Game Design
BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS
Program Spotlight
Student Journey/Core Courseflow
Semester Breakdowns
Electives
Program Spotlight
The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Design is designed to provide students with the skills to communicate ideas and emotions through interactive media. The focus of the BFA degree is exploring games as an aesthetic and expressive form through critical analysis and creative, reflective practice. Anticipating emerging trends in the video and analog game industries—including broader platforms, audiences, and distribution channels—students will be oriented toward developing games and playful media in an independent creative context. Curriculum is geared to cultivate students’ unique creative voices through courses that apply theoretical analysis to game-development practices across a range of media. Students are exposed to a wide variety of genres and contexts, as well as alternative ways of thinking about games content, platforms, and asset production.
STUDENT JOURNEY
Core Course Flow
Game 1110
Games and Society
Learn about the history of games in the context of their players and creators.
Game 2500
Foundations of Game Design
Learn the basics of game design by focusing on the user’s experience.
Game 2950
Game Studio
Put your game design and development skills to the test by working on a large scale game with 50+ students.
Game 3300
Game Interface Design
Learn how to design interfaces for players, from the screen to controllers, to audio cues.
Game 3400
Level Design and Game Architecture
Learn to design 3D levels focusing on real world architectural principals and discovering fundamental game design patterns in the process.
Game 3700
Rapid Idea Prototyping for Games
Learn to design 3D levels focusing on real world architectural principals and discovering fundamental game design patterns in the process.
Game 3800
Game Concept Development
Work with a small team to master the process of iterating on a game design.
Game 3800
Game Design Capstone
Tie all of your progress as a designer together working on a larger scale project of your own design. Produce a large portfolio piece!
SEMESTER BREAKDOWN
Legend:
Required for certain electives
Requires prerequesite
YEAR ONE
Fall Semester
Art and Design at Northeastern | (ARTF 1000)
Color and Composition | (ARTF 1122)
Movement and Time | (ARTF 2220)
Movement and Time Tools | (ARTF 2221)
First-Year Writing | (ENGW 1111)
Games and Society | (GAME 1110)
Spring Semester
Animation Basics (ARTD 2370)
Animation Tools (ARTD 23701)
Foundations of Game Design | (GAME 2500)
Introduction to Game Research Methods (GAME 2650)
Summer Semester
Art + Design Elective
Art + Design Elective
Art History Elective
Elective
YEAR TWO
Fall Semester
Programming Basics | (ARTG 2260)
Professional Development for Co-op (EEAM 2000)
Game Studio | (GAME 2950.)
Game Interface Design | (GAME 3300)
Game Aesthetics and Critical Play Elective
Spring Semester
Co-op
Summer Semester
Co-op
Elective
Elective
ELECTIVES
Legend:
Requires prerequesite
Game Design and Development Elective
Complete two of the following as long as prerequisites have been met.
Experimental Game Design |
(GAME 1850)
Research in Game Design |
(GAME 2991)
Generative Game Design |
(GAME 4460)
Topics in Game Design |
(GAME 4000)
Game Production | (GAME 4600)
Game Aesthetics and Critical Play Elective
Complete two of the following as long as prerequisites have been met.
Narrative for Games |
(GAME 2355)
Games Criticism and Theory | (GAME 2750)
Games and Social Justice | (GAME 2755)
Designing Imaginary Worlds | (GAME 4155)
Art + Design
Elective
Complete three of the following as long as prerequisites have been met.
Topics in Media Arts (ARTD3000)
Character Design for Animation (ARTD 3472)
Observational Drawing
(ARTF 1120)
Physical Computing
(ARTG 3250)
Animation for Games
(ARTD 3473)
Experience and Interaction
(ARTF 2223)
Experience and Interaction Tools (ARTF 2224)
Art History
Elective
Complete three of the following as long as prerequisites have been met.