John And Brenda Romero To Become Uni California Academics

Karloff

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John And Brenda Romero To Become Uni California Academics



Want a master's degree in games and playable media? Head to UC Santa Cruz.

The University of California Santa Cruz has taken two of gaming's finest on board to head its new master's degree program in games and playable media. John and Brenda Romero will be in charge, but there's a star-studded advisory board on offer, including Will Wright of Sim City fame, and Derek Spelunky Yu, among others. "Industry connections are very important for this program, so that students can interact with people in the game industry through visiting speakers, master classes, internships, and other opportunities," says Brenda Romero. "The individuals on our advisory board represent a diverse cross-section of the game industry, from the hard-core AAA space to those defining the indie space."

Both the Romeros have had previous academic experience. Brenda was chair of the Interactive Design and Game Development Department at Savannah College of Art and Design, and has been Game Designer In Residence at UCSC since January. John's helped establish the Digital Games Guildhall program at Southern Methodist University, but his current role is "to push students towards innovation," he says, "while working on my own new indie projects alongside them."

The MS is a 12 month full time course, but don't expect to spend all your time in the classroom. UCSC is a Silicon Valley uni, after all, and Brenda takes those industry connections very seriously. You'll be making games right from the get-go, critiqued and monitored by the Romeros themselves. Want to know more? Head over here [http://gpm.soe.ucsc.edu/].

Source: UCSC [http://news.ucsc.edu/2013/09/gpm-directors.html]


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Staskala

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Sep 28, 2010
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I can't wait for people in this comment section to shit all over Romero because he made one shitty game most of them haven't even played. Real pity that his legacy will be forever tainted by Daikatana.
Although he better not give any lessons on management, marketing or QA.
 

CriticalMiss

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I can see the marketing already:

'John Romero's gonna make you his ***** student!'

It's cool that they've got some reasonably well known developers involved, but hopefully Daikatana isn't on the curriculum.
 

JamesBr

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CriticalMiss said:
I can see the marketing already:

'John Romero's gonna make you his ***** student!'

It's cool that they've got some reasonably well known developers involved, but hopefully Daikatana isn't on the curriculum.
Unless it's used as an example of what not to do ^^ Which would be delightfully self-depreciating considering the pretension of the original marketing campaign.
 

Formica Archonis

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Nov 13, 2009
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Staskala said:
I can't wait for people in this comment section to shit all over Romero because he made one shitty game most of them haven't even played. Real pity that his legacy will be forever tainted by Daikatana.
Although he better not give any lessons on management, marketing or QA.
Perhaps appropriate for his rock-star hair, I think Romero's career is best looked at like the frontman for a band. He was part of a mega-popular group, but then decided to go solo. Riding on his fame, he went crazy on sexy new digs and the newest toys and Playboy models until he crashed and burned. Ego given a necessary (though perhaps not as thorough as it could be) bruising, he's finally settled down, and now it looks like he wants to offer the wisdom of his experiences to others.

Meanwhile, the band kept cranking out hits for a while, but the spark was gone and they were surpassed and are now better known for doing the engineering for other, more creative, bands.