Most of the programs in Georgia focus on the art and design side of video games and some programming. Beginning with fundamental art skills like drawing, color and design, students then learn how to incorporate their skills into a game and simulation environment. They create game documentation, which includes everything from a written story to what is known as the "game Bible," a collection of assets that will be used in the design. They learn 3-D modeling with software programs like Maya and Softimage, produced by Autodesk and Avid respectively.

Students also learn how to work within the boundaries of game engines, the basic framework on which video games are constructed. Different schools work with different engines, but all agree that learning to work with a game engine is more important than the particular engine used. Whether using Torcue 2d or 3d, Unreal 3, Quake or any other engine, students learn how to manipulate the worlds they create. Students bring in the assets: characters, vehicles, weapons, and backgrounds that are the building blocks of games. Once the assets are in the engine, the process of level designing truly begins.

The post-secondary programs in the state want their students to graduate with the ability to design for all levels of games, from Flash-based advergames to the most intense console and massively multiplayer online games. While the complexity changes based on the final product, the basic processes are the same for any game.

Educators arrive by different paths

The most fascinating thing about these gaming programs is the uniqueness and excitement of those who teach.

You would be hard pressed to find two more disparate personalities than Joe Saulter and Kevin O'Gorman. A Saulter conversation is like a good jazz song. There is a central theme, a melody that keeps the whole thing afloat, but given an opportunity Saulter gleefully descends into a deep improvisation, exploring the nuances and intricacies of any topic that relates to the theme at hand. An O'Gorman conversation is more like a Led Zeppelin song, a steady and driving beat that marches forward in certainty. There are bends and breaks, guitar solos and cymbal crashes that brighten and color the discussion without ever straying far from the topic.

They are two completely different men, yet they share some very important similarities as well. Most importantly, they both chair game design departments at different campuses of AIU. Saulter heads the program at the Buckhead campus while O'Gorman spearheads the program at the Dunwoody campus, and together they represent the uniqueness of the growing number of video game-related programs in Georgia.

Most of the people currently teaching game design do not have degrees in that subject, since there simply weren't any available when they began designing. O'Gorman, for example, knew he wanted to develop games after receiving his bachelor's degree in film and video from Notre Dame, but he wasn't sure how to go about it. He found a multimedia masters program at Michigan State and enrolled.

"Lots of people were doing interactive photo albums and interactive Valentine's cards and stuff like that," he explains. "I had things shooting and exploding." O'Gorman earned his degree and headed into the gaming field, where he started as a writer. "After all that master's degree work, I applied for a game job and they took me because of my undergrad degree in film and video." At the time, there simply was not a formula for entering the field. Now, O'Gorman is helping his students take a more direct path into the world of games and simulation.

Then there is Ameeta Jadav, the department chair for interactive media design, game art and design, and visual and game programming at the Art Institute of Atlanta. She has a PhD in instructional science/technology and a M.Ed. in educational technology. Jadav believes in the power of games to teach, a medium known as "edutainment." She believes the entertainment aspect of games - the same one that holds gamers in thrall for hours trying to defeat the next boss - is precisely what makes games such an effective teaching tool.

"One common criticism of the instructional/learning process is that it tends to be boring," she notes. "Holding the attention of the learners and motivating them is a huge challenge for educators. Many effective educators use engagement, games, participation and discovery as effective approaches to both bring about learning and address the issues of attention and motivation.

"Computer based gaming," Jadav explains, "helps bring this same sort of experience to the students while allowing for personalization of the experience. In essence, it offers all the coolness of mainstream gaming with the additional advantage of specific learning goals!"

Games to teach and influence

Jadav, like most of those teaching in the field, believes in the power of games to unite divergent and often opposing interests. She compares the world of game play to "the spirit of sports that should encourage togetherness, sharing, understanding, mutual respect and most importantly, graceful losers." For Jadav, games represent a way to communicate, to participate, and to educate in ways that other mediums simply cannot achieve. While her students are free to explore games for any number of motives, education is the driving force behind her love of teaching design.

While Jadav is interested in games as a tool for education, Ian Bogost, a PhD at Georgia Tech, is interested in games, period. How do they work? Why do they work? What is the influence of games on the human brain? These are all questions that Bogost encourages his students to research.

Unlike other programs in the state, the Tech program focuses on games as academia as much as on the design and programming side. Just a look at where the game program resides, The School of Literature, Communication and Culture, illustrates the interdisciplinary approach at Tech. Students are expected to learn programming and design, but are also encouraged to think about the theory behind games. Tech offers an undergraduate degree, a masters program in information design and technology (one of the oldest game-related programs in the country, founded in 1993) and a PhD program in digital media. Research on games is expected at every level, though to differing extents. This works perfectly for Bogost, who has written books on video game criticism, the rhetoric of games, and how games can influence.

"We're just kind of scratching the surface of asking the question of how do games participate in this broader media ecology," says Bogost, "from a business perspective, and also from a cultural perspective"

At DeVry the focus is naturally on the programming side of things, and fittingly enough Robert Burnside, associate dean of the School of Technology, is a former accountant. Though he has numbers in his blood, Burnside has games in his heart. A warm man with a welcoming smile, Burnside gets excited talking about his students and the skills they acquire.

DeVry students are drilled in the coding that serves as the foundation for all game design. C++, which is currently the most widely used programming language in gaming, is the primary language taught at the Decatur campus. The programmers that DeVry graduates will help the designers realize their dreams, without limits or boundaries. They will have opportunities in every sector of gaming and simulation, from the most basic of maintenance positions to high level simulation coding for the military.

Joseph Saulter is not in the military, but he is definitely on a mission. He loves video games for their artistic merit, for their ability to educate and communicate, and for the sheer joy of entertainment. But he also sees a disparity in the industry. According to a study by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) conducted in 2005, only two percent of those involved in game development are African-Americans and only 2.5 percent are Hispanics. The head of the IGDA diversity advisory council, Saulter sees a vast portion of the population whose insights and talents are being overlooked. He wants to hear from that population, from the African-Americans and Hispanics who make up a significant portion of the game playing populace. He wants to see their perspectives.

Promoting diversity

Whereas games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are starting to look at life in urban environments from the outside, Saulter wants to see those environments from the inside. Not just the crime and poverty, but the leaders and community ties as well. "If you live in the ghetto," he says, "you're seeing the role models, and your superhero is a different kind of superhero." While there is much work to do in this area, a cursory glance at classrooms around the state indicates that more and more young African-Americans and Hispanics are getting involved in development.

While Saulter wants more diversity in game development, he also wants to see a diversifying of the very nature of video games. Games have the ability to communicate ideas, to illuminate situations in a way that is truly unique, and Saulter wants to use games to encourage the transmission of ideas and the advancement of communities. "You cannot get left out," he says. "The community, African-American, Hispanic, the Asian community, the Muslim community, the Christian community, just cannot get left out of this technological advancement." Saulter hopes his students will be at the forefront of a gaming revolution, one that allows communities to speak for themselves.

Peter Weishar is interested in a revolution of his own. The dean of the School of Film and Digital Media at SCAD, he sees video games as a piece of the broader realm of digital media, and he wants to be sure his students are prepared to enter that realm without limitations. They can focus on game design and development, after the required introductory courses, but they will come out with the ability to traverse the many realms presented by digital media.

Always looking for innovative ways to educate its students, SCAD recently engaged in a partnership with Electronic Arts (EA), one of the largest publishers and developers of video games in the world. In an unassuming and nondescript building, selected students learn from the professionals of EA. Creating assets that may be used in future EA games, students have a chance to experience a truly professional environment, complete with security measures that rival Fort Knox.

Game developers are notoriously secretive when it comes to their products, which isn't surprising considering the technical savvy of those involved. Oz Magazine was unable to even obtain a picture of the building that houses the program, despite the fact that it is apparently unmarked and unrevealing on the outside. Secretive or not, the EA collaboration provides a unique and powerful preparation tool to complement SCAD's digital media department, one more piece of an ever-changing digital puzzle.

Converging with broader media