Radio-Television-Film, Computer Science, and Fine Arts recently revealed a brand new interdisciplinary program in game design. The gaming industry is rapidly expanding, and already generates more revenue than the film industry. Austin is home to countless gaming companies, and as mobile platforms improve, more and more opportunities will arise. The Game Development Program will prepare RTF students for these opportunities, and allow them to apply their cinematic storytelling skills to new platforms.

The backbone of the program is its capstone course. Starting in the Spring of 2013, the course will bring together around thirty students from different disciplines. They will form small groups to develop a game over the course of the semester. The class will reflect the realities of the industry: students with diverse talents will have to work together in order to meet a deadline. Admission to the Capstone Project will be competitive. Students will need to submit a resume and a portfolio of their game-related work. The portfolio may be software, designs, animations, 3D artwork, sound design examples, or game stories, anything that demonstrates exceptional skills in one or more areas of game development. Each of the three contributing departments have highlighted the classes most applicable to game design (listed below), but students from all departments are encouraged to apply.

The new program has received support from inside and outside the university. Industry professionals Andrew Busey, founder of Mist and VP of Zynga Austin, Rodney Gibbs, co-founder of Ricochet Labs, and Richard Vogel, V.P. of Production at BioWare Austin, all spoke at the program’s opening. Bruce Porter, the Chair of Computer Sciences, is the UT lead. He and has worked closely with Doug Dempster, the Dean of the College of Fine Arts, and Design Professor David Shields.  RTF Department Chair Paul Stekler and RTF professors Bruce Pennycook, Don Howard, and Andrew Shea have been instrumental, and helped put together the course list below.
 

Recommended UT Courses

THE COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS
Dept. of Art and Art History (Design)

DES321: Digital Identity Design 
(offered as the 2nd section of DES321 Images in Communication)
This course will focus on the conceptualization and creation of digital identities for gaming by crafting meaningful interactions with their digital environment.

DES341: Interactive Digital Environments 
(offered as a 2nd section of DES341 Advanced Visual Syntax)
This course will focus on creating virtual spaces using advanced architectural techniques and spatial conceptualization to create and produce interactive digital places for virtual inhabitation.

The Butler School of Music
Note – these courses are open to all UT students and many RTF, CS and ECE students (to name only a few programs) have taken them in the past.

MUS 329E: Introduction to Electronic Media 
This course is designed to familiarize students with the basic elements of sound and the fundamental techniques to create electronic music. It is taught in the Electronic Music Studios at the Butler School of Music.

MUS 329J: Introduction to Computer Music
This is presents MIDI and audio signal processing techniques using the programming language, Max/MSP. Students create a set of practical assignments leading to a more elaborate final project which may include real-time interactive components.

THE COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION
Dept. of Radio-TV-Film

RTF 344M: Writing for Interactive Games and Media
This course introduces interactive storytelling and writing through a combination of writing assignments, readings in game design, analysis of "multiform" narratives, and hands-on game development.

RTF 344M: Creating Music for Film, Video and Games
Students are introduced to the concepts and use of audio and MIDI. Students will create short pieces using Logic and learn to synchronize their own electronic music tracks to video. The course also covers elements of sound design especially effects processing.

RTF 344M: Introduction to Interactive Media and Game Design
Starting with principals of programming in JavaScript and HTML5, this course leads to a game development project using GameSalad – a game authoring tool developed in Austin. Students will create a small game suitable for downloading to an iPhone or similar device.

RTF 344M: Advanced Visual Effects
Students explore advanced topics in visual effects.  Projection mapping textures onto 3D geometry, digital painting, motion capture, organic (character) modeling, rigging and animation and particle simulations.

RTF 344M: Visual Effects and Motion Graphics
Students explore compositing, animation, particle simulations, vector based graphics, 3D and various other technical aspects of image and video as it applies to digital media.

RTF 344M: Computer Animation and 3D Modeling
Students are introduced to modeling, surfacing, lighting and animation using Maya.  One group project involves creating an entire environment (e.g. old west town, science fiction city) from start to finish using a workflow that is applicable to game art creation.

RTF 351C: Introduction to Digital Animation/Graphics
Theory and Practice of Digital Graphics and Animation Techniques

RTF 351D: 2-D Animation and Motion Graphics
In-depth study of two-dimensional animation techniques and an introduction to stop-motion animation, green screen techniques, and postproduction effects

COLLEGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES
Dept. of Computer Sciences

1.  CS students must meet the C++ requirement. This can be done in any of

the following ways:
a) taking CS371P: Object Oriented Programming
b) taking CS 378: Generic Programming with the STL
c) taking either CS 373: Software Engineering or CS 324:Software Development; and in addition to that, taking CS 105: C++

2. Students should then take:

CS 354: Computer Graphics
Introduction to techniques for human-machine communication through imagery. Topics include display hardware, transformations, interactive techniques, geometric modeling, two- and three-dimensional display algorithms, graphics software systems architecture, and hidden-line and surface elimination

CS 378: Advanced Game Technologies
Technological aspects of game development, including algorithms for graphics, artificial intelligence, networking and sound

CS 378: Programming for Performance
The study of the performance-critical features of modern computer architectures and investigation of ways to use them for demanding applications in simulation, animation, graphics and computer games.

CS 378: Capstone Projects in Game Development and Design
Studio class in designing, developing and evaluating computer games. Class will be interdisciplinary, with student teams composed of students from Fine Arts, Radio-Television-Film and Computer Science.

3. Finally, students are encouraged to take:

• courses in Artificial Intelligence, such as cs343
• courses in Natural Language Processing, such as cs388
• courses in web programming, such as cs329E Elements of Web Programming
• courses on computing for mobile devices, such as cs378 Mobile Computing