HPU’s Game Design Program Ranked Among Top 50 in the Nation
For the third consecutive year, High Point University was recognized for providing one of the Top 50 Undergraduate Game Design Programs in the country. Pictured at left is HPU’s Innovator in Residence and Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak working with game design students Nathan Harvey, Luke Harless and Jackson Leonard.
HIGH POINT, N.C., March 28, 2024 – For a third consecutive year, High Point University has been recognized for providing one of the Top 50 Undergraduate Game Design Programs in the country.
The Princeton Review ranked HPU’s game design programs eighth for undergraduate schools in the South and 48th for undergraduate schools across the country in its 2024 list, released this month. HPU is also the only university in North Carolina to make the list.
The game design major, as well as a corresponding minor, is housed in the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication. The program was selected for the 2024 list based on college administrator survey responses to questions covering the quality of faculty, facilities, technology, curriculum and career services.
“This sort of recognition acknowledges the contributions of both alumni and current students in being highly engaged with the field of game design,” said Dr. Stefan Hall, chair and associate professor of game design. “It is a testament to the hard work of those alumni and students, as well as the faculty, a dedication to excellence in teaching and learning, long hours spent designing, creating characters, tweaking code, running dynamic clubs and finding good jobs in the industry as well as creating a vibrant and inclusive community.”
Being able to network with industry innovators, such as HPU’s Innovator in Residence, Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak, as well as designers, producers and publishers from the game industry gives students valuable insight to help their own careers, said Hall.
“It is an amazing time to be involved in game design as many of the original creators of the field are still alive and can be tapped for their knowledge,” he said.
HPU’s game design program is extremely active. Hall and Brian Heagney, an assistant professor of game design, accompanied 15 HPU game design students to the PAX East 2024 conference in Boston, Massachusetts, for the March 2024 event. Students presented their games in the Exhibition Hall to a crowd of more than 100,000 people. The students were Nathaniel Bryant, Michael Connelly, Dylan Daner, Austin Edwards, Terry Evans, Steven Gast, Luke Harless, Nathan Harvey, Brett Ingram, Tyler Johnson, Cecile Li, Ashley Longbottom, Riley Siegel, Zuri Smith and Henry Wallace.
Students have presented their work at other conferences, including the East Coast Game Conference (ECGC) in Raleigh, the Broadcast Education Association Conference in Las Vegas and the Popular Culture Association Conference in Washington, D.C. A busload of 41 HPU game design students attended the 2023 ECGC to demonstrate their games to industry professionals and game enthusiasts.
“My ultimate desire is to find a place within the industry that will allow me to gain experience and expand my skills,” said Edwards, a senior game design major from Charlotte, North Carolina. “I hope to use this gathered experience within the industry to create my own game franchise and company so that my ideas can come to light. High Point University has prepared me to reach this goal by not just providing technical skills, such as programming or 3D modeling, but with ways to think critically about how games are made.”
Those skills and experiences provide the flexibility and resilience to flourish in any industry if his career leads him away from games, Edwards said.
“Being part of the game design program at High Point University has helped prepare me for any future career by teaching me how to work with a team as a project lead and as a general game developer,” said Longbottom, a senior entrepreneurship and game design and interactive media major from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “The best part is that the courses have helped me develop a form of thinking that helps me find solutions to any problem I interact with. You learn to think outside the box and to review everything you interact with critically. The small class sizes really helped me develop my skills at a faster rate because I could get help one-on-one with my professors. I also get to be a part of a great community of classmates who help me out as well.”
PC Gamer, The Princeton Review’s reporting partner for this project since 2013, has a feature on the rankings in its May issue, which landed on newsstands March 19. The feature, titled “The Best Game Design Programs Ranked by The Princeton Review for 2024,” names the schools on the lists and reports interesting stats and fun facts about their programs.
For the seventh consecutive year, HPU was also named one of America’s best academic institutions by The Princeton Review in “The Best 389 Colleges: 2024 Edition.”