LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
CCBC Launches New Digital Gaming Program

This semester CCBC Essex is offering the first two courses, Basic Game Programming I and Mathematics for Game Development, in its new game development education program leading to a degree in Simulation and Digital Entertainment. Offered in conjunction with the University of Baltimore (UB) as a four-year program, it targets those students seeking careers in designing video games, developing advergaming (a marketing strategy of mixing advertising with online games), producing learning games or engineering military simulations. Kathleen Harmeyer of CCBC Essex and Stuart Moultrop from UB designed the digital gaming program simultaneously at both colleges to assure that the curriculum would cover all facets. The full program in Simulation and Digital Entertainment debuts at CCBC Essex in Fall 2003.

According to Harmeyer, associate professor of Internet and Multimedia Technology at CCBC Essex, "This program is designed to meet workforce development need for designers for Maryland's burgeoning digital gaming industry. Currently a $17 billion industry, digital gaming in all its iterations is expected to continue growing, intensifying workforce demand. We developed the curriculum with input from local industry leaders - Joe Biglin of Breakaway Games and Brian Anderson of Gigawatt Studios - to produce digital gaming professionals at the designer rather than tester level."

For more information about the new program, call 443-840-1461.