New Tech class Delves Into Significance of Video Games

Montana Standard

When it comes to designing a video game, the sky's the limit.

That's what drew Dustin Gibson, a senior at Montana Tech, to a new class that focuses on the medium so wildly popular in today's young culture.

"I'm a creator. That's why I'm here, that's why I'm studying engineering," Gibson said Wednesday after the class, titled "Introduction to Game Design." "Video games can be a really good medium for creation," he said.

That's something of an understatement. Today enthusiasts for games --known as gamers --have hundreds of choices. And those include all kinds of scenarios.

"Art, painting, color, 3-D modeling sound --you can take all of that and put it into one art form," he said. "I've come up with a great idea for a game; now I just have to learn how to create a game." Gibson is exactly the kind of student Lori Shyba, who teaches the class, had in mind when she proposed the course. Shyba said the class aims to teach students about the cultural, economic and industrial significance of video games.

Video games have spurred a subculture of serious gamers. And around that has sprung a pop culture.

"It's ubiquitous gamery out there in the media," she said.

But there's also a practical element to the class. Students will be required to design a game. Shyba said one of the goals is to improve the way the people who make games communicate.

"My motivation is to make sure that the artists and designers and the programmers know how to talk to each other," she said. "It makes for a more fun, better game." Games also have a practical application. Shyba said flight simulators and education games are examples of video games that serve for training or learning purposes.

She should know. Shyba designed a game for the Calgary, Alberta, Police Service called "Booze Cruise" in which the player is forced to drive as though they're drunk. The results aren't pretty.

And she helped design an interactive game for schools in Alberta that helped students with science and other subjects.

Shyba said the adults learned as well.

"It was as much of a training session for the teachers as it was for the kids," she said. "The kids are used to working with games."

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