Program Overview

Master of Entertainment Arts and Engineering

The Master of Entertainment Arts and Engineering (MEAE) is designed as a cohort model where students remain together throughout the entire two years of the program (fall and spring semesters only). Students apply to one of five possible tracks (Game Arts, Game Design, Game Engineering, Game Production, or Technical Art) and will take a series of courses focused on their specialty. In addition, they will also all take academic and studio classes including Theories of Games and Play, Rapid Prototyping, Game Studio, and Advanced Game Studio 1 and 2.

Tracks

Game Arts Track

Students in this track focus on establishing, communicating, and analyzing the visual language of Games. This is achieved by mastering the fundamentals of digital creation contextualized in current industry pipelines. Typically, students who are admitted into this track will have a strong background in digital or Fine Art.

Game Design Track

The role of a designer on a game development team is to ensure the player’s gameplay experience aligns with the experiential goals the team has for the game. They accomplish this by conceptualizing, designing, implementing, documenting, and communicating gameplay through prototyping and play-testing. Typically, students in this track are expected to have a strong background in design, including prior design work.

Game Engineering Track

Students in this track focus on the technical aspects of video game development including game engines, graphics, artificial intelligence, and novel input devices. Typically, students who are admitted into this track will have an undergraduate degree in computer science or similar, and some game development.

Game Production Track

Students can focus on a variety of areas in this track (project management, design, business development/marketing or any combination thereof), but the typical producer is focused on facilitating game creation. Successful applicants to the Production Track can come from a wide variety of backgrounds, but usually have some experience in game development.

Technical Art Track

Students in the Technical Art track focus on Establishing pipeline and creating tools for standardization and automation which bridge the gap between art and the technologies. Areas of specialization include procedural art, VFX, lighting, shaders, simulation, rigging, and scripting. Successful applications to this track have experience with both art and program. The core of technical art is problem solving by establishing pipelines and standards through VFX, lighting, shaders, technical animation, rigging, procedural content creation, automation of repetitive tasks and the development of tools for artists and other developers. A technical artist bridges the gap between art and technology.