Curriculum for Game Production Management 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. They will learn to apply critical frameworks, including theories, to explore how power structures have intersected with popular appeal to alternately foster and limit creative innovation and expression. Students will also explore the dynamic nature of global culture, investigating how aesthetic ideas and creative practices have developed, spread, and influenced artists and creative production over time.

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.

In Introduction to the Game Industry, students will shift their perspectives from those of a consumer to those of a business professional. Students will learn about the current state of the games industry, including prominent technologies, genres, and business practices and also explore how we got here. Given the rapid pace at which the game industry evolves, this course will also draw heavily on current events for critical discussion and analysis.

In the competitive and expanding game industry, it isn't enough just to make a great game - you need to have a plan on how to bring it to your players. In this course students will explore the development of an interactive product from the development of a concept to product launch and beyond. Emphasis will be placed on the intersection of business and publishing with product development including market research, strategic partnerships, go to market plans, monetization, and more.

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.

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.

Students will discover and develop the entrepreneurial mindset that is critical to succeed in today's dynamic business environment so that they will be able to imagine, create, identify, assess, and act on business opportunities in a variety of contexts and organizations. Through real-world examples and hand-ons activities, students will embrace the entrepreneurial and strength-based mindsets that will facilitate their understanding of the major functions of business and the relationships between them, as well as the importance of self-inquiry and teamwork.

This course explores the science of success and human-centered leadership, helping students be more human in a digital world. By exploring emotional intelligence, strengths-based approaches, and Appreciative Leadership, students will gain skills to thrive personally and professionally. Through hands-on activities, reflection, and collaboration, students will learn to navigate change, foster innovation, and lead authentically, creating a roadmap for long-term personal and professional growth.

Students will learn the foundations of marketing including strategy and how to develop the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence) for products, services, experiences, and ideas using traditional and digital marketing platforms. Students will earn an industry-approved certification and apply marketing concepts to real situations. Students will develop communication skills while working in teams as they engage with an organization to analyze and recommend market-driven solutions to real-world challenges and opportunities.

Students use basic data analysis to find meaning in data through data cleaning, analysis and visualization. Students will learn Excel and other contemporary tools, spreadsheet manipulation, data cleaning and other data analytic techniques. Students will produce the kind of visual, written and verbal information that helps communicate results of data analysis to evaluate and optimize decision making.

This course covers the basic microeconomic theories within a business context as they apply to markets, analysis of cost, producer and consumer behaviors, industrial organization, strategic thinking, and pricing strategies. These economic concepts will be continually applied to current events, policy issues, and business situations.