Southern New Hampshire Univ. Offering Game Design/Business Degree

A new program at Southern New Hampshire University mixes coursework in game design and development with a business concentration, "giving students a breadth of knowledge to grow their careers in and out of the video game industry." Using a curriculum based on recommendations from the IGDA, SNHU's new program offers courses in game development, virtual world design, sprite- and polygon-based animation and object manipulation in a 3D simulation alongside standard courses in business, marketing, economics and project management. The school describes the program as "ideal for students transferring in credit" and promises classes "taught by business and video game programming experts." Game development environments include Flash, Maya, 3ds Max, Z-Brush, Blender, Unreal Development Kit (UDK), Unity, ActionScript, Python, C++, JavaScript and HTML5. "Games for both entertainment and serious purposes are on the upswing in the industry,” SNHU information technology department chair Lundy Lewis said in a statement. "This degree will prepare you for the business and technology aspects of the gaming industry."