B.Sc. Computer Game Development: Why Not?

This paper, presented at the DiGRA 2005 conference, argues for a new four-year Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with a Game Development specialization at Grande Prairie Regional College in Alberta, Canada. The authors were motivated by declining computing science enrolments in North America since around 2000, and they contend that the computer game industry, with global sales exceeding $30 billion, offers both strong economic growth and a largely unmet demand for qualified graduates. Their central thesis is that such a program can satisfy industry needs while preserving the integrity of a standard computing science education, blending ACM computing curriculum guidelines with the International Game Developers Association's curriculum framework.

The paper surveys existing game studies education to frame its proposal. It notes that the University of Abertay Dundee launched the first undergraduate game studies degree in 1997, after which numerous UK and several European institutions followed. North American offerings were far more limited at the time, with most game-related degrees coming from for-profit colleges, a handful of new publicly funded programs such as DePaul University and the University of Denver, and graduate programs at Carnegie Mellon and Rochester Institute of Technology. The authors also highlight the University of Calgary's specialization as thin in actual game-specific coursework, and they acknowledge persistent academic skepticism and negative public perception as barriers to program adoption.

The proposed curriculum includes game-specific courses in every year of study, culminating in a two-semester, 12-credit multidisciplinary capstone project in which computing students collaborate with fine arts, music, and other students in a simulated industry environment. Core computing science content is retained, and the program draws on fine arts options, humanities topics, and computing electives. The authors argue that graduates would retain general computing employability if they did not enter the games industry, though they concede that the specialization reduces course-selection flexibility compared with conventional degrees. The paper is primarily a programmatic proposal and rationale rather than an empirical study, and it relies on industry reports, press coverage, and institutional comparisons rather than survey data.