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WORKING SO OTHERS CAN PLAY: COLLEGE INTRODUCES GAME DEVELOPMENT COURSE

June 11, 2002, Bloomfield, NJ -- Many parents may find this hard to believe, but playing video games could be the first step to an exciting career.

Demand for video games is rising and the industry is growing rapidly, generating more than $6 billion last year according to NPD Interactive Entertainment Service, a market research firm.

To help students find opportunities in this growing field, the Bloomfield College Division of Creative Arts & Technology (CAT) is pleased to offer a new course in Game Development & Virtual Worlds this fall. The course will be held on Thursday evenings, from 6 to 9:40 p.m., beginning on September 5.

Students will use their programming, multimedia and graphic design skills to create their own games and 3-D worlds.

“There are so many uses of game technology and virtual reality, from medical exploration to home entertainment, from employee training to futuristic artistic tool,” said John Towsen, professor of theatre and multimedia. “If Dante Alighieri and Hieronymous Bosch were alive today, they would probably be creating 3-D worlds!”

The course will be taught by Steve Karstensen, an experienced computer programmer and web designer, who is also an avid gamester. Karstensen has worked for Playful Minds Software and has designed large-scale add-ons for Id Software’s “Quake 2.” His expertise includes 2-D bitmap and 3-D polygon graphics, client-server networking, game design, object-oriented programming, and vector math.  The Division of Creative Arts & Technology hopes the course will eventually lead to a full-scale certificate program in Game Development, to be offered in conjunction with the Advanced Technology Institute at Bloomfield College.

Bloomfield College’s Creative Arts & Technology program exposes students to traditional fine arts training and promotes creativity while giving them a sense of mastery of the latest technology in the arts and communications fields. The program offers concentrations in animation, computer graphics, video production, fine arts, interactive multimedia, fine arts education, music technology, and theatre.

“We give our students the cutting-edge skills they need to compete in today’s job market,” said Towsen. “We teach for the career and not just for the job; for life-long skills and not just the latest software. It’s easy to teach which buttons to push, and we do that, but we work to develop the whole person and to ignite their innate creativity.”

For more information about the Creative Arts & Technology program at Bloomfield College, please call professor Lisa Rabinowitz, chairperson of CAT, at 973-748-9000 ext. 555 or the Office of Admission at ext. 230.