Techno gurus get creative
April 23, 2009
The video and computer game industry’s income for 2007 was more than $9 billion and 65 percent of American households play interactive entertainment, according to a 2008 report released by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA); an organization dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies publishing interactive games for video game consoles, hand-held devices, personal computers, and the Internet. With those kinds of statistics, it’s safe to say that Drs. Ed Swan and T.J. Jankun-Kelly know their market and audience. Last year the associate and assistant computer science and engineering professors created a game design class that has had sold out seating since its inception.
“We noticed that during the recruiting season more and more students were asking us if we offered that type of class,” said Jankun-Kelly. “Plus, I have some colleagues who work for the video and computer game publisher Electronic Arts, and they tell me that the demand for designers, developers, programmers, animators, story tellers, and artists are very high because gaming has become so popular, so it seemed logical that we establish and craft a class.”
The interactive gaming industry is having a huge impact on the economy. According to the ESA, Grand Theft Auto IV took in more than $500 million in sales during its opening week. The challenge for the industry is meeting the demand. Most professional games require one to three years to develop and graduates who have the skills and background to work in the profession are scarce.
“When I first began designing this class, I noticed there are a lot of universities that offer game design classes, but very few who offer undergraduate and graduate level degrees in the field,” explained Swan. “Although we recently launched our first class, we would like to collaborate with the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Architecture, Art and Design, and its School of Architecture to attract more students with varied backgrounds. It’s our hope that someday we may be able to be the first university in the Southeastern Conference to offer such a major.”
To date, Swan and Jankun-Kelly have had three students who have gone on to study gaming design at the graduate level. Mississippi State’s future game programmers, designers, producers, artists, and testers will present the games they’ve been creating this past semester at the Institute for Neurocogonitive Science and Technology (INST), located at 1207 Highway 182 W. on Tuesday, April 28 at 6 p.m. INST sits on the corner of Highway 182 and Stark Road in Starkville, Miss. Swan and Jankun-Kelly’s class will display the games using the National Science Foundation display wall, state-of-the-art technology that has higher resolution than high definition television.
For more information about Swan and Jankun-Kelly’s game design class.