New York University will be adding a new bachelor of fine arts degree in video game design and will start accepting applications in January.
According to the New York Times, the new program under the NYU Game Center, a department of the Tisch School of the Arts, was approved by New York State education department in July. The center expects to accept about 20 NYU students and 40 incoming freshmen for its first class in the fall 2015 semester. The bachelor’s degree of video game design is new to NYU, but the master’s degree is not. The first class of video game design master’s students received their degrees in May.
It may be hard to imagine how video game design classes will be taught, but NYU said it will treat video game design similar to film, television, music and drama production.
Frank Lantz, the director of the Game Center, said the new program is not only about getting a job in the field but also “as a way of thinking about the world.”
“If you study history, if you study literature, if you study science and engineering, you’re not just studying for a job in that field, you’re using that as a structuring element to understand everything else,” Lantz said.
The Game Center now has six full-time video game design professors and plans to recruit eight more over the next four years.
Photo Credit: Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
