Tulane students interested in video games have the opportunity to design their own in the Games Studio classes taught by Jon Chambers, professor of practice in the School of Liberal Arts.

The classes are part of the Digital Media Practices program, but undergraduate students from across the university can take them. “I have students bringing in their expertise from different programs and departments from all over the school,” said Chambers.

He and his colleagues consider that interdisciplinary approach to media as they create new courses and build spaces for their students to try new things.

“I encourage my students in my courses to experiment, to break things, to kind of push themselves beyond thinking about games as just a first-person shooter or these games that have been made over and over again throughout history,” said Chambers. He teaches students to approach video games as an art form and to look critically at both the games themselves and the industry that makes them.

“This class has given me a completely different perspective than I previously had on video games and video game design,” said Tori Coover, a senior studying communications. “It is such a detail-oriented experience making a game, and things can go haywire so quickly, so it’s given me a newfound respect for game devs.”

“It’s really hard, but it also kind of makes you love it more because you see how much time and passion goes into video games,” said Olivia Maki, a senior studying digital media production and studio art with a minor in Asian Studies.

To create their games, students can use a motion capture suit, which tracks any movement of the person wearing it, and virtual reality (VR) headsets to experience the worlds they create. Previous students have created a kitchen from an ant’s perspective, an office with a dartboard where anything could be used as a dart, and a pastry shop, for instance.

Even if students don’t use every technology available to them in their final games, the class gives them exposure to every part of making a game, from conception to final product.

“It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, being able to have the [motion capture] suit on and also be the person working with the footage that was captured,” said Coover. “I got to see the entire process from actor to editor to putting it into a game, which is, I think, a unique experience, even in the industry.”

“When working with VR, students can explore embodied immersion that they potentially have never experienced before,” said Chambers. “It is fun watching students who have never played with VR experience it for the first time, because a lot of times it’s an ‘aha’ moment.”