Get ready for your dream career – and study in one of the best cities in the country for the gaming industry.

Major Roadmap

Explore your options — classes, internships, research and study abroad. Find what interests you, discover what you love, and create a major experience that jumpstarts your future using the Video Game Development Major Guide

As a Video Game Development major, you’ll learn every phase of the process of creating games: building a concept, prototyping, narrative design, asset creation, testing and release. You’ll become well-versed in interactive storytelling techniques, game design and game audio, and you’ll learn strategic software platforms.

But — just as importantly — you’ll learn how to think and adapt. Gaming is an industry where things change fast. Software tools, game engines, favored scripting languages and even business models will evolve between the time you start college and when you graduate. At St. Edward’s, you’ll learn how to be adaptable, so you’re never stuck clinging to one technology or an outdated idea of what consumers want.

You’ll apply what you learn in Austin, the third largest hub of game development in the country, home to small indie developers to such global competitors as Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, BioWare, Cloud Imperium Games, Daybreak Game Company, NCSoft, ZeniMax/Bethesda, Kabam, Wargaming.net, Retro Studios, Devolver Digital and Aspyr Media.

What do our graduates do?

Video Game Development majors go on to a variety of careers from St. Edward’s. Here’s a sample.

  • Support engineer at Atlassian Corporation PLC
  • Associate producer at Electronic Arts
  • User advocate at Box, Inc.
  • QA tester at Aspyr Media
  • Assistant director of IndieDEVCAMP
  • Junior mobile applications developer at The Stars Group

St. Edward's Video Game Development majors are also accepted into top graduate programs, including SMU Guildhall, one of the first and most prestigious graduate programs for game design in the United States.

For more information about the Video Game Development major, please contact Robert Denton Bryant, director of the program. The Video Game Development major is part of the Department of Visual Studies

Odyssey of a Video-Game Designer

One student's journey from at St. Edward's has taken him from student to credited video-game designer. Read his story.

The Classroom and Beyond

As a student in the Video Game Development program, you will divide your learning between hands-on game development and conceptual creativity. You’ll create both discrete assets and playable games in our design and development classes, using industry-standard game creation software tools. You’ll learn from accomplished professionals who visit campus to share insights about the industry.

Experiential Education

In Interaction and Analog Game Design, you’ll explore the fundamentals of play: its needs in human behavior and expression in games. You’ll study tabletop games and develop your own paper prototyping, with an emphasis on play/test/iterate methodology.

In your Senior Game Studios, you’ll work in teams to develop a video game for an outside client.

At the end of every semester, you’ll show off your work – and have the humbling experience of watching other people play your game – at a Game Fair. This student showcase brings together all Video Game Development students for a party in the game lab. Invite your friends and family to come play your game and offer feedback, and take time to play the games your classmates have been working on. During the final class of the semester, you’ll decide how to determine which pieces of feedback from the Game Fair to use and how to incorporate those changes into your game.

Outside of class, the “Meet the Makers” series brings accomplished industry veterans to campus. You’ll learn from – and network with – speakers like the following:

  • Original Intellivision programmer Bill Fisher
  • St. Edward’s alumna and game design veteran Sheri Graner Ray, author of Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market
  • “Castle Panic” board game creator Justin De Witt of Fireside Games
  • Comic book writer and transmedia storyteller Janet Harvey
  • Working professionals from Bungie, DC Comics, Rooster Teeth, Team Dogpit, SXSW Gaming and Worldwalker Games.

Study Abroad

Studying abroad is a chance to immerse yourself in another culture and have an adventure. You can also learn more about game design and production through a semester at Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland, one of the first universities in the world to offer a game development curriculum. Abertay is a St. Edward’s partner university and offers one of the best game programs in northern Europe.

Service

Game development as community service? You bet. You’ll help a community organization design and develop an educational game to advance its mission. Video Game Development majors have worked on the tablet game Monstralia, produced by Austin’s HealthStart Foundation, which helps children develop healthy habits. Monstralia will teach three- to eight-year-olds the importance of good nutrition, fitness, and taking care of each other and our planet.

You also will combine volunteering with networking at events like the Austin Game Conference and Classic Game Fest.