Amanda Delgado
Staff Writer
A game development and design minor will be available to students in the spring, allowing students to work toward the development of their own games.
“They (students) will actually produce a marketable product by the end of the time they are done with the minor,” said Scout Blum, Interim Chair of the Department chair of History, Philosphy, and Game design. “It focuses mostly on analog games, such as board games, card games and role-playing games, but they can do video games as well.”
Blum taught history through games, finding that “games help with skills like problem solving and critical thinking.” The game development and design minor offers a more structured and hands-on program for students.
“I was interested in the minor because I’ve always enjoyed playing games, so I wanted to try making them, too,” said Madalyn Bond, a sophomore computer science major from Webb.
Troy University may offer a game development and design major in the future, but for now, there is only the opportunity for a minor.
“I would love to do that (game development and design major), but I think what the administration would like us to do is show that there’s interest first, so we’ll have the minor and see how the minor goes before we bump it up to a major,” Blum said.
“I have always been interested in game design and actually wanted to major in it — I applied and got accepted to a number of art schools that have the major, but for financial reasons, chose to go to Troy,” said Khalia Kennedy, a sophomore art major from Birmingham. “I decided to major in art with a digital concentration, and now that they have this minor, I definitely will be switching,”
The board game industry is picking up steam, as well; according to the Seattle Times, more than 5,000 new board games were introduced to the market in 2017.
“The board game field is growing by leaps and bounds,” said Blum. “It’s more than Monopoly and Risk.”
Students are encouraged to join the Board Game Alliance, a student-led group, or get in contact with Blum if they are interested in game development and design.
