Guildhall at SMU fosters growing industry
June 17, 2009 - Stewart James

By Stewart James
sjames@bizpress.net

The video game entertainment industry has surpassed the movie and music industries combined, topping out at $22 billion dollars in sales in the United States and $48 billion globally.

SMU-in-Plano decided to take advantage of the growing market with the opening of Guildhall in July 2003 after local and national gaming studios expressed a need for trained professionals. The Linda and Mitch Hart eCenter at Southern Methodist University is the foundation of the Guildhall, which was established to promote all things on the Internet.

“We are the oldest and probably the best known program,” said Ron Jenkins, deputy director, development and external affairs for the Guildhall at SMU-in-Plano. “We are a graduate program and now have over 300 graduates that work at 80 video game studios around the world. We have the largest footprint of any program with over 40 percent of our graduates having the title supervisor or manager.”

Sixty-eight percent of U.S. households play computer or video games, according to new research from the Entertainment Software Association.

“This is the new golden age of entertainment software,” said Michael D. Gallagher, CEO of ESA. “More and more Americans across all demographics are now embracing the interactive entertainment experience that computer and video games provide.”

Gallagher said the industry is performing exceptionally well, even in difficult financial times.

Fresh off the plane from the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Jenkins paints a picture of the future the gaming industry.

“The future of video games is controller free. You just wave your arms,” Jenkins said. “One of the things good about our program is that we are going to be able to use and teach some of that technology to our students who will be able take the experience with them when they graduate.”

Guildhall offers a number of graduate degrees to students including the Master of Interactive Technology (MIT) in Digital Game Development degree, which melds theory and practice and is comprised of game-related coursework, trans-disciplinary team game production and directed individual work in the student’s area of specialization.

The program is 17 months and each student is required to build a portfolio through three-student team projects. Projects consist of students first designing a 2D game engine and demo, then a basic 3D game modification demo and finally an original 3D game demo.

“We are adding a new program in the near future, which will be for production, art creation, level design and software,” Jenkins said. “We are going to add a production track for someone who wants to be in production management or an associate producer for games.”

The Guildhall is looking at executive education where studios from all over the country will be able to send people for a six to 12 week program, Jenkins said. They can get the executive training needed to be project leads and directors, he said.

SMU’s Guildhall has consistently attracted the attention of major video game companies. With the help of the world’s largest video game and entertainment software retailer, GameStop, the university opened a student lounge complete with a 161-inch high definition DLP projector, 24 game consoles, a top of the line Alienware gaming system, and a stage for budding rockers to try out Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

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