When I saw the game center here, I was like this is it. This is the one. Having a dedicated space for games is a really big deal. Industry standard software, top of the line laptops, having that stuff on campus is I would say it's non negotiable for a game programmer. I'm really glad we have it.
We teach our students not only how to make games, but also to think critically and to apply them for policy and social good. We have faculty that are experts in things like 3D modeling, whether it's the programming of an engine, working in unity, but I think it's just as important we have faculty that have worked at private foundations and have funded projects. Often the guests in the classes can be just as powerful away to learn about where games come from, whether that's a an industry expert, or somebody that has funded games before, and might talk about the direction of policy and game funding. Students often join faculty projects, including projects that are working on how games and cities might come together-- games in education, games in museums.
We work with a lot of industry standard software, including unity, construct 3, twine, things like Photoshop to do 2D animation, you know. I've coded in C Sharp,. I've coded in HTML. I've worked in Python, in C++. I have an undergraduate degree in English, I thought that was going to hinder me in a way that it has not, and can now confidently say that I can program, and program pretty well.
Students in our program have had internships at the Smithsonian. So they work with museums, they've worked with policy think tanks. Being here in Washington is actually a really interesting place for the games industry. Because this is actually where some of the advocacy and big funding happens. National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, even National Adult for the Arts are pumping millions of dollars into games. And I think being right at the nexus of where that policy and games meet is part of the future of games.
