SMU Guildhall

Yesterday, Cohort 36 participated in an annual Guildhall team building tradition: Ropes Course. Taking place at Group Dynamix, this event provides fun and adventurous challenges to allow our students and teams to get to know each other better and to practice skills for working collaboratively and communicating effectively — all essential for the team game development process. As the semester continues, they will develop their first cross-disciplinary games together in small sub-teams using many similar essential core coworking and problem solving tenets they practiced here today.

All are invited to join us for a special Game Changers Speaker Series event featuring Chris Schmidt (SMU Guildhall alumnus, Cohort 10), Game Director of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 at Infinity Ward.

With more than two decades of experience in the game industry, Chris brings a wealth of experience and perspective from a career spanning the SMU Guildhall graduate program and development for some of the industry's biggest franchises.

Don't miss the opportunity to hear from one of SMU Guildhall's own industry leaders. RSVP here: https://smu360.smu.edu/gsmu/rsvp_boot?id=397456

This event is presented as a part of SMU Guildhall's Game Changers Speaker Series, which invites industry professionals to deliver special topics presentations to the SMU student body and community as an extension of the SMU Guildhall mission — to educate and inspire the next generation of video game developers. The series is presented in collaboration with SMU Guildhall Career Services and Industry Relations. Learn more about SMU Guildhall's annual events at https://www.smu.edu/guildhall/news-and-events/annual-events.

What happens when teachers help build educational games? Breakthroughs. Invited into the design process through a research study that included SMU Guildhall’s Deputy Director of Research Dr. Corey Clark, middle school teachers uncovered critical skills that students need to succeed.

The educational game, Factory Craft, was designed to develop problem-solving abilities, which is increasingly important when AI can output code but not the judgment required to guide and evaluate it.

“People who were classically trained in computer science are learning AI and it is making them way more effective,” said Dr. Clark. “But people who have used AI to replace their learning are way less capable. Experienced people benefit the most from AI because they know how to drive it better.”

Learn more about the study and its findings: https://www.smu.edu/news/research/educational-minecraft-based-game (link in bio)

What happens when teachers help build educational games? Breakthroughs. Invited into the design process through a research study that included SMU Guildhall's Deputy Director of Research Dr. Corey Clark, middle school teachers uncovered critical skills that students need to succeed.

The educational game, Factory Craft, was designed to develop problem-solving abilities, which is increasingly important when AI can output code but not the judgment required to guide and evaluate it.

"People who were classically trained in computer science are learning AI and it is making them way more effective," said Dr. Clark. "But people who have used AI to replace their learning are way less capable. Experienced people benefit the most from AI because they know how to drive it better.”

Learn more about the study and its findings:

What happens when teachers help build educational games? Breakthroughs An SMU study finds teachers who help design educational video games focus on what students need to learn, not gameplay—making the games better.

📸 Stampede and Orientation Roundup

As we kick off the first day of the Fall semester, we want to extend a very special welcome to our incoming students in the 36th cohort of our Master’s program in game development as well as the ✨FIRST EVER✨ undergraduate students in the new BA in Game Development! We are so excited to have you all here 🥳

We would also like to extend a very warm Welcome Back to our Master’s program Cohort 35 students, who are starting their final semesters with us, and to our fantastic faculty and staff. Here’s to a great school year ahead.

Game on! 🎮

Thank you to all who came out today to Game With Guildhall as part of SMU Stampede, including President Hartzell. It was an honor to host you, and we look forward to doing it again tomorrow (Friday 8/21) from 1-3pm in Ford Hall. Game on!

Are you attending Stampede next week? Join us and the SMU Meadows School of the Arts Division of Design for an Interactive Gaming Experience! In this Stampede Academic Exploration Experience event, Dr. Elizabeth Stringer will give a brief overview of the new B.A. in Game Development, followed by the MathFinder Challenge—a research-driven game developed through SMU Guildhall and the Simmons School of Education that showcases how creativity, technology, and collaboration come together to create engaging experiences.

Tuesday, August 18
Owen Arts Center, Greer Garson Theatre Wing, Room 3509
Times: 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., or 3:30 p.m. https://cglink.me/2vb/r395319

Attending Stampede? Come Game With Guildhall! Whether you're a gamer or just curious about what our students create, stop by our Gaming Lounge (Ford Hall Visualization Lab Room 124) on Thursday, August 20 and Friday, August 21 from 1-3pm to experience games developed by Guildhall students, alongside industry-leading titles developed in part by our alumni. It's a fun way to see the incredible work happening across our programs.

https://smu360.smu.edu/gsmu/rsvp_boot?id=395299