Within WPI’s Interactive Media & Game Development (IMGD) program are passionate gamers who are also artists, programmers, storytellers, musicians, and explorers. Trailblazers as individuals and as a community, WPI’s IMGD faculty and undergraduate and graduate students are pushing the boundaries of new worlds of emerging media, from mobile gaming to intelligent tutoring.
WPI’s IMGD program, one of the earliest gaming programs in the nation, blends the artistic and technical aspects of game development and interactive media. Our research and courses span such diverse topics as digital painting, 3-D modeling, writing for games, game audio, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Working alongside renowned faculty researchers and industry advisors, students are immersed from the start in creating games and interactive environments that shape advances in the gaming industry as well as areas like education, healthcare, art, and social sciences.
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A team of WPI students took home the grand prize at the 2016 Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI) Game Challenge pitch contest. In their game, Intern Astronaut, the player takes the role of an inexperienced intern thrust into the position of piloting a spaceship with only commands from mission control as guidance.
In a family of six siblings, Karen Royer grew up with the tradition of making pysanky, or Ukrainian eggs, around Easter. With the holiday right around the corner, she thought she’d share her roots in the classroom, so she brought in eggs and dye, and invited some colleagues to join her.
WBUR mentioned Associate Professor of Interactive Media and Game Development and Humanities & Arts Joshua Rosenstock's Fermentophone exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History as one of the 5 Things To Do This Weekend.
In an article by Fast Company, Jennifer deWinter, associate professor of rhetoric and director of IMGD, comments on how, during the history and development of video games, companies targeted white, adolescent teenaged boys as their prime consumer group.
The video game industry is a fast-paced, entrepreneurial business, where innovation and collaboration drive success. WPI’s comprehensive IMGD program gives students the critical thinking skills that employers seek, and our well-connected faculty provide an insider’s perspective. Graduates of WPI's IMGD program are employed across business, government, industry, and academia.
IGDA WPI provides a safe space for students to discuss issues concerning marginalized groups within the gaming community. Students come together for weekly meetings and events like the Diversity Arcade, a 12-hour nonstop gaming charity event.
