Game Design, A Budding Major Within PSU’s Curriculum

By: Owen Congdon-Moore 

The new Game Design major at PSU focuses on the art of applying elements of design and aesthetics to create interactive experiences for educational or entertainment purposes. The major’s main focus is on teaching students five key takeaways regarding Game Design: Understanding and defining Game Design principles, understanding and applying programming principles for game development, understanding and creating various art components of games, understanding game-specific business issues, and to work effectively in creative team environments.  

The new major, planned to be implemented at the start of Fall classes in 2022, takes a ‘clustered’ approach to learning, taking students through a variety of disciplines ranging from Art, Graphic Design, Theater, Business, and many more. As a rapidly growing industry Game Design has become an increasingly lucrative employment opportunity for those interested in rendering their creative abilities through art, programming, and even business. As the only USNH university to offer a major in this field, Plymouth State offers a unique opportunity for students to learn about the fundamental principles of Game Design, and use a culmination of skills in aspects of art, technology, and business to then create a variety of games. From physical board games to digital experiences, and further understanding them as the industry evolves over time. Game Design not only explores game development, but tasks students with working together with their peers to incorporate a variety of perspectives and skills to conceptualize an experience and ultimately create it.  

Accompanying the major in Game Design are two new classes offered within the Plymouth State Course Catalog. Game Design Principles, which focuses on the fundamental concepts of creating a game where students will learn about games as an industry and understand different roles within a game design team. This ultimately brings together skills and experiences to visualize and create a game of their own. The second class, Game Design Workshop, is an upper level course focused on bringing students together with different skills and understandings to dive further into higher level projects, with a greater focus on team coordination. Game Design Workshop will need to be taken twice, first as a Junior then repeated Senior year. Game design’s induction into the selection of cluster majors, allows for even more interaction and interplay between varied disciplines offered within Plymouth State. Providing a unique opportunity for students to pursue a career, the game industry is set to explode to a staggering value of $260 billion by 2025.  

Link for metrics on game industry value:  Click Here