Program Overview

Game Design Program Overview

The Game Design program at Carnegie Mellon University is an interdisciplinary minor that combines art, craft, and science to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of game design, development, and assessment. Through coursework and collaboration across multiple disciplines, students gain mastery in game systems and mechanics design, interactive narrative and character development, visual and audio asset creation, game programming, interface design, and user testing.

Program Requirements

The Game Design minor requires a minimum of 45 units, consisting of:

• One Computing Course (minimum of 9 units)
  • 15-104 Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice
  • 15-110 Principles of Computing
  • 15-112 Fundamentals of Programming and Computer Science
  • 60-212 Intermediate Studio: Creative Coding
• One IDeATe Portal Course (minimum of 9 units)
  • Recommended Portal Courses:
    • 53-322 IDeATe: Little Games/Big Stories: Indie Roleplaying Game Studio (offered in Spring only)
    • 62-150 IDeATe Portal: Introduction to Media Synthesis and Analysis, Section B: Introduction to Mediascapes: 2D to 3D Spatial Environments
  • Additional Portal Courses:
    • 16-223 IDeATe Portal: Creative Kinetic Systems
    • 57-345 Twisted Signals: Multimedia Processing for the Arts
    • 60-125 IDeATe: Introduction to 3D Animation Pipeline
    • 60-223 IDeATe Introduction to Physical Computing
    • 82-250 Digital Realities: Introducing Immersive Technologies for Arts and Culture
    • 99-361 IDeATe Portal (various sections)
• IDeATe Game Design Courses (minimum of 27 units)
  • 05-418 Design of Educational Games
  • 05-499 Special Topics in HCI (sections related to Game Design)
  • 15-466 Computer Game Programming
  • 53-230 Programming for Game Designers
  • 53-320 IDeATe Special Topics in Animation: Character Modeling
  • 53-321 IDeATe Special Topics in Animation: Bipedal Rigging for Animation Production
  • 53-323 IDeATe Storytelling Through Effects Animation
  • 53-353 Understanding Game Engines
  • 53-362 Advanced Look Development: The Two Worlds of Texture
  • 53-371 Role Playing Games Writing Workshop
  • 53-414 Introduction to Game Design
  • 53-451 Research Issues in Game Development: Designing for XR
  • 53-471 Game Design, Prototyping, and Production
  • 53-472 Advanced Game Studio
  • 60-333 Intermediate Studio: Animation Rigging
  • 60-418 Advanced ETB: Experimental Game Design
  • 60-224 Intermediate Game Studio: Interactivity
  • Additional courses as available

Double-Counting Policy

Students may double-count up to two of their IDeATe minor courses for other requirements.

Program Faculty

The Game Design faculty at Carnegie Mellon University represent the institution's expertise in Art and Entertainment Technology, overseeing student collaboration and delivering IDeATe Game Design courses. The faculty members are dedicated to providing students with a comprehensive education in game design, development, and assessment.