Congratulations to Erin Reynolds (MFA 2012) and team! Her thesis project ” Nevermind” has been nominated as “Most Innovative” at the Games for Change Festival in NYC this summer. Nevermind is a biofeedback-enhanced psychological horror game in which the player must leave the comforts of reality to explore the dark and twisted world of the subconscious. Nevermind strives [...]

Bachus-Summers Fund for Innovation in Interactive Entertainment Established Video game industry pioneers and USC alumni Kevin Bachus and Chanel Summers have made a donation to the USC School of Cinematic Arts Interactive Media & Games Division (IMGD) to establish The Bachus-Summers Fund for Innovation in Interactive Entertainment . The gift was announced today by School of Cinematic Arts’ (SCA) [...]

It’s always great to see our alumni doing well, but I have to admit being particularly proud of Nahil, who I worked as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Game Innovation Lab during her three years of MFA work at USC. Nahil is so talented and such a great team member, and here she is giving [...]

This summer the Interactive Media & Games Division will offer a new Master Design class on the art of Game Direction. The class will be taught by Jenova Chen and myself, along with a number of luminary game directors to be announced. This is a great opportunity to think about how game direction is emerging [...]

Last week, Professor Tom Frisina, who teaches our Business and Management for Games course as well as our Professionalism for Digital Media Management, announced that his new company Tilting Point will put $40 million into phone and tablet games over the next three years, “backed up by mentorship and lots and lots of data-driven marketing.” [...]

From the USC news site: The University of Southern California has been named the number one game design school in North America by The Princeton Review for its graduate program. This ranking is shared by the USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) Interactive Media and Games Division and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering ’s Department of Computer [...]

From the School of Cinematic Arts news page: The School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media Division has long been at the forefront of innovative gameplay. To emphasize its commitment to studying games and playable media in all forms, IMD will be renamed the Interactive Media and Games Division. “Given the groundbreaking work in games that [...]

There is a nice story on learning in games in this month’s NEA Arts. The story talks about two projects, one of which is our own Walden, a game. Read the full story here.

Every time thatgamecompany does something to make us proud here at IMD, I think, well, it can’t get better than that, can it? But they always find a way to surprise me. Tonight, it was picking up 8 awards at the 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, including Game of the Year for Journey. You can see [...]

Jose Climaco, a high school student at Foshay Technology Academy, talks about his experience playing Mission: Admission and how it helped him prepare for the college admissions process. Jose’s story is pretty much exactly why we made the game, so it is nice to see him articulate its benefits in his own words. Good luck with [...]

Here is a nice shout out in the IES Newsletter about Mission: Admission, the second of four college knowledge games that the Game Innovation lab has been working on. Mission:Admission is a Facebook game; upcoming projects include a middle school game, FutureBound, for PC/Mac and iOS and a financial literacy game.

With a brand new format that focuses on hands on demos and 1:1 interviews with game companies including EA, Disney, Lucas Arts, Riot Games, ZQ Games, Telltale Games and more, this year’s Demo Day promises to be an exiting reboot of our popular event. Find out more here, including links to the games that will [...]

Don’t miss this year’s sneak peek at the third year MFA’s projects in process. “Winteractive” will be held on December 6th on Stage 1 of the SCA complex on the USC campus from 5-9pm.