St. Edward’s University will be home to a new major in the fall that will help students develop the artistic skills necessary to create video games.

The new degree is one of three geared toward helping students succeed in all areas of the game industry.

Professor Gregg Perry helped develop the curriculum for the major.

“Believe it or not, the game industry came to us,” Perry said.

Perry said he was approached by major video game businesses in Austin, which is becoming one of the main gaming hubs in the country.

Major businesses have expressed a need for students who understand the business, creative and technical sides of the game industry. St. Edward’s began developing a game program years ago after a Game on! Texas conference, a symposium for educators and game industry leaders focused on improving Texas’ existing digital media programs.

“They essentially said, ‘We need people who not only understand the game industry, but who can write a coherent sentence,'” Perry said.

The new major is a Bachelor of Arts in Interactive Game Studies, which will focus on the creative side of game development. The university already offers a Bachelor of Business Administration with a Major in Interactive Games Management as of the 2010-2011 school year. Perry said he hopes the university will soon offer a Bachelor of Science of the same type that would focus on the programming side of the industry.

The Bachelor of Arts in Interactive Game Studies will remove some of the business courses from the B.B.A. and add more computer-generated art and English courses.

Students in both majors will be expected to understand the creative, business and technical sides of the industry. Perry said the game industry wanted students who would understand all parts of the industry so the creative, technical and business departments can communicate effectively.

“Even [students graduating with the B.B.A.] have seen the game design process,” Perry said. “They can say, ‘I know why you need these programs, so I’ll approve those purchases’ — they understand because they’ve seen it and done it.”

Sophomore Interactive Games Management and Computer Science double-major Brian Cruz said that although he is pursuing the B.B.A., he hopes to one day do coding for a video game company or for his own project in the future.

“The intention of the [B.B.A.] is not for us to focus solely on the business of gaming,” Cruz said. “It is for us to become a jack-of-all-trades for videogame companies…To be able to apply [my] knowledge of code and love for creating these programs that are implemented into the final project is a long time dream of mine.”

According to the St. Edward’s 2010-2011 Undergraduate Bulletin, many game industry entry-level jobs offer a starting salary of $65,000, and there is not only a need but a demand for a workforce that understands the game industry.

Sr. Donna Jurick, executive vice president and provost at St. Edward’s, supported the creation of the B.B.A. and B.A. in response to the demand of the Austin gaming community for creative, technical and business expertise.

“I am happy that the faculty in both business and humanities have been responsive and creative in responding to the opportunity,” Jurick said.

In 2002, the game industry created a model curriculum that specifically focused on the liberal arts. Three years ago, Perry began researching other universities’ game programs and determining what courses St. Edward’s already offered that could begin to create the framework for the B.B.A.

“I tried to cobble together [courses St. Edward’s already offered] to fit what the gaming industry wanted us to do,” Perry said. “What I found was that it was pretty easy — we already had many of the necessary courses in different disciplines. The B.B.A. only added three new courses.”

Other universities were also approached by the game industry, but Perry said St. Edward’s is one of the few to integrate the interdisciplinary writing, creative, business and technical skills needed to create games. Even students graduating with the B.B.A., which focuses on the business side of the industry, are required to know about programming and take English