Play-Centric Games Education Whitepaper

This document shares the philosophy and thinking behind the creation of the EA Interactive Entertainment Program at the USC School of Cinema-Television. This is a program that combines a broad liberal arts background with specialization in the history, theory and practice of creating games and interactive entertainment. The purpose of the program is to develop critical thinkers and designers who can produce the next generation of interactive entertainment. The program's proximity to both the graduate program in Interactive Media and the School of Cinema-Television provides a unique opportunity to
integrate the creative process of traditional media with the new medium of games and interactivity.

The program embodies the concept of "play-centric design" which puts player experience at the heart of the design process and teaches a system of prototyping, playtesting and iterative design that has been proven in almost a decade of student work. This play-centric process, combined with the strong tradition of collaborative practice in place at the Cinema school, is the heart of the production cycle for the games program. Additionally, a strong emphasis on critical game studies will draw on the experience of the Critical Studies Division of the Cinema school. And, valuable input from the IGDA's Curriculum Framework has helped us to form the core topics for specialization and
elective coursework within the major.

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