TISM celebrates 10 years of Game Design

News Date:

10/06/2010

The Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media at Michigan State University has been teaching games for 10 years! The department first began teaching game design classes at MSU in 2000. The game design program has grown from one class to a rich program with offerings for both undergraduate and graduate students. In 2005 they began to offer the Game Design and Development Specialization to undergraduates and in 2007 they started the Serious Game Design track and certificate program for Master of Arts students. In 2008, they began to offer summer camps for high school and middle school students in game design. Game alumni have gone on to start their own game companies and work in the game industry, as well other technology fields.

Early Game Research and Development (R&D)

Mission to Mars, 1991

Created by the Comm Tech Lab starting in the late 1980's, it was the first Educational CD-ROM.

Faculty in the department have been researching and developing games longer than MSU game classes have been taught. In the late 1980’s the Comm Tech Lab at MSU created the interactive, multimedia “Mission to Mars”, which was arguably the first educational CD-ROM created, and, in fact, was the first educational CD-ROM to be marketed by Intellimation.

Mission to Mars, along with the Comm Tech Lab’s "Undersea Adventure," the first mirror world virtual reality experience that integrated 3D video with second person virtual reality, was exhibited at CyberArts in Los Angeles in 1991. In 1995, the Comm Tech Lab’s “Personal Communicator” CD-ROM was named software innovation of the year by Discover Magazine. The Comm Tech Lab continued to develop innovative and award-winning learning experiences through the 90’s and early 2000’s.

Game R&D Today

In 2005, the Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab was established to continue what the Comm Tech Lab had started with interactive media, but with a defined focus in games. With game design and research projects funded by a variety of places like the National Science Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, GEL Lab faculty are at the top of their game. Innovative games created or under development by GEL Lab faculty include Mount Olympus, Gamestar Mechanic, Headline Clues, and more.

The GEL Lab hosted an international game conference at MSU in 2005. In 2008, they hosted the first international Meaningful Play conference, for academics and industry professionals. They are hosting the second international Meaningful Play conference later this month.

Meaningful Play 2010 will take place on-campus October 21 – 23. It is an interdisciplinary conference for academia and the game industry that explores the potential of games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways. The conference will include thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, talks by industry professionals, academic peer-reviewed paper presentations, panel sessions (combining academic and industry discussions), innovative workshops, roundtable discussions, and exhibitions of games.

How you can get in the game

Game Alum Happy Hour - The department is inviting game alumni, from it’s game design specialization, Master of Arts serious game track and certificate program, and students who were a part of the early game design and interactivity classes to celebrate 10 years of game design at a happy hour celebration during the Meaningful Play conference. For more information, contact Jillian Winn at jillian@msu.edu.

Meaningful Play – If you are interested in attending or being a sponsor at Meaningful Play, visit http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu/

More about our programs - Visit our pages on Pre-College Game Design Summer Camps, Undergraduate Specialization in Game Design and Development, and Master of Arts Serious Game Design track and certificate.

Help support game research or sponsor a game scholarship – If you are interested in donating to our department to support game research or help provide a scholarship for a student in one of our game programs or summer camps, please contact Cara Boeff at (517) 432-5672 or boeff@msu.edu

Michigan State University

TISM