Students at Guildhall are designing the latest and most innovative games out of SMU’s Plano campus. (Photo Courtesy of SMU)
Interested in turning your love of video games into a career? The Guildhall School of Video Game Development and Design at SMU is the place for you.
“With 15 full-time faculty and four adjunct faculty members, you would be hard-pressed to find a more collective group of game industry professionals teaching development under one roof,” said René Archambault, manager of admissions and alumni affairs at The Guildhall.
The school enables students to understand the production cycle and process of the gaming industry which the curriculum was designed to emulate, and all students graduate with a portfolio of at least three games, according to Archambault.
Guildhall students can specialize in art creation, level design, software development, or production, which is the school’s newest specialization, and are given access to project studios, a state-of-the-art motion-capture system, the only THQ usability lab to be found on a university campus, and newly renovated classrooms.
The school has graduated more than 400 students and will welcome its 17th and largest class in the fall, according to Archambault. Guildhall alumni work in more than 140 game studios globally, and develop everything from AAA title games to serious games such as surgical simulation, flight simulation, or educational games.
The diversity of The Guildhall’s areas of specialization means that the school welcomes students from all kinds of academic backgrounds. Anyone with an undergraduate degree and a minimum GPA of 3.0 can apply to the school, and all applicants complete a portfolio for their specialization of interest during the application process.
According to Archambault, applicants with a background in fine arts will typically be drawn to art creation, while level designers will come from a wide range of academic backgrounds including architecture, business, and liberal arts.
Whatever specialization interests you, getting involved with the gaming industry in some way is a smart career choice for anyone. Last year, the industry generated $20 billion, and currently employs more than 32,000 people in the United States with another 120,000 people being directly involved with the industry in some way, according to Archambault. The industry as a whole contributes $5 billion to the gross domestic product of the United States.
“With the continued innovation and launch of products like the Microsoft Kinect and games like Civilization V and Call of Duty: Black Ops, this industry yearns for those who can continue to create and build upon its already solid success. The Guidhall at SMU is doing just that,” Archambault said.
