Digipen Bachelor Of Arts In Game Design

DigiPen Institute of Technology

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DigiPen Institute of Technology

An educational pioneer, we were the first college in the world to offer a bachelor's degree in video game technology and development.

About School

DigiPen Institute of Technology was established in 1988 in Vancouver, B.C., Canada as a computer simulation and animation school. In 1996, DigiPen moved to Redmond, Washington where it has been a leading educational institution offering various Bachelor's of Science, Bachelor's of Arts and a Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree. Aside from these undergraduate degrees, DigiPen also offers a Master's degree in Computer Science. DigiPen opened a new campus in Singapore in 2008 at the invitation of the Singaporean government, and is currently opening a campus in Bilbao, Spain and expanding into Korea.

An educational pioneer, we were the first college in the world to offer a bachelor's degree in video game technology and development. Today, we offer a wide range of technology-focused programs, all with an eye toward the career opportunities of tomorrow. Through a combination of academic rigor and interdisciplinary team-based projects, our educational model empowers students to be active learners, bold problem-solvers, and creators. Our programs are intentionally designed to reflect the standards and practices of the professional industries: Small teams with different backgrounds and skills collaborate to apply their knowledge, overcome challenges, and build amazing things together. These teams form the core of our tight-knit student and alumni community.

General Info

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Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Art and Animation

Have you ever dreamed of building an entire world from scratch? From breathtaking landscapes to eye-catching characters, artists have a tremendous amount of influence over how we connect with video games, animated films, and movies. The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Art and Animation is a rigorous program that prepares you for the challenges of professional art production. It begins with a solid grounding in the traditional arts, then progresses to computer animation techniques and technologies, and culminates in a series of projects that teach you all stages of the art production pipeline. You'll graduate with the tools to translate your ideas into powerful, affecting imagery — and a new way of looking at the world around you. As a student in the BFA degree program, you will both learn and practice the many roles that make up the art production pipeline for games and animation. Students in the BFA in Digital Art and Animation program will gain the following:

Extensive production experience in both 2D and 3D animation, as well as an area of greater focus that enables you to target a specific sector of the industry according to your interests and abilities.
Excellent drawing skills, including a mastery of perspective, shading, drawing from observation, figure drawing, value, color, and composition.
Strong storytelling abilities, including visual storytelling, literary traditions, story through dialogue, story through acting, and cinematic conventions.
Familiarity with modern studio processes, including the ability to use current tools and software, as well as the ability to learn new software while maintaining a strict production schedule.
Professional work habits, including an understanding of how to continually enhance your craft, as well as the ability to utilize and implement professional criticism.

Master of Fine Arts in Digital Arts

Do you want to go further with your artistic abilities? This terminal degree program allows you to build on your foundation and expand beyond the traditional arts. As an MFA candidate, you will hone your craft in digital media and build proficiency in subjects like digital sculpting, digital painting, character design, and other specializations within the digital media industries. The program culminates with an advanced thesis project that lets you develop and showcase an original body of work that is both personal and reflective of your strongest capabilities as a digital artist. We welcome a diversity of interests, ideas, and backgrounds. The MFA in Digital Arts program allows you to make the jump from traditional to digital media and equip yourself with the 2D and 3D art skills most relevant to today's careers in games, animation, and other visual media production environments.

By the time they graduate, students in the MFA program will possess the following qualifications:

Extensive 3D production experience, including the ability to use the most current 2D and 3D graphics applications in the industry, as well as traditional fine arts skills such as drawing, sculpting, and painting.
A deep understanding of the 3D graphics production pipeline, including the creative process and ability to manage projects from brainstorming to completion.
Strong research skills, especially as they relate to art history, character design references, and anatomy.
A specialization in modeling, sculpting, or character art, as well as a unique and highly developed personal voice as demonstrated by their thesis.

Bachelor of Arts in Game Design

Design is all around us. It shapes our experience with everything we use, interact with, or play. What makes those interactions fun, useful, or engaging? How can we design systems to allow users to get the most fun, the most enjoyment, the greatest payoff? How do we provide the best value for the user's investment of time and energy? The Bachelor of Arts in Game Design helps you create compelling interactive systems — from sophisticated user interfaces to polished games and applications. In addition to extensive design coursework, you'll delve deep into psychology, communications, and user experience with an eye for crafting powerful experiences.

Students in the BA in Game Design program will focus on the following subjects:

Game design and development, including game mechanics and history, design documentation, scripting and programming, 2D and 3D level design, character design, playtesting, interface design, product management, and team game project implementation.
The humanities and arts, including writing, psychology, film, audio, architecture, drawing, and 2D and 3D art, with the option to study advanced topics in these areas.
Foundational math and science courses, including the fundamentals of scripting languages, mathematics, and physics.

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation

Video games aren't just entertainment — they've evolved into complex software systems that push the limits of what computers can accomplish. The Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation prepares you to build and optimize the technology at the core of these systems — from graphical algorithms to level editors to physics engines.

Through an in-depth study of mathematics and computer science — combined with real-world projects where you design and program your own fully playable games from start to finish — this program transforms you into an efficient software developer, able to understand, communicate, and solve problems at every stage of the development process.

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