Ateneo de Manila University plans degree in game development

By Erwin Oliva INQUIRER.net THE ATENEO de Manila University here hopes to soon offer a full-blown degree program in game development, school officials have said. In the past few years, the university has been offering a variety of programming courses and other subjects related to game development. But come 2009, the university hopes to "string them together" into one degree program, said Ma. Mercedes Rodrigo, associate professor and chairperson of the Department of Information Systems and Computer Science (DISCS) of the university's School of Science and Engineering. Rodrigo said Ateneo is working closely with local game development houses, who, in turn, are giving them ideas about the technical and non-technical skills required by the industry. "We would like to be actively engaged with the industry," she added. She, however, noted that the degree will not be limited to computer science students. In fact, for the past semesters, the department has engaged other disciplines to help create a variety of offerings. Last semester, Miguel Escaño, an English instructor, said he taught students how to develop better game story-lines using a module from Neverwinter Nights, a role-playing game. Apart from creating better stories, the game development students were also immersed in Filipino mythology, philosophy, ethics, and English, added Escaño. Rodrigo said that the DISCS invited humanities teachers to teach other subjects because the department believes gaming development is not limited to teaching just its technical aspects. "Actually ethics is underappreciated in the aspect of gaming. Gaming is a good way to teach ethics, too," added Escaño. Based on their experience so far, Rodrigo said students were quick to pick up the technical aspects of game development but had a harder time with non-technical subjects such as story development. Next year, DISCS plans to offer game development as a minor, said instructor Jal de Vera. "It took us years to develop this portfolio of courses," Rodrigo said. Asked what she sees as challenges for the introduction of the degree program, Rodrigo identified government regulatory issues related to the introduction of new degree programs by universities and the lack of "exposure" of its instructors to the gaming industry.