GameFest Image ©2004 Ian Stead

GameFest To Kick Off New Minor in Game Studies

To celebrate a new minor in game studies, Rensselaer’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences will host “GameFest,” a two-day symposium and exhibition April 12-13. The festivities will include a showcase of computer games designed by more than 70 art students, lectures by prominent game design practitioners, and a daylong workshop on game design.

The symposium begins on Monday at 4 p.m. at the Center for Industrial Innovation, room 4050. Four of the country’s leading theoreticians and practitioners in game design will talk about game design philosophy and development, successful interdisciplinary collaborative practices, the role of the independent designer, and strategies for success in times of uncertainty.

The speakers are: Ernest Adams, veteran American game design consultant currently based in England; Katie Salen, director of graduate studies in digital design at Parson School of Design in New York City; Karthik Bala ’97, founder and CEO of Vicarious Visions, a successful gaming company located in Rensselaer’s Technology Park; and Tim Stellmach, design group manager at Vicarious Visions.

At 6:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Darrin Communications Center, GameFest will feature an exhibition of juried student design games.

On Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Adams will conduct an intensive, hands-on workshop to develop new concepts for designing computer and video games. Adams, a game designer with 14 years experience in the industry, has written a number of books, including Break Into the Game Industry, The Designers Notebook, and On Game Design.

Students and faculty can sign up for the reservation-only workshop by contacting game studies program co-director Mark DeStefano at 276-4849 or destem@rpi.edu.

“The symposium will bring together philosophers, computer scientists, artists, and cognitive scientists who are conducting research in game design, development and production,” says Kathleen Ruiz, assistant professor of arts and a co-director of the game studies program.

About the Degree
The games studies minor is an interdisciplinary program shared by the arts and cognitive science departments. The program is expected to expand to include other schools and departments, Ruiz says.

The degree consists of four courses that include a choice of game design classes and a range of other disciplinary-specific courses in arts, such as digital imaging, animation, computer music, or performance art. Students also have a choice of cognitive science courses, such as the study of motivation and performance and the study of perception and action.

“For undergraduate students considering careers in a range of scientific and nonscientific information technology areas, game studies offer the potential for new interdisciplinary collaboration between the arts and cultural studies, social sciences, computer sciences, engineering, and emerging technical research in information technology,” said John Harrington, dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.