Recognized as one of the top game design programs in North America by the Princeton Review, USC Games represents an exciting collaboration between the School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media & Games Division and the Viterbi School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science. Incorporating elements of design, artistry, production and engineering, USC Games offers an utterly unique educational experience for students, and serves as the launching pad for them to play significant roles in the game design field.
With rigorous, hands-on instruction from master designers, producers, engineers and working professionals in the industry, students have an unprecedented level of opportunity to delve into every aspect of creating games for a global audience. Read more about our specific undergraduate and graduate degree programs here.
Mystical VR
Mystical is an experimental VR experience that gives the player an opportunity to explore the concepts and symbolism of the ancient Andean worldview based on the symbol “La Chakana”
Detour Bus (VR)
Snap together inconvenient road pieces to build ridiculous highways and guide the dysfunctional Flowers family on a psychedelic road trip across Post-Infrastructure America!
Serpent Showdown
Serpent Showdown is a competitive arena fighter for all ages and abilities. Play as two classroom pet snakes, battling it out to see who will reign victorious.
LoFi Hip-Hop Worlds To Study In
LEAD DESIGNERS
Israel Jones (he/ him) – MFA student at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media and Games Division – wizzardjones.com
Izzy Jones is a graduate from Harvey Mudd College, and a second year in USC’s Interactive Media MFA program. Israel has a deep interest in both the sciences and the arts, and is particularly passionate about game development, which wraps together many skills from both areas. One of his core beliefs as a person is that, no matter what your job is, you can find ways to build your community and help people through your work. With this as well as his love for learning and education in mind, Israel hopes to use the knowledge and experience that he acquires at USC to make the field of games more visible and accessible for students of color like himself. He also wants to someday help provide educational and creative tools that can make the creation of games a much more mainstream and accessible artistic medium.
Matthew Hamilton (they/them) – PhD student in Education, University of Southern California https://criticalgameliteracy.squarespace.com/ criticalgameliteracy@gmail.com
Matthew is a designer and researcher of critical digital literacy and game-based learning experiences. They have taken game design classes at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and have co-designed several games and digital learning modules including Lofi Hip Hop Worlds to Study In (https://lofiworlds.itch.io/study) and Kaiunearthed.com. A former high school humanities teacher for ten years, they are collaborating with the Game Innovation Lab on the new Walden curriculum. They have co-authored research papers in the Journal of Adolescent Health and the International Journal of Multicultural Education and are currently working as project manager and data analyst on the National Survey of Critical Digital Literacy with their advisor Dr. Brendesha Tynes.
Roomba Rumble
Art: Popper Zhu
Music: Aria Dewey
