At MICA, we explore games from a unique perspective that can only be found at an art and design college. Our program explores the role of play in our culture and questions how games are used to entertain, educate and create meaning.
The Game Design BFA is a comprehensive program that provides students with both the creative practice and the tools, methods, and frameworks of contemporary game making. Designed for students who are passionate about games as creative, fun, and expressive forms, the Game Design major focuses on how games work technically and artistically. Students learn how to use narrative, design, art, sound, and code to create a cohesive game experience with original worlds, systems, and characters.
Housed in the JHU–MICA Film Centre, students work in a collaborative media arts environment that offers access to professional production spaces, industry-standard equipment, and a broad community of filmmakers, animators, sound artists, and creative media practitioners.
Through hands-on studios and collaborative, project-based coursework, students explore industry-standard design practices and develop technical and theoretical expertise. Students finish with strong, competitive portfolios that reflect creative authorship, technical proficiency, and the ability to contribute meaningfully to both independent and commercial game projects. Graduates bring real-world experience in game design, development, and production to their careers in the expanding game design industry.
The Game Design BFA is positioned as a contemporary creative program, connected to existing strengths in media arts, filmmaking, interactive arts, design and innovation, animation, and illustration.
Study and create in the JHU–MICA Film Centre, building connections alongside students from multiple MICA media arts programs.
The Film Centre offers hands-on access to extensive resources, including professional-level equipment for full-scale productions and post-production projects.
Faculty mentors cultivate academic and creative growth, ensuring students thrive both inside and outside the classroom.
MICA prepares students for careers in commercial and independent game studios, and expanding professional sectors that use games and simulation in cultural, educational, or applied contexts.
The Game Design BFA curriculum provides a comprehensive educational foundation in game engines, programming fundamentals, prototyping, iterative design, asset creation, narrative design, and team-based workflows that mirror professional production environments. These skills support students as they develop portfolios that demonstrate both their technical expertise and original creative vision.
Academic tracks within the program offer students a curated set of courses from other departments that are aligned with their creative and career goals in independent and commercial game development.
Game Designer, Game Developer, Technical Artist, Technical Animator, 3D Animator for Games, Visual Development, Narrative Designer, Quest Designer, Sound Designer, Level Designer, Systems Designer
Students in the Game Design BFA have full access to the JHU–MICA Film Centre’s extensive production and post-production resources. There is a large sound stage for building sets, shooting with controlled lighting, or using a green screen in production. A professional sound studio includes space for foley work as well as space for recording, mixing, and mastering audio. A 49-seat screening room with HD projection and surround sound is used for classes, filmmaker lectures, and digital video, 16 mm film, and game screenings.
The Film Centre houses a gear cage stocked with a broad range of equipment — from 16 mm cameras and Mini-DV cameras to heavy-duty production tripods, dollies, risers, and full lighting kits. On the audio side, students have a professional sound studio for use and can check out professional microphones (shotgun, wireless lavalier, and dynamic mics) and mixer recorders, and equipment for location and studio sound capture.
For post-production and finishing, the Film Centre features dedicated high-definition editing suites with Mac computers, industry-standard monitors, and the full Adobe Suite and DaVinci Resolve Studio, plus a specialized workshop room for editing 16mm film.
This infrastructure supports a wide variety of media production to realize professional-level projects in a fully equipped media arts environment.
As a Game Design major, students are based in the JHU–MICA Film Centre, MICA’s central location for media arts education and production. This shared facility brings together undergraduate and graduate students working across film and video, game design, interactive arts, and creative media production. This dynamic environment supports collaboration and experimentation, encouraging both individual studio practice and cross-disciplinary work.
Think our students' games look cool? Come play them at MICA-Game-Lab!
