St. Thomas is working to create a game design minor with influence from Sky Anderson, a professor of Introduction to Mass Media, Visual Media Theory and Practice, and most recently: Game Design.
The Game Design minor at St. Thomas will hold three required classes, which are DIMA 246 (Game Design), CISC 131 (Introduction to Programming and Problem Solving) and DIMA 346 (Game Production). The minor also requires 8 credits of electives.
“The program director asked if I wanted to be involved, given my areas of expertise and game studies, and the fact that I make games and so I enthusiastically agreed,” Anderson said.
The department task force will consist of professors Peter Gregg, John Keston, Salvatore Pane and Anderson.
“I’ve always been passionate about games and game design, and it makes me really excited to see the field get some attention here at UST,” Sophomore Alex Lorah wrote in an email to TommieMedia on April 27th, “It seemed to me that the field of game design is firmly on the rise in terms of utility and popularity, and will only continue upwards as developers push the boundaries of what games can achieve on a technical level and through interactive storytelling.”
The classes range from learning about game theory and getting to work with an introductory-level game engine to focusing more on a polished final product that they could send to game festivals or use in a portfolio.
Within a lot of Emerging Media courses at St. Thomas, they are also spreading the word about this additional program.
“I first heard about the game design minor through my Intro to Game Design class (DIMA 246). I was one of the first 16 students to take this class built and taught by Dr. Sky,” Sophomore Casey Eakins said in an email to TommieMedia on March 1st, “ Dr. Sky is genuinely one of my favorite professors here on campus, and he really knows his stuff! He has charm to his teaching that is unique to any other professor I’ve had before and it makes it easy to understand the topics he is teaching.”
The new minor will also open doors for those who are not specifically interested in game design.
“I think that video games are here to stay. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry, and so I think it’s really important just like in other literature, such as books or movies where we critically think and analyze what the media is saying and what it is trying to convey to the audience; I think that video games are more than just mindless content. I think it is really important for the newer generation,” senior Loua Vang said.
In addition, this minor allowed Anderson to learn more about the community he is a part of.
“I learned about a surprising amount of support and interest in bringing game design to St. Thomas from administration; I was not expecting that,” Anderson said. “I felt that in previous jobs that I’ve had to do a lot of justifying, and here I’ve had to do less justifying. People get it more.”
The university is constantly working to add more programs for those searching for more.
“We’re always making; we’re always proposing. We are like busy bees; we are always proposing minors and new classes. It’s part of the job,” Anderson said. “It’s totally normal and expected to be building, maintaining, adding programs to St. Thomas.”
Annabelle Wiskus can be reached at wisk9981@stthomas.edu.