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USC Games, a flagship collaboration offered jointly by the School of Cinematic Arts Division of Interactive Media & Games and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Computer Science Department, focuses on both the design and production of interactive media and games.
USC Games recently hosted the sixth iteration of its annual expo featuring student-developed games from aspiring game developers, USG Games Expo 2022, along with Jam City. The virtual event included global premieres of over 50 student-made games and featured up-and-coming game designers and developers from USC Games' program.
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In an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda Gaming’s Suryadeepto Sengupta, Danny Bilson, the Chair of the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ (SCA) Interactive Media & Games Division (IMGD) and Director of USC Games, discussed the success of the event and its future.
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Danny Bilson, Chair of the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ (SCA) Interactive Media & Games Division (IMGD) and Director of USC Games, discusses the success and future of USC Games Expo
Q) Danny, let me start off this interview congratulating you on successfully hosting the 6th annual USC Games Expo by showcasing over 50 student-made games. How was the experience of the Expo and what are your thoughts on the entire event?
A) Danny: Thank you! The Expo is a lot of work to produce, but it’s something we feel passionate about hosting annually to not only showcase the amazing, innovative work that our students have done in the past year, but also to show potential future applicants to our program what’s possible.
Q) USC Games is recognized as one of the top game design programs in North America. How did the idea start and how did it evolve to be at the stage today?
A) Danny: We feel what makes us unique is our focus on cross-discipline, project-based learning, with a particular focus on integrating the USC School of Cinematic Arts Interactive Media & Games Division (IMGD) and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Computer Science (Games).
We believe the technological underpinning of game development and production has to be developed and taught in tandem with the creative storytelling aspect of the discipline. I’d add that the other thing that makes it different is that our faculty has actually worked in the industry and are able to bring those skills, processes, and resources to bear in their respective classes.
Q) What are some of the student-made games from previous expo editions which have been commercialized and have been made available to a larger audience?
A) Danny: Even back when we were hosting smaller “Demo Day” events, games like Jenovah Chen’s Flower went on from the program to find commercial success. More recently, games like Outer Wilds and One Hand Clapping both started as student projects and went on to be launched to critical and commercial success after their team leads graduated from the program.
Q) Let’s shift the discussion towards the Advanced Games Program (AGP) curriculum. Could you kindly share what it is and how the Advanced Games Program (AGP) curriculum helps aspiring game developers in gaining technical and practical expertise?
A) Danny: AGP is a capstone class, where undergraduate and graduate students take the skills we’ve taught them up to that point and begin to work together in larger teams (15-25 students). The class has been described as a “Games Industry LARP,” which is accurate as we feel it’s the closest experience to working in the industry that the students will experience while still in school.
Students pitch as part of a greenlight process and - once greenlit - spend the subsequent school year working on robust projects that we showcase at the annual year-end Expo.
AGP generates some of our program’s best work, and we keep iterating and improving on it to keep up with industry processes and trends. The most important thing the students experience is collaboration and teamwork, which are skills that anyone who wants to work in the industry will need to rely on.
Q) What are the creative freedoms that the Advanced Games Program (AGP) offers to its students?
A) Danny: The students in AGP get access to multiple faculty advisors, who each have different functional expertise and deep industry experience. Aspiring student directors present a game concept doc and prototype to get greenlit by faculty, alumni, and industry guest judges.
After they’re greenlit, they have a tremendous amount of leeway to collaborate and drive toward a shared vision for what the final product will be. The faculty are primarily there to provide guidance and steer them away from any pitfalls that we - with our aforementioned experience - see in their development processes.
Each team is unique, each game is unique, and the class is structured to get their vision from paper documentation to a quality experience on screen.
Q) What are your thoughts on the current industry standard for Indie games? How do you think programs like ID@Xbox or PlayStation Indies help to grow Independent and Student developers?
A) Danny: We’re huge fans of both publishers’ programs and firmly believe in supporting indie game aspirations in tandem with AAA industry ones. Whichever path a student takes, our program will set them up for success.
Q) What do you envision as the future of the USC Games Expo?
A) Danny: That’s an excellent question: we’re still figuring that out! Historically, the Expo was a physical on-campus event but due to COVID, we had to shift to streaming online. Now that we’ve done so successfully for three years, as we shift back to on-campus learning and events in the Fall, we’ll need to find a happy medium between the online and offline expression of the show.
Q) Is there any advice you would like to share for aspiring game developers to pursue a career in gaming?
A) Danny: I’d say that they should look at the games they like to play and start researching how they were made, understanding the design decisions that made them compelling, and - if that’s something they would like to do - apply to attend our #1 ranked program!
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