Interactive Media & Game Development

Faculty

Program Director: G. Smith

Core Faculty:
Professors: M. Claypool (CS/IMGD), J. Rosenstock (HUA/IMGD), G. Smith (CS/IMGD)
Associate Professors: M. Ghajargar (SSPS/IMGD), E. Gutierrez (HUA/IMGD), C. Roberts (CS/IMGD)
Assistant Professor: Y. D. Telliel (HUA)
Professor of Practice: B. Schneider (IMGD)
Associate Professor of Teaching: F. Chery (IMGD)
Assistant Professor of Teaching: M. Kagen (IMGD)
Assistant Teaching Professors: J. D. Calvelli (IMGD), R. DuPlessis (IMGD), K. Stewart (IMGD)
Senior Instructor: R. Sutter (IMGD)
Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor: K. Elwell (IMGD)

Collaborative Faculty: 
S. Barton (HUA), R. Bigonah (HUA), R. Dempski (CBC), L. Harrison (CS), N. Heffernan (CS), M. Keller (HUA), V. J. Manzo (HUA), E. Ottmar (SSPS), D. Samson (HUA), E. Solovey (CS)

A full listing can be found here:
https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/interactive-media-game-development/faculty-staff

Annual Progress Review Milestone

In addition to the milestones specific to each degree, all IMGD graduate students must participate in an annual progress review conducted by the program. Students submit a report describing the work they have completed that year and reflection on their progress. A faculty committee reviews each report, discusses student progress, and makes a decision about student continuation in the program. There are three potential recommendation outcomes from this review milestone: a) satisfactory progress, b) program warning, and c) program dismissal. If a student receives a warning, then they will receive constructive feedback on how to improve their performance. If the committee recommends the student for dismissal, they enter WPI’s academic dismissal process as described in the “Academic Standards” section of this catalog.

Facilities/Research Labs /Research Centers

  • IMGD Lab. 27-seat teaching/research lab.
  • Zoo Lab. 25-seat teaching/research lab.
  • Digital Art Studio. Work space for both digital and traditional art.
  • Performance Evaluation of Distributed Systems (PEDS) Lab. Design and analysis of distributed systems, with a special focus on the performance on ­networking.
  • Mixed Reality Development Group. Design, implementation, and analysis of virtual and augmented reality systems.
  • Music, Perception, and Robotics Lab. Musical creativity, perception and cognition, expressive robotic and mechatronic systems.

Classes

IMGD 5000: IMGD Studio

Department
Interactive Media & Game Development
Credits 3

This is a “studio” course in which the instructor will guide and mentor the students on individual and/or joint projects. The focus of the course will be on the design of interactive media and games, with the students designing (and optionally implementing) one or more games or interactive experiences. There will also be readings and discussion of design theory as it relates to student projects. This course can be taken for M.S. credit twice if desired.

IMGD 5010: IMGD Fundamentals

Department
Interactive Media & Game Development
Credits 3
In this course, students learn foundational theories and gain foundational skills in interactive media, game development, and computational media targeted at the graduate level, for students with a prior undergraduate background in related fields. Students will read about contemporary challenges in application of these fundamentals to IMGD-related projects, and build disciplinary knowledge and practices necessary for the creation of interactive media and/or games. Topics covered in this course alternate each year based on instructor. Different instantiations of the course cover topics in programming and computing in media contexts (computation studio), art asset conceptualization, creation, and iteration (visual arts studio), audio remixing and composition methods (audio lab), and narrative in interactive contexts (narrative design lab). This course will be offered each year, with topic defined by the faculty member teaching it.

IMGD 5100: Tangible and Embodied Interaction

Department
Interactive Media & Game Development
Credits 3
Tangible and embodied interaction sees humans at the center of the designed experience. A number of systems continue to emerge to immerse the body into a system, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, alternative controls in the forms of guitars or cockpits, sewing machines, mobile phones and technologies, and even more. Through a combination of traditional lecture, literature review, and hands-on work, students will learn to critically evaluate different alternatives, build prototype systems, and design comparative evaluations to test the effectiveness of various techniques. Students will be expected to implement several techniques as part of this course.

IMGD 5200: History and Future of Immersive and Interactive Media

Department
Interactive Media & Game Development
Credits 3
This course will familiarize students with the history of the development, deployment, commercialization, and evolution of immersive and active media. The lesson plan will cover a broad range of enabling technologies, such as geometric perspective drawing, pre-20th-century panoramic displays, photography and the stereoscope, sound recording and reproduction, motion pictures, radio and television, the planetarium, immersive and 3-dimensional cinema, and special attraction venues, with a particular focus on digital games. Current trends and future directions will also be considered. Students will attend seminars and lectures, read and discuss texts on media history and aesthetics, and write an original research paper. Midterm and final exams test students’ knowledge and understanding of important events and developments. A student may not receive credit for both IMGD 3200 and IMGD 4200.
Prerequisites

An understanding of dominant themes and genres in video games

IMGD 5300: Design of Interactive Experiences

Department
Interactive Media & Game Development
Credits 3
This course will introduce students to the theories of design, the purpose of which is to guide students in articulating a design vision that can then be implemented in an interactive experience such as a computer game or an art installation. The design elements addressed in this course are as follows: narrative, visual, sound, spatial, challenges and objectives, and characters. This course also emphasizes the communicative strategies needed to sell other people on a design in order to enter production, convince investors, and engage users. Students will be required to design an environment that is populated in a meaningful way that is dependant on the purpose of their visions. They will provide mock-ups of this environment that they must present to their stakeholders - the professor and peers - and finally create prototypes that help them sell their design idea. Throughout the class, students will be writing their designs in professional genres, presenting their designs to the class (often called a pitch), and discuss the theories and practices of design during in-class meetings.
Prerequisites

A course on game design, or equivalent work experience

IMGD 5400: Production Management for Interactive Media

Department
Interactive Media & Game Development
Credits 3
This course focuses on the process of creating a set of documents encompassing the design and vision of a piece of interactive media, methods for structuring the implementation of the design, and tools for successfully managing the project. Students will analyze different types of design documents, focusing on form and purpose while also considering audience and publication medium. Students will write design documents, give peer feedback, and revise their own documents based on feedback received. In order to see their design transform from document to product, students will study different project management methods and employ them, defining in detail discrete components, timelines, milestones, players and their responsibilities, and status reports to stakeholders. Tools common to managing interactive media projects (e.g., source-code revision control, asset management, scheduling) will be used throughout the process.
Prerequisites

Experience working on development projects

IMGD 5500: Serious Games and Community-Engaged Design

Department
Interactive Media & Game Development
Credits 3

This course covers methods for designing, implementing, and assessing games for serious contexts in collaboration with community partners. "Serious games" are game-based media broadly construed to include digital games, board games, interactive exhibits, mobile and web-based interactive media, and short-term site-specific experiences. They teach, engage with social issues, affect behavior change, or aim to influence thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Students will read contemporary literature in the field, critique and analyze existing serious games, learn effective methods for engagement with community partners, and design and implement games that meet community-established needs. 

IMGD 5600: Multidisciplinary Research Methods in Computational Media

Department
Interactive Media & Game Development
Credits 3
This course covers research methods used in computational and interactive media. As an interdisciplinary field, computational media relies on multiple research methods, such as qualitative, quantitative, design-based research, iterative design methodology, player and user-testing, historical and cultural research methods, computational reasoning, data analysis, and visual analysis. Students will read broadly in research methodologies and discuss applicability and adaptability for particular processes and research questions.

IMGD 6000: IMGD Graduate Colloquium

Department
Interactive Media & Game Development
Credits 2

This course orients new graduate students to graduate study in interactive media and game
development, as well as current research and creative activity in the program. Faculty and/or
external visitors to IMGD will speak at the colloquia on contemporary and emergent topics.

IMGD 6001: IMGD Career Colloquium

Department
Interactive Media & Game Development
Credits 1
This course meets weekly to professionalize students preparing for the academic or artistic job markets. Topics will include goal setting, application materials, practice interviews, practice teaching demonstrations, portfolio development, and other materials as needed. This course is taken with a pass/fail grading option.