ASU's 'The GAME School' teaching students to build business out of gaming

ASU program training game designers for multi-billion gaming industry

Students at Arizona State are learning how to build business out of gaming. FOX 10's Ashlie Rodriguez breaks down what's happening inside "The GAME School."

TEMPE, Ariz. - ASU students are learning how to integrate the human physical experience with computation and digital media. 

What we know:

Inside The GAME School, undergrads and grads at ASU intend to master the art of building business out of gaming.

"It’s not just about game design and game making. But it’s all the adjacent things around how do you make art, how do you make graphics, how do you make interaction. So all that put together is what we call The Game School—which is games, arts, media, and engineering," said Pavan Turaga, the founding director of The GAME School at ASU.

These are no PC games of the past you used to play on the desktop in your mom’s basement. 

Now, entire networks of people across the globe talk and interact in real time, traversing new lands in fantastical worlds.

Dig deeper:

"Gaming really became very big through the pandemic years almost exponentially. Now they say as a business it’s bigger than film, and music combined," Turaga said.

Developing games now requires students to be technofluent in graphic design, web design, game design, interactive music making, and entertainment engineering. 

Students are even able to earn a certificate in artificial intelligence.

"Yes, we are creating people to be game designers, yes. But we can also create pathways into technology careers in the broader entertainment industries," Turaga said.

What's next:

Students can look forward to learning high-paying skills, not in a dark room while staring at a screen in silence. 

The GAME School provides a vibrant, creative social environment where like-minded thinkers in a niche and nerdy world can make lifelong connections.

"We very much want this to be a space where people feel comfortable of all walks, walking into playing games, and just enjoying themselves," said Connor Rawls of ASU The GAME School.