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The Master of Entertainment Arts and Engineering degree is designed as a cohort model where students from all four tracks remain together throughout the two year program (fall and spring semesters only). Students take a series of courses focused on their specialty, as well as a series of classes with students from other tracks including game design, rapid prototyping, pre-production, and final projects. Each track also has a concentrated set of electives to choose from.

Students typically enroll in three courses each semester for the two years they are in the program (see below for a sample program of study).

Sample Technical Art Track Curriculum

Each of the graduate tracks have both shared and unique classes. Scroll to view the specific classes for each track.

Fall 1

  • GAMES 6350 – Technical Art I (3)
  • GAMES 6100 – Rapid Prototyping (4)
  • GAMES 6000 – Theories of Games and Play (3)

Spring 1

  • GAMES 6355 – Technical Art II (3)
  • GAMES 6110 – Game Studio (4)
  • GAMES 6*** – Directed Elective (3)

Fall 2

  • GAMES 6360 – Technical Art III (3)
  • GAMES 6120 – Advanced Game Studio I (4)
  • GAMES 6*** – Directed Elective (3)

Spring 2

  • GAMES 6365 – Technical Art IV (3)
  • GAMES 6130 – Advanced Game Studio II (4)
  • GAMES 6*** – Directed Elective (3)

Course Descriptions:

GAMES 6000 – Theories of Games and Play

In this required course for the MEAE, students will play and analyze games concurrently with studying contemporary research and theories about them. The medium of games will be examined from a variety of perspectives including their aesthetic potential, uses, culture, their industrial production, and more. In this way, this course provides opportunities for richer and more informed views on games as a cultural medium. The course involves significant amounts of reading, writing, and presenting.

GAMES 6100 – Rapid Prototyping

Rapid Prototyping is a project-based course focused on the prototyping phase of game development. Over the course of the semester, students will work in small teams developing prototypes of video games in a short amount of time. Each development cycle presents constraints, and students will put game design theories into practice to overcome emergent problems brought about by working in interdisciplinary teams. This course serves as an introduction to studio simulations and will help students form and test their identities as a game developer. 

GAMES 6110 – Game Studio

This course provides MEAE students with a venue to test and explore the skills they have learned during their first semester of graduate studies and guidance in abstracting their experiences. Working in multidisciplinary groups, students will follow an industrial model while building a video game from the ground up. This model includes the following phases: brainstorming, pitching, prototyping, and development.

 

Instructors act as coaches/mentors in the studio and as Executive Producers in stakeholder meetings, working with each team throughout the development process (pitching, prototyping, alpha, beta, gold) as they secure investment to build their product.


Students will work collaboratively on a medium-sized team to design and develop prototypes, meet milestones, and iterate based on playtesting. By completing this course, students will gain practical experience in taking a concept to market, resulting in a feature complete game for public release.

GAMES 6120 – Advanced Game Studio I

Students work collaboratively in large teams in the design and development of their master's game project. This course is the first of a two-course sequence that continues in Advanced Game Studio II.

GAMES 6130 – Advanced Game Studio II

Students work collaboratively in large teams in the design and development of their master's game project. This course is the second course of a two-course sequence that began in Advanced Game Studio I. Students are expected to publish their master's game project as part of this course.

GAMES 6350 – Technical Art I

This is a tools scripting course utilizing MAYA, MAYA Embedded Language (MEL), and Python. It is a project-based course where students will code several tools to increase efficiency in the art asset pipeline. Using specific Python in conjunction with MEL in the MAYA environment, students will make tools to automate many of the processes in the art asset pipeline specific to game development.

GAMES 6355 – Technical Art II 

A project-based course utilizing Motion Capture (MoCap) through the MVN system and Autodesk Motionbuilder. Using the MoCap system and Motion Builder, students will learn the technology behind the MoCap system, will direct MoCap sessions, will prepare motion data using many techniques, will use Motion Builder to create associations with models, and will employ the motion data and models into a game engine.

GAMES 6360 – Technical Art III 

Tech Art III covers introductory programming concepts in C++, mathematics for computer graphics programming and shader programming techniques. Students will load mathematical geometries in the GPU, set up the graphics pipeline and customize the appearance of the geometries via linear algebra and fundamental lighting techniques.

GAMES 6365 – Technical Art IV 

Students will have an opportunity to explore techniques, and build upon the artistic foundations they have learned through the course of their studies up to this point. They will engage in an almost daily critical study of your portfolio presentation, branding, and create new personal projects to increase quality and mastery increasing productivity of others as they embrace their critical position as the bridge between art and technology.

Sample Directed Electives for Technical Artists:
Availability varies by term.

  • GAMES 6620 – Environmental Art for Games
  • GAMES 6250 – Introduction to Animation for Games
  • GAMES 6670 – Texturing for 3D
  • GAMES 6900 – Shader Development
  • GAMES 6900 – Rigging
  • GAMES 6900 – Real Time VFX

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