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The BS in Game Design prepares students to become storytellers, critical thinkers, entrepreneurs, and leaders in the field of games. Students collaborate in interdisciplinary teams with programmers, artists, and musicians to master the iterative development process and create polished experiences. Students build a portfolio showcasing their skills developing AAA, indie, and art games, as well as transformative play experiences on established and emerging platforms including augmented and virtual reality, tabletop, and physical technology.

DePaul's game design programs are nationally recognized. We are a 2021 Top Game Design School according to both The Princeton Review and Animation Career Review.

Careers

Recent graduates of CDM's game program have gone on to work at Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media, NeatherRealm Studios, Owlchemy Labs, Firaxis, Wargaming, Phosphor Games, and many others.

Several grads have gone on to form their own gaming companies, including Young Horses, whose indie hit Octodad was developed at DePaul.

Game Design Student Reel

DePaul CDM Film Student Reel

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  • Mike DeAnda

    In his research, Mike studies the communication of queer lived experiences and modes of knowledge production through games. He uses game design as research praxis, and designs games that comment on structures of gender and sexuality, envisioning possible interventions to the social injustices uncovered through his research

  • Brian Schrank

    Brian is the author of Avant-garde Videogames: Playing with Technoculture, and the director of the Virtual and Augmented Design Lab. Most recently, he co-curated the "Hey! Play! Games in Modern Culture" exhibit at the Chicago Design Museum.

  • Allen Turner

    Allen is the former Lead Designer and Game Director at Wideload Games/Disney Interactive Studios. He is a faculty mentor for the Game and Graphic Design programs, a partnership with the Chicago Housing Authority, and the co-director of DePaul Originals Game Studio.

  • Anna Anthropy

    Anna, our Game Designer in Residence, is an independent game designer of both digital and tabletop games, writer, and game historian. Her published books include Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, A Game Design Vocabulary (co-authored with Naomi Clark), and ZZT.

visitors engaging in a fun interaction at an exhibit

Student and Faculty Exhibitions

Game Design students and faculty participate in a wide range of exhibitions. Additionally, there are two annual events—a public showcase and a private showcase for industry professionals—where students exhibit games they've developed.

Tea & Consequences

Game Designer in Residence Anna Anthropy hosts this semi-monthly board game tea social, open to students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

CDM building

Indie City Games

This monthly symposium is held at DePaul. Local game professionals from industry give talks, share games in development, and critique each other's work.

Virtual and Augmented Design Lab

Our Virtual and Augmented Design Lab (VAD) hosts classes and projects to research and develop experimental games on emerging platforms. Current lab works includes AR development with Apple pushing the affordances of the ARKit on iPhone, and a VR game project exploring deformable virtual surfaces via hand and foot trackers.

Japan Study Abroad

This biennial trip takes students to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya on tours of Japanese game and animation studios, galleries, and cultural sites.

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DePaul Originals

DePaul Originals is a game development studio located on our Loop campus. Its focus is the production of high quality game experiences that are delivered on commercial platforms.

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