Game Design and Development (GDD), BI™

The Bachelor of Innovation™ in Game Design and Development (GDD) is a degree within the Bachelor of Innovation family. It is a rigorous technical curriculum based heavily on programming and game design topics with important cross-disciplinary breadth in art, music and other fields. The program as a whole will let students build the foundational knowledge and develop the skills necessary to form their own independent game development companies or to pursue employment in the games industry. In addition to traditional games for entertainment, the game industry includes Serious Games (games designed for simulation and training, educational games, games for health care, and so on) and Casual Games (small, short games played in a Web browser or on a cell phone, for example).

The Bachelor of Innovation family requires an innovation core, a cross-discipline core, and a set of general education courses in addition to the rigorous technical degree. The combination of the GDD-specific coursework and the core Bachelor of Innovation™ topics and experiences will position students form a new small company to develop entertainment and serious games; pursue a career at a traditional entertainment game development company; join a company that develops or utilizes Serious Games; or use the critical thinking, design, programming and teaming skills developed throughout the curriculum to pursue employment outside the games industry.

Learning Outcomes

Understand and apply game design principles in various domains
Understand and apply programming fundamentals
Understand and apply advanced software development techniques
Understand and apply Innovation Core concepts in a team-based business environment

Degree Requirements

The Bachelor of Innovation in Game Design and Development degree requires the following:

completion of at least 120 credit hours
a minimum 2.0 grade point average in all computer science courses, GDD courses, and courses taken at the University of Colorado.

Course Requirements

The courses for the degree are as follows:

Innovation Core (24 semester hours)
Cross-discipline Core (15 semester hours)
Creative Communication Core, Business Core, or Globalization Core

(Note: GDD students who select the Business Core or Globalization Core are required to take one Visual Arts and one Music course as free electives.)

GDD Core (30 Credit Hours)

GDD Concentration Requirements (15 Credit Hours)

Students select 15 hours of concentration courses in any 3000 level or above CS or GDD course not used to meet other GDD degree requirements.

Composition Courses (3 Credit Hours)

Mathematics (7 Credit Hours)

MATH 1350 - Calculus I

Natural Science (11 Credit Hours)

PES 1110 - General Physics I - Calculus Based
PES 1160 - Advanced Physics Lab I
Remaining 6 credit hours selected from the classes below:

Biology, Chemistry, Geography and Environmental Studies, Geology, and Physics & Energy Science.

Compass Curriculum (12 Credit Hours)

GPS 1010 - Gateway Program Seminar
Explore courses must be completed outside the major and Area Requirements. All other CC requirements can be completed within the degree requirements above.

Free Electives (12 Credit Hours)

Students select 12 hours of free electives from all the courses offered at UCCS EXCEPT MATH courses numbered below 1350.

The Bachelor of Innovation students are required to participate in research/innovation projects. Most of these will be industry-sponsored projects. Students employed full-time who wish to pursue a degree in this program will be required to sign IP agreements and have such agreements executed by their employer, or arrange for their employer to be one of the industry-sponsored projects.

Sample Schedule

Please see the sample schedule on our website.