College Gives Students No Quarters Rigorous Program Teaches Video Game Design
The nation’s first school to offer a bachelor’s degree in video-game development celebrated its opening Wednesday with ceremonies including an appearance by Washington Gov. Gary Locke.
Classes began last month at the DigiPen Institute of Technology, a private institution renting space at Nintendo headquarters in Redmond. The 40 students enrolled in the program are members of what would be the first graduating class in 2002.
The degree they’re pursuing - somewhat cumbersomely called Real Time Interactive Simulation in the World - focuses on video-game programming and computer animation.
The course of study is no game, though.
Classes at DigiPen include math, physics, data structure and algorithms, business, marketing, mythology, computer languages, graphics, image-processing and animation.
Tuition is $11,000 a year. Students must complete 160 credits to graduate.
The school’s founder, Claude Comair, said he opened the school independently rather than affiliate with an existing university because he wanted control over the number of credits students must take. He also didn’t want to go through the paperwork, which would mean waiting longer for the program to begin.
To be eligible for admission, high-school and college-transfer students must have at least a 3.0 grade-point average in math, physics, chemistry and computer-science courses.
The school received about 1,000 applications from across the country this year for 100 spots, school officials say. DigiPen is accepting applications through June for the fall session.
The school has five full-time faculty members and two assistants. Each student is provided with a Pentium 200 desk-top computer that is linked to the Internet.
“It’s a very creative and innovative school,” said Cedric Page, associate director of the Higher Education Coordinating Board. “The program is very sound.”
Page, who called the course work “rigorous,” said the program is equivalent to some master’s degree programs. Page said students who graduate from the program would probably have numerous job opportunities.
“There’s definitely a market for it,” he said.
Before opening DigiPen in Redmond, founder Comair started a two-year program in computer and video-game technology and computer animation four years ago in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Comair is the president and CEO of DigiPen Corp., which is based in Vancouver. The corporation’s name is short for “Digital Pencil.”
Comair said he realized the need for a video-game degree when he had difficulty finding qualified applicants to work at his corporation.
Comair said other video-game corporations, including Nintendo, have been “extremely supportive” of the school. Nintendo sponsors a computer lab at the school and is represented on its advisory committee.