Game Design (Minor)
Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, Duffield College of Engineering
Program Description
The Game Design Minor is a hands-on program that blends creative storytelling, design principles, and technical skills to enhance any major. Students learn to craft engaging digital experiences while building valuable cross-disciplinary skills applicable to both gaming and broader interactive media careers.
The Game Design Minor is open to all Cornell undergraduate students.
Academic Standards
Grade Requirements
All qualifying courses must be taken at Cornell for a letter grade. Grades of S/U or SX/UX will not be accepted.
Each course must be completed with a grade of C or better (not C-) to count toward the minor.
Minor Declaration Information
Complete the Game Design Minor application form once you are enrolled in the final courses you need for the minor.
Minor Requirements
At least six (6) courses as follows:
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Required Courses 1 | ||
| CS 3152 | Introduction to Computer Game Architecture | 4 |
| or INFO 3152 | Introduction to Computer Game Design | |
| CS 4152 | Advanced Topics in Computer Game Architecture | 3 |
| or INFO 4152 | Advanced Topics in Computer Game Design | |
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Additional Courses 1,2 | ||
| Select four of the following: | ||
| ART 1101 | Art as Experience | 3 |
| ART 1102 | Art as Experience: TransMedia | 3 |
| ART 1103 | Art as Experience: Sculpture | 3 |
| ART 1104 | Art as Experience: Photography | 3 |
| ART 1201 | Painting for Non-Majors | 3 |
| ART 1500 | Summer Drawing I | 3 |
| ART 1501 | Drawing for Non-Majors | 3 |
| ART 1503 | Summer Drawing II | 3 |
| ART 1504 | Introduction to Drawing in Rome | 3 |
| ART 1601 | Photography for Non-Majors | 3 |
| ART 1602 | Introduction to Photography in Rome | 3 |
| ART 1901 | Studio Art for Non-Majors | 3 |
| ART 2201 | Painting: Language of Painting | 4 |
| ART 2301 | Print Media: The Cultures of Print | 4 |
| ART 2401 | Introduction to Sculpture | 4 |
| ART 2501 | Drawing: Contemporary Art Practice Through Drawing | 4 |
| ART 2601 | Photography: Introduction to Photography | 4 |
| ART 2701 | Media Arts, Performance, and Sound: Intersections | 4 |
| ART 2907 | Visual Imaging in the Electronic Age | 4 |
| ART 3001 | Rome Studio | 4 |
| ART 3006 | Advanced Practice | 4 |
| ART 3011 | LAND: Art, Ecology and Environmental Activism | 4 |
| ART 3099 | Special Topics Studio | 4 |
| ART 3102 | Contemporary Rome Seminar | 4 |
| ART 3104 | Sound, Music, Public Space | 3 |
| ART 3105 | Instructions for Art: Text Scores in Art, Music and Performance | 3 |
| ART 3199 | Theory and Criticism: Special Topics | 4 |
| ART 3201 | Painting: Spatial Transpositions in Painting | 4 |
| ART 3202 | Painting: Painting Intent and Context | 4 |
| ART 3203 | Painting: Painting Film | 4 |
| ART 3205 | Painting: Materials and Processes | 4 |
| ART 3299 | Painting: Special Topics | 4 |
| ART 3301 | Print Media: Belonging and Representation: Relinking to Site and Unfolding the Dynamics of Display | 4 |
| ART 3305 | Print Media: Hybridity and Syncretism in Print | 4 |
| ART 3306 | 4 | |
| ART 3307 | Print Media: To Publish is to Make Publics | 4 |
| ART 3399 | Print Media: Special Topics | 4 |
| ART 3404 | Sculpture: Installation | 4 |
| ART 3499 | Sculpture: Special Topics | 4 |
| ART 3501 | Drawing: Pictorial Languages | 4 |
| ART 3502 | Drawing: The Body | 4 |
| ART 3503 | Drawing as Research | 4 |
| ART 3599 | Drawing: Special Topics | 4 |
| ART 3699 | Photography: Special Topics | 4 |
| ART 3705 | Media Arts, Performance, and Sound: Sound | 4 |
| ART 3707 | Media Arts, Performance, and Sound: Interaction | 4 |
| ART 3708 | Media Arts, Performance, and Sound: Experimental Moving Image | 4 |
| ART 3799 | Media Arts, Performance, and Sound: Special Topics | 4 |
| ART 3803 | Art History: Italian Cinema | 4 |
| ART 3804 | Black Sound and Visual Culture | 3 |
| ART 3874 | Indigenous Spaces and Materiality | 3 |
| ART 3899 | 4 | |
| ART 3900 | Many Art Worlds Are Possible | 1.5 |
| ART 3901 | Many Art Worlds Are Possible | 1.5 |
| ARTH 3650 | History and Theory of Digital Art | 3 |
| ASIAN 3315 | Game Studies and Japan | 3 |
| CS 2110 | Object-Oriented Programming and Data Structures | 4 |
| CS 2112 | Object-Oriented Design and Data Structures - Honors | 5 |
| CS 3700 | Foundations of AI Reasoning and Decision-Making | 3 |
| CS 3780 | Introduction to Machine Learning | 4 |
| CS 4450 | Introduction to Computer Networks | 3 |
| CS 4620 | Introduction to Computer Graphics | 3 |
| CS 4740 | Natural Language Processing | 4 |
| CS 5414 | Distributed Computing Principles | 4 |
| CS 5625 | Interactive Computer Graphics | 4 |
| DEA 3510 | Human Factors and Inclusive Design | 3 |
| HD 1130 | Introduction to Human Development | 3 |
| HD 2180 | Human Development: Adulthood and Aging | 3 |
| HD 2200 | The Human Brain and Mind: An Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience | 3 |
| HD 3190 | Memory and the Law | 3 |
| HD 3290 | Self-regulation Across the Life Span | 3 |
| INFO 2450 | Communication and Technology | 3 |
| INFO 3140 | Computational Psychology | 3 |
| INFO 3200 | Technology, Behavior and Society | 3 |
| INFO 3450 | Human-Computer Interaction Design | 3 |
| INFO 3561 | Computing Cultures | 3 |
| INFO 3660 | History and Theory of Digital Art | 3 |
| INFO 4240 | Designing Technology for Social Impact | 4 |
| INFO 4301 | Ethics in New Media, Technology, and Communication | 3 |
| INFO 4320 | Introduction to Rapid Prototyping and Physical Computing | 4 |
| INFO 4400 | Qualitative User Research | 3 |
| MUSIC 1100 | Elements of Musical Notation | 1 |
| MUSIC 1101 | Elements of Music | 3 |
| MUSIC 1105 | Building Musical Skills | 3 |
| MUSIC 1106 | Introduction to Western Music Theory | 3 |
| MUSIC 1199 | Elements of Studio Production and Recording | 1 |
| MUSIC 1205 | Introduction to Western Art Music | 3 |
| MUSIC 1212 | Music on the Brain | 3 |
| MUSIC 1213 | Spring Break: Marine Stewardship and Creative Collaboration | 1 |
| MUSIC 1312 | History of Rock Music | 3 |
| MUSIC 1332 | (Intro) To Black Music: Listening, Sounding, and Studying Black Radical Possibility | 3 |
| MUSIC 1343 | Musics in Asia | 3 |
| MUSIC 1421 | Introduction to Computer Music | 3 |
| MUSIC 1465 | Computing in the Arts | 3 |
| MUSIC 1466 | Physics of Musical Sound | 4 |
| MUSIC 2006 | Punk Culture: The Art and Politics of Refusal | 3 |
| MUSIC 2101 | Tonal Structure and Design in Classical, Jazz, and Popular Music I | 4 |
| MUSIC 2102 | Tonal Structure and Design in Classical, Jazz, and Popular Music II | 4 |
| MUSIC 2111 | Songwriting | 3 |
| MUSIC 2112 | Collaborative Songwriting | 3 |
| MUSIC 2130 | Collaborative Creativity | 1 |
| MUSIC 2201 | Introduction to Music Studies | 3 |
| MUSIC 2207 | 3 | |
| MUSIC 2221 | Bach and Handel | 3 |
| MUSIC 2232 | Queer Pop from the Stonewall Uprising to the Millennium | 3 |
| MUSIC 2244 | The Music, Art, and Technology of the Organ | 3 |
| MUSIC 2250 | The American Musical | 3 |
| MUSIC 2260 | Music of the 1960's | 3 |
| MUSIC 2290 | You Have Terrible Taste in Music | 3 |
| MUSIC 2311 | The Art and Craft of Music Journalism | 3 |
| MUSIC 2321 | Groove: Black Music Theory | 3 |
| MUSIC 2330 | Music in and of East Asia | 3 |
| MUSIC 2340 | The Beatles | 3 |
| MUSIC 2341 | Gamelan in Indonesian History and Cultures | 3 |
| MUSIC 2361 | Arranging Nationhood–Reclaiming Identity: Caribbean Folk Albums in the USA | 3 |
| MUSIC 2370 | Planet Rap: Where Hip Hop Came From and Where It's Going | 3 |
| MUSIC 2372 | Songs of the Summer: Social Histories of U.S. Popular Music | 3 |
| MUSIC 2380 | Performing Hip Hop | 3 |
| MUSIC 2421 | Computers in Music Performance | 3 |
| MUSIC 2440 | Shaping Sound I: An introduction to Experimentation in Sound and Composition | 3 |
| MUSIC 2441 | Shaping Sound II | 3 |
| MUSIC 2528 | Borderlands History of Jazz: Mexico and African America | 3-4 |
| MUSIC 2701 | Music and Digital Gameplay | 3 |
| MUSIC 2703 | Thinking Media | 3-4 |
| MUSIC 3111 | Jazz Improvisation and Theory I | 3 |
| MUSIC 3112 | Jazz Improvisation and Theory II | 3 |
| MUSIC 3122 | The Art of Conducting | 3 |
| MUSIC 3141 | The Composer's Toolbox | 3 |
| MUSIC 3251 | Music and Madness | 3 |
| MUSIC 3316 | What's in a Sound? Gender and Race in Sound Cultures | 3 |
| MUSIC 3318 | Virtual Music | 3 |
| MUSIC 3322 | Gospel and The Blues: A Black Women's History I, 1900-1973 | 3 |
| MUSIC 3327 | Jazz Fictions: Film, Literature, Music | 3 |
| MUSIC 3370 | Listening for Blackness: Sound, Noise, Music | 3 |
| MUSIC 3423 | Handmade Music: Composition, Performance, and Communities | 3 |
| MUSIC 3431 | Sound Design | 4 |
| MUSIC 3490 | 3 | |
| MUSIC 4124 | Jazz Arranging and Orchestration | 3 |
| MUSIC 4181 | Psychology of Music | 3-4 |
| MUSIC 4233 | Music and Touch | 3 |
| MUSIC 4239 | Global Currents: Immobility and Multi-Sited Ethnography | 3 |
| MUSIC 4241 | Historical Keyboarding | 3 |
| MUSIC 4252 | Pop Music in the Archive: Researching Subcultures of the Recent Past | 3 |
| MUSIC 4258 | Jazz and the Common Wind: Afro-Caribbean and African American Dialogues | 3-4 |
| MUSIC 4270 | 4 | |
| MUSIC 4313 | Music and Sound Studies | 3 |
| MUSIC 4340 | 3 | |
| MUSIC 4341 | Writing Musical Ethnography | 3 |
| MUSIC 4410 | Bending Instruments | 3 |
| MUSIC 4412 | Making Sound Futures | 3 |
| MUSIC 4667 | Sonic Remains: Media, Performance, and Material Culture | 4 |
| PMA 1410 | Media Production Laboratory | 2 |
| PMA 1610 | Production Technology Laboratory | 2 |
| PMA 1641 | Introduction to Storytelling | 3 |
| PMA 2000 | Media Studies Minor Colloquium | 1 |
| PMA 2100 | Introduction to Performing and Media Arts | 3 |
| PMA 2301 | Screendance: History and Practice | 3 |
| PMA 2610 | Production Crew Laboratory | 1-3 |
| PMA 2701 | Media Arts, Performance, and Sound: Intersections | 4 |
| PMA 3570 | Film and Video Production I | 4 |
| PMA 3610 | Creative Apprenticeship | 3 |
| PMA 3680 | Sound Design | 4 |
| PSYCH 1102 | Introduction to Cognitive Science | 3 |
| PSYCH 1131 | Introduction to Human Development | 3 |
| PSYCH 2050 | Perception | 3 |
| PSYCH 2090 | Developmental Psychology | 3 |
| PSYCH 2150 | Psychology of Language | 3 |
| PSYCH 2580 | Six Pretty Good Books: Explorations in Social Science | 4 |
| PSYCH 3140 | Computational Psychology | 3 |
| PSYCH 3420 | Human Perception: Application to Computer Graphics, Art, and Visual Display | 3 |
| PSYCH 4150 | Culture, Cognition, Humanities | 3 |
| PSYCH 4270 | Evolution of Language | 3 |
| PSYCH 4331 | Event Cognition: How Minds, Brains and Bodies Experience Events | 3 |
| PSYCH 4500 | Psychology at the Sciencenter! | 4 |
| SYSEN 5420 | Network Systems and Games | 3 |
| VISST 2000 | Introduction to Visual Studies | 3-4 |
- 1
Students who identify a Cornell academic course they believe is directly relevant to game design but is not on the accepted course list may submit that course to the department for consideration.
- 2
Courses cannot be from the department of your academic major.
Graduation Requirements for Engineering Minor Degree Programs
Requirements
Students may pursue minors in any department in any college that offers them, subject to limitations placed by the department offering the minor or by the students' major. Completed minors will appear on the student's transcript. Not all departments offer minors. Additional information on specific minors can be found above, in the Engineering Undergraduate Handbook, in the undergraduate major office of the department or school offering the minor, and in Engineering Advising.
An engineering minor recognizes formal study of a particular subject area in engineering normally outside the major. Students undertaking a minor are expected to complete the requirements during the time of their continuous undergraduate enrollment at Cornell. Completing the requirements for an engineering minor (along with a major) may require more than the traditional eight semesters at Cornell. However, courses that fulfill minor requirements may also satisfy other degree requirements (e.g., distribution courses, advisor-approved, or major-approved electives), and completion within eight semesters is possible.
An engineering minor requires:
- successful completion of all requirements for an undergraduate degree.
- enrollment in a major that approves participation in the minor.
- satisfactory completion of six courses (at least 18 credits) in a college-approved minor.
Students may apply for certification of a minor at any time after the required course work has been completed in accordance with published standards. An official notation of certification of a minor appears on the Cornell transcript following graduation.