UI trustees approve new video-game master's program

Luke Taylor, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
·3 min read

Mar. 29—CHAMPAIGN — A proposed master's program at the University of Illinois would train students in all aspects of video-game creation, from narrative writing to programming.

"It takes more than just programmers, it takes more than just artists and so on, and you have to understand how to work with each other," said Lisa Bievenue, director of Informatics Programs in the School of Information Sciences.

The master's program won't be able to take off until approved by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, but it's one step closer to becoming a reality after getting the nod from the UI Board of Trustees on Thursday.

While other universities offer similar game-design programs, Bievenue said the UI's concept is a little bit different.

The second half of the two-year program will be completely focused around experiential learning and collaboration with other students.

The School of Information Sciences has already connected with industry partners that will provide opportunities for students to work on actual video games, but it is also working on creating multiple studios within the university.

There, students could work on ideas from industry partners, or they could make faculty members' research ideas a reality.

"Maybe a game needs to be designed and developed to collect data, or to understand how people will respond in a simulation environment," Bievenue said.

While Informatics Programs will oversee this masters if it gets approved, it will be a truly interdisciplinary program.

Computer science plays a major role, but so do art and design, English narrative, theater and music.

Bievenue said even the history department has a good chance of being called in, since historical or historical-fiction video games are fairly popular.

All of this is why students will be put in a lot of group projects and encouraged to collaborate; it would be impossible for everyone who wants to work on video games to learn every single aspect.

Instead, students will be able to choose one of five concentrations: art, narrative, production, design and programming.

Students in the production concentration will need some general exposure to every area, but students in other tracks can choose whether to branch out or stay completely focused on their concentrations.

If the state board approves this master's program, Bievenue said the plan is to launch in January 2025, but future cohorts will start in the fall semester.

While it will be designed to be completed in two years, the online program is also meant to be available to full-time students and professionals alike, so the timeline will be very flexible.

The UI Board of Trustees approved this item as well as everything else on its agenda Thursday.

Notable items for the Urbana-Champaign campus include:

* System President Tim Killeen's contract was extended for another three years. He is already the longest-serving president at any Big 10 school.

"The momentum we have today is almost indescribable relative to where we were when President Killeen took over, and for that I want to commend him and thank him," said board Director Donald Edwards.

* The new Bill and Julie Kellner Center for Neurogenomics, Behavior and Society, approved by the board and established with gift funds from the Kellners, will create a collaboration space for researchers to look at how genes correlate with animal behavior.

* This year's graduation speaker, Jeanne Gang, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. She is an accomplished architect whose work is visible in Chicago, Paris, San Francisco and New York.

* Contractors have been chosen to remodel the Beckman Institute's cafe. The institute was awarded $4.4 million for the project in 2022.