{"id":13596,"date":"2026-05-26T07:31:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T12:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/?post_type=campus_story&p=13596"},"modified":"2026-05-26T07:31:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T12:31:26","slug":"uw-stout-game-design-programs-named-among-best-in-midwest-nation-in-new-animation-career-review-rankings","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-stout-game-design-programs-named-among-best-in-midwest-nation-in-new-animation-career-review-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Stout game design programs named among best in Midwest, nation in new Animation Career Review rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Photo:<\/a>
Stout Game Expo attendees play Gator Hucker, one of the student-designed games.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Parallel B.F.A., B.S. programs produce career-ready grads who create award-winning games<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

UW-Stout\u2019s game design programs<\/a> continue to climb in the rankings among their peers around the nation, rising to No. 6 in the Midwest and No. 17 among all public universities in the United States, according to the latest figures published by Animation Career Review<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UW-Stout held steady on another Animation Career Review leaderboard, but that\u2019s only because it couldn\u2019t climb any higher: The game design programs were ranked No. 1 in Wisconsin for the eighth consecutive year. UW-Stout also placed No. 11 nationwide among universities offering game design-related B.F.A. degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our program has matured beyond its \u2018startup\u2019 phase and is consistently producing industry-standard work, as evidenced by how many of our senior capstone games go on to be published on the Steam and Epic Games platforms,\u201d said Associate Professor Kim Loken<\/strong>, program director for B.F.A. game design and development – art<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loken said UW-Stout\u2019s multiple game-design related degree programs \u2013 which also include a B.S. computer science with a game design and development concentration<\/a> and a B.S. game and media studies<\/a> \u2013 set Wisconsin\u2019s Polytechnic University apart from its peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause we offer game dev-focused B.F.A. and B.S. degrees in parallel, our students achieve depth in their roles to maximize effective collaborations in the five semesters in which they take courses in which they make games together in ever-larger team structures,\u201d Loken said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students build award-winning games<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Game design courses culminate in the senior capstone, which simulates an industry environment as students create games in teams. These games are on display each semester at the Stout Game Expo (SGX)<\/a>, western Wisconsin\u2019s largest game developer exhibition, which was held May 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the award-winning games at SGX was Gator Hucker<\/a>, in which players brawl as alien alligators with wacky abilities. The game, which won the Audience Award, grew out of a running joke in class about a game in which gorillas threw alligators in space, explained senior Space Goettl<\/strong>. A game design and development – art major with a computer science minor, Goettl wore many hats during the game\u2019s development, including leading the character art team, serving as a technical animator and heading marketing efforts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne really important thing the program does is that all of the interdisciplinary game design classes put you on a team where you basically function as your own indie studio, so by the time you graduate you\u2019ve already independently published three video games,\u201d Goettl said. \u201cBecause you\u2019re always doing group work (and group work with people outside your individual areas of expertise, no less), you develop really important soft skills through the process that can apply to any job, not just the games industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"People
Esquelito was one of the award-winning games on display at the Stout Game Expo on May 7.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The award for Best Production at SGX went to Esquelito<\/a>, a colorful, musical game set in the Mexican underworld. Players become Esquelito, a little skeleton who spreads joy through music, moving through levels while staying on beat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game was inspired in part by Mexican Day of the Dead traditions as well as the Disney film \u201cCoco,\u201d said senior Alex Colmenares<\/strong>, a B.F.A. game design and development – art major who served as game designer, VFX artist and illustrator for Esquelito. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA big challenge that the team faced was ensuring that the game was not disrespectful in the way it represented Mexican culture,\u201d said Colmenares, whose own heritage includes Mexican roots. \u201cAnother challenge was proper game balance. We wanted to market our game to children, so to that end we wanted to design a game that would be easier for kids. But sometimes things would come out to be way too difficult or way too easy! It was a lot of work to properly tune the game\u2019s difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another big hit at SGX was Aeromancy<\/a>, a virtual reality game in which players take the role of wizards who must land airplanes on the correct runway using magic gauntlets. At SGX, Aeromancy won the Audience Award for games created in the junior-level Exploratory Game Design course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe use of virtual reality enhances the chaotic, frantic nature of the game and allows the player to access that child-like headspace of playing with toy airplanes,\u201d said Assistant Professor Michael Tetzlaff<\/strong>. Aeromancy is the third VR game exhibited at UW-Stout in recent years, and the first developed entirely by junior-level undergraduates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"People
One of the games at SGX, Driven to Madness, featured a game controller designed to look like an engine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Junior-level students in the Exploratory Game Design course also showcased a two-player racing game called Driven to Madness<\/a>, which featured a monstrous motorcycle engine as one of the game controllers. Professor Andrew Williams<\/strong> explained that one player drives a motorcycle on a racetrack while calling out to the other player, a mechanic, who must make adjustments to the engine to avoid obstacles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe game focuses on communication as each player has access to different types of information and needs to share it to play. This was an ambitious, high-risk project because it has very complex problems to solve and the team needed to learn a lot of skills independently,\u201d said Williams, who added that the game won the Most Innovative Gameplay award at SGX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screen
A scene from the student-designed virtual reality game, Aeromancy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Game design programs among top in nation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Overall, UW-Stout had a banner year in the Animation Career Review rankings, placing at No. 36 among all public and private universities in the United States. The rankings are driven by academic peer assessments, graduate employment outcomes, and metrics of program scale and institutional performance, including faculty size, retention rates, and graduation rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Games created by UW-Stout students have made an impression far beyond campus. Last November, a student-built submarine game called Dread Not was honored as best student entry at M+DEV<\/a>, the largest game industry conference in the Midwest, which drew 1,500 attendees to Madison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the graduates who created these games are finding careers in their chosen field: According to UW-Stout\u2019s most recent survey<\/a>, 97% of game design and development – art graduates were employed or continuing their education within six months of graduating. Recent game design alumni have landed jobs with the likes of Activision, Raven Software, Fantasy Flight Games, Pixel Farm and Trek Bikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game design and development – art<\/a> program is part of the School of Art and Design<\/a>, one of the largest public art schools in the Midwest. The School of Art and Design also offers bachelor\u2019s degrees in animation and digital media<\/a>; game and media studies<\/a>; graphic design and interactive media<\/a>; illustration<\/a>; industrial and product design<\/a>; interior design<\/a>; studio art<\/a>; arts administration and entrepreneurship<\/a>; fashion design and development<\/a>; and video production<\/a>, and an M.F.A. in design<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Written by Tom Giffey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uwstout.edu\/about-us\/news-center\/uw-stout-game-design-programs-named-among-best-midwest-nation-new-animation-career-review-rankings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parallel B.F.A., B.S. programs produce career-ready grads who create award-winning games UW-Stout\u2019s game design programs continue to climb in the rankings among their peers around the nation, rising to No. 6 in the Midwest and No. 17 among all public universities in the United States, according to the latest figures published by Animation Career Review. UW-Stout held steady […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":13597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[90],"story_category":[147,148,146],"class_list":["post-13596","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-stout","story_category-community","story_category-economy","story_category-research-innovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/13596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=13596"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=13596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}