WPI Program

International Game Developers Association

WPI Program

Contributed by: David Finkel (dfinkel@wpi.edu)

The major in Interactive Media and Game Development (IMGD) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, was begun in the Fall of 2005. It is jointly administered by the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Humanities and Arts. It is a four-year undergraduate program, and leads to a Bachelor of Science degree.

Undergraduate courses at WPI given in a seven week term, with 28 contact hours. There are four terms in the academic year, and students typically take three courses per term. The major offers two tracks, a Technical track, focusing on programming, and an Artistic track, focusing on visual arts, music and writing. Two guiding principles of the program are 1) that all students take some course work in each of the tracks, and 2) Artistic students and Technical students work together in courses and in projects.

Students in the IMGD major are required to take two of the following three core courses:

• Critical Studies in IMGD, giving a critical overview of the elements of a game, and establishing a common vocabulary for analyzing games
• The Game Development Process. This course discusses the roles of the different contributors to the creation of a game. Students create simple games.
• Storytelling in Games.

They also take one of two courses focusing on social and ethical issues: Social Issues in Interactive Media and Games or Philosophy and Ethics of Computer Games.

In addition to these courses, students take courses specialized for their track.

Technical majors take ten courses in Computer Science, focusing on areas of Computer Science relevant to game development, such as Software Engineering and Computer Graphics. They also take two advanced technical IMGD courses, focusing on low-level game programming in the first course, and, in the second course, higher-level topics such as AI and networking in games.

In the Artistic track, students take ten courses in Humanities and Arts, and two advanced artistic IMGD courses, covering the creation of art assets and their integration in game development. The culmination of the major is a Major Qualifying Project, a project three courses in size. Artistic and Technical students work together to design and create a game or other interactive media project.