Program type:
Major
Format:
On Campus
Est. time to complete:
4 years
Credit Hours:
120
Get the knowledge, skills and experience you need to join the game industry!
Our Game Studies and Design degree will prepare you for your dream job in the game industry. You can find a specialization that suits your strengths, learn the skills you need to excel in your field, and gain experience working with teams to make games that you’ll use to jump start your career as game designer, 2D/3D artist, programmer, producer, game journalist, user researcher, or any specialization you wish to pursue.
College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Media Arts
940-565-2537
mediaarts@unt.edu
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Why Earn a Degree in Game Studies and Design?

Games are a part of our culture, even larger than the film industry, and a hobby and past time for millions. The GMSD BS allows you to study and make what you love — games. 

As a student you will learn the basics of game studies and design, as well as advanced knowledge and skills that will help you develop your own specialization in Narrative Design, Programming, Art and Animation, Audio, Game Studies, etc. Using your skills and in a group of fellow developers, you’ll make and publish games that will help you stand out in the field of prospective job candidates.

Game Studies and Design Degree Highlights

Get the practical skills and knowledge needed to join the 188.8 billion-dollar-a-year (and growing) game industry. 
Course visits and guest lectures by industry professionals at game studios around the Dallas Fort Worth area like Gearbox Software, id Software, and more.
Faculty have done it all, including making the art for games, designing the stories of games, setting up the rule sets for games, building the game worlds, and even publishing books about games and the game industries.
Students develop games in small teams and publish the games on itch.io and Steam for audiences around the world to play.
Students get to choose a concentration to develop a specific specialization that will help them get the industry job they want.
Learn in classes set up like industry writers' rooms, so that you can learn both the skills and the processes you’ll encounter when you enter the workforce.

Career Outlook

A degree in Game Studies and Design can prepare you for a career in the game industries, such as the following:
  • A narrative designer, coming up with the worlds, characters and stories
  • A game designer, creating the rules through which you play
  • A level designer, creating the spaces within which play occurs
  • A game artist, creating the characters, world, user interface, etc.
  • A game programmer, coding the world, levels and assets so that it all comes together
  • A producer, organizing the team and making sure everything happens on time
  • A researcher, studying players, culture and the industry
  • A game journalist, writing about all that’s happening in the world of games

Game Studies and Design Degree Courses You Could Take

Game Production Pipeline
Embark on a journey through essential stages of video game production, from concept to prototype. Teams craft video games inspired by students’ own concepts, guided by an understanding of industry standards and refined through rigorous playtesting.
Game Studies: Games, Play and Stories
Theories of play and how play is expressed in games. Emphasis on game literacy and games as complex cultural and aesthetic objects. Inquiry into the social, political, and ethical issues that inform game stories, game design, game genres, game aesthetics, player decision-making, and role-playing and identity within games.
Advanced Narrative Design for Gaming
Advanced techniques of interactive narrative and world-building in gaming through choice-based experience, branching strategies, and non-linear storytelling.
Digital Asset Creation and Animation
Introduces the fundamentals of creating digital assets from an industry perspective with a focus on production techniques such as modeling, UV mapping, creating textures, animation, optimization for games, and other aspects of games, film, and television asset creation.
Video Game Histories
Video game history from both the dominant industry perspective of upgrading technology and alternative viewpoints including gendered, nonlinear, and material histories.
Introduction to Visual Scripting for Games
This introductory course is tailored to immerse students in the realm of game development with a specific focus on visual scripting using industry standard game engine tools Students will gain hands-on experience predominantly with visual scripting, while also exploring other core features of the game engines such as actors, inputs, user interfaces, collisions, graphics, animations, audio, diagnostics, and optimizations. The course will emphasize best practices in visual scripting for game design, fostering creativity within game engine frameworks, and understanding the integration of visual scripting with other game engine aspects. Participants will learn to develop well-structured, extensible projects that leverage the power of visual scripting, and work effectively with complex platforms, frameworks, and toolsets.

This introductory course immerses students in game development, focusing on visual scripting using common industrial game engine systems. It covers core features such as actors, inputs, user interfaces, and more, emphasizing best practices in game design and visual scripting integration.

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