Hello all. We at 4th Wall Games have recently been quiet on the update front thanks to a whirlwind of summer activity. Part of that activity has included preparing for my new position this fall. I have finished my second week as the new Visiting Assistant Professor of Video Game Development at St. Edward’s University. Furthermore, Mark has been hired to teach Astronomy here also. We’re both still working hard on Harrowing Adventures, though. We should be working even harder now, because a) it’s my job to ponder video game development even more intensely, and b) Mark is right here on campus with me. The St. Edward’s program is a perfect fit for us.

Robert Denton Bryant, author of Slay the Dragon: Writing Great Video Games, is the head of Video Game Development, which is in the department of Visual Studies in the college of Arts and Humanities. He’s got tons of experience as a tester and publisher. Because it’s a small program, I get to teach animation, game design, game audio, and production in the fall. It’s just the kind of program that appeals to me for the same reason I was drawn to indie game development. I like to get my hands on everything. We’re also backed up by folks in visual studies, computer science, and even business. I also like the focus of the Video Game Development program: to educate game designers and producers rather than tools experts. Game producers are a lot like music producers. They are project managers and team leaders, and they need to know about all aspects of game development, though they don’t have to be masters of them all. Game designers solve the problems, write the rules, develop the concepts, and generate the content. Artists and programmers get all the focus, but if you don’t have designers, you’ve got nothing to play.

The video game program at St. Edward’s is built around giving its students a solid foundation in game design, while exposing them to all aspects of game development. For example, they learn sound design through capturing sounds in the wild, creating their own sounds with Foley, recording voice over content, and using a digital audio workstation. Unlike many other programs, ours is less about training a student to use a particular tool and more about understanding the concepts and the process, so that you can lead a team.

I have long been an advocate of a solid liberal arts education. St. Edward’s is a liberal arts university with a mission that includes an emphasis on social justice and inclusion. It’s a Catholic University, but they strive to have a diverse array of beliefs among students and faculty and to teach tolerance. I’m proud of the work we’re doing at St. Edward’s University and I’m glad I get to jump in at a point early in the program’s development where I might have a big impact on how it evolves. I’m personally gratified that my meandering path through life actually all makes sense in retrospect.

Now what about Harrowing Adventures and 4th Wall Games? Well, I was already doing a ton of adjunct teaching, storyboarding, editing, scriptwriting, and tutoring to pay the bills. Being able to stop spreading myself so thin should actually help me work on the game more. As an additional time-saving bonus, my commute is now a two-block walk rather than multiple hour-long drives through Austin traffic. And since Mark is on campus too, that’s one more set of logistics are less complicated.

Bob and the rest of the folks at St. Edward’s have been encouraging and helpful regarding our completion of Harrowing Adventures. Our success is their success. I’m already loving this new position.