into your career. In this course you will assess your current body of work, make improvements to your existing work as needed, add new work, and create a demo-reel, portfolio website, and the print materials needed to launch your job search.

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.