This year Game Development is available for anyone attending school at Rio Hondo College for the first time. The Curriculum focuses on the game art side of development, with classes such as: lighting and texture, modeling for games, and introduction to digital 3D animation. All of these courses lead to a game development certificate. Any student that earns this certificate can transfer to Cal State LA, Cal State Long Beach, and Cal State Fullerton. The program is ran by David Dawson a former game developer that has been teaching at various colleges for 10 years.

Dawson started the game design program at Rio, to any student interested in the subject. He made the program for anyone so they can dip their toe in the water so to speak, because the course can be quite demanding. Trying to become a game artist is difficult because of the sparse amount of schools offering the curriculum, along with the cost being incredibly high. The tuition price for the Pasadena Art Center in 2015, according to AinmationCareer.com, was $37,330 for undergraduates and 39$,452 graduates.” This stems from most of the schools that offer the program are private institutions.

“Students should expect a lot of work” Dawson said when asked about what new students should expect when majoring in game design. Any student majoring in this field are expected to use and learn computer programs such as: ZBrush, Maya, and Photoshop. Dawson focuses the curriculum on on project oriented study to build students’ portfolios for their future. Dawson plans to expand the program, to incorporate character modeling and level design as additional classes.