Game Design, BFA

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Design is designed to provide students with the skills to communicate ideas and emotions through interactive media. The focus of the BFA degree is exploring games as an aesthetic and expressive form through critical analysis and creative, reflective practice. Anticipating emerging trends in the video and analog game industries—including broader platforms, audiences, and distribution channels—students will be oriented toward developing games and playful media in an independent creative context. Curriculum is geared to cultivate students’ unique creative voices through courses that apply theoretical analysis to game-development practices across a range of media. Students are exposed to a wide variety of genres and contexts, as well as alternative ways of thinking about games content, platforms, and asset production.

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• Concentrations and course offerings may vary by campus and/or by program modality.  Please consult with your advisor or admissions coach for the course availability each term at your campus or within your program modality. 
• Certain options within the program may be required at certain campuses or for certain program modalities.  Please consult with your advisor or admissions coach for requirements at your campus or for your program modality. 

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Complete all courses listed below unless otherwise indicated. Also complete any corequisite labs, recitations, clinicals, or tools courses where specified and complete any additional courses needed beyond specific college and major requirements to satisfy graduation credit requirements.

Universitywide Requirements

All undergraduate students are required to complete the Universitywide Requirements.

NUpath Requirements

All undergraduate students are required to complete the NUpath Requirements.

NUpath requirements Creative Expression/Innovation (EI), Formal and Quantitative Reasoning (FQ), and Analyzing/Using Data (AD) are met through the major course requirements. All other NUpath requirements must be met through electives.

Required Courses

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Art and Design at Northeastern
ARTF 1000	Art and Design at Northeastern	1
Game Studies
GAME 1110	Games and Society	4
GAME 2650	Introduction to Game Research Methods	4
Game Design
GAME 2500	Foundations of Game Design	4
GAME 2950	Game Studio	4
GAME 3700	Rapid Idea Prototyping for Games	4
Game Development
ARTG 2262 and ARTG 2263	Prototyping with Code and Lab for ARTG 2262	4
GAME 3300	Game Interface Design	4
GAME 3400	Level Design and Game Architecture	4
GAME 3800	Game Concept Development	4
Game Aesthetics
ARTD 2370 and ARTD 2371	Animation Basics and Animation Tools	5
ARTF 1220	Elements of Visual Composition (with optional ARTF 1221)	2
ARTF 1230 and ARTF 1231	Making with Form and Materials and Making with Form and Materials Tools	2
ARTF 1240 and ARTF 1241	Making with Video, Sound, and Animation and Making with Video, Sound, and Animation Tools	2
Critical Play
GAME 2010	The Business of Games	4
Capstone
A grade of C or higher is required:
GAME 4700	Game Design Capstone	4

Electives

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Game Design and Development
Complete three of the following as long as prerequisites have been met:		12
GAME 1850	Experimental Game Design
GAME 1999	Principles of Board Game Development
GAME 2991	Research in Game Design
GAME 3800	Game Concept Development
GAME 4000	Topics in Game Design
GAME 4460	Generative Game Design
GAME 4600	Game Production
Game Aesthetics and Critical Play
Complete three of the following as long as prerequisites have been met:		12
GAME 2355	Narrative for Games
GAME 2750	Games Criticism and Theory
GAME 2755	Games and Social Justice
GAME 4155	Designing Imaginary Worlds
Art + Design
Complete three of the following as long as prerequisites have been met:		12
ARTD 1001 and ARTD 1002	Media Art, Culture, and Social Justice and Seminar for ARTD 1001
ARTD 2000	Introduction to Immersive Media
ARTD 3000	Topics in Media Arts
ARTD 3470	Animation 1
ARTD 3472	Character Design for Animation
ARTD 3473	Animation for Games
ARTF 1200	Representational Drawing
ARTF 1250 and ARTF 1251	Designing Interactive Experiences and Designing Interactive Experiences Tools
ARTG 3250	Physical Computing
EXRE 5010 and EXRE 5011	Immersive Media: Extended Realities (XR) History, Theory, and Impact and Seminar for EXRE 5010
EXRE 5020	Developing Extended Realities (XR)
EXRE 5030	Designing Extended Realities (XR)
Art History
Complete one art history course within the ARTH subject code.		4

Game Design Major Credit/GPA Requirement

Complete 92 semester hours for the major with a 2.000 GPA.

Program Requirement

128 total semester hours required

Sample Plan of Study: Four Years, Two Co-ops in Spring/Summer 1

Year 1
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
ARTF 1000	1	ARTD 2370 and ARTD 2371	5	Art+design elective	4	Art+design elective	4
ARTF 1220 (with optional ARTF 1221)	2	GAME 2500	4	ARTH elective	4	Elective	4
ARTF 1230 and ARTF 1231	2	GAME 2650	4
ARTF 1240 and ARTF 1241	2	Game aesthetics and critical play elective	4
GAME 1110	4
ENGW 1111	4
	15		17		8		8
Year 2
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
ARTG 2262 and ARTG 2263	4	Co-op	0	Co-op	0	Elective	4
GAME 2950	4					Elective	4
GAME 3300	4
Game aesthetics and critical play elective	4
EEAM 2000	1
	17		0		0		8
Year 3
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
GAME 3400	4	Co-op	0	Co-op	0	Elective	4
GAME 3700	4					Elective	4
Art+design elective	4
Game design and development elective	4
	16		0		0		8
Year 4
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours
GAME 2010	4	GAME 4600	4
GAME 3800	4	GAME 4700	4
Game aesthetics and critical play elective	4	Game design and development elective	4
Game design and development elective	4	Elective	4
	16		16
Total Hours: 129