Q & A with Gabrielle Allen

• By MICHAEL FARRAR
• Special to 2theadvocate.com
• Published: Jun 20, 2008 - UPDATED: 3:12 p.m.

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I had a chance to talk a bit with Gabrielle Allen, assistant director for computing applications and associate professor in Computer Science at LSU. Here’s a snippet of our conversation.

Farrar: What should someone interested in designing video games do to prepare for this constantly evolving career field?

Allen: Creating video games actually involves a wide range of skills, from the ideas which go into writing and building the storyline to the arts and graphic design needed to create the visuals, the physics and mathematic to model objects, and, of course, the computer science and engineering skills in software engineering, data structures, programming, and so on to construct working games.

Teamwork and an understanding of the financial and business side is also important. So, I would suggest making sure you have all the basic skills like English and math, and also that you not only play games, but try and understand them, think about which parts work well and which you could improve. Game design is fundamentally about creativity, so ideas are important.

Farrar: What is the current level of video game design courses at LSU and are there plans to expand it, and if so, to what future level and at what pace?

Allen: The computer science department at LSU, together with other departments such as electrical engineering and physics, offer many courses that could be built into an undergraduate or graduate curriculum for game design. We have worked with the Center for Computation & Technology and the University of Illinois at Chicago to offer this new Video Game Design course as a first step in building this curriculum. Based on the interest in this course, we now want to concentrate on offering the few additional courses that will be needed for a real curriculum.

The university recently approved a multidisciplinary hiring initiative called AVATAR (Arts, Visualization, Advanced Technology and Research) that will bring in new faculty to teach in several key areas, including digital art and design, and interactive systems.

Farrar: Please share your list of what personal/professional attributes game designers should develop to succeed in their field.

Allen: Interdisciplinary collaboration is an important part of all fields today, and video game design is no exception. This class shows the benefits of approaching a project from different angles. Students from a computer science or engineering background work side by side with students from an art background to create games together. The computer science students were able to work on the code design and game engineering, while the art students were able to design the game storyline and develop characters. So yes, technical skills and imagination are definitely important, but teamwork and balance are a very important part of creating a successful game.

Farrar: Do you see the gaming design environment in Baton Rouge as a viable industry in our city?

Allen: Through the Red Stick Festival and other initiatives underway at CCT through the partnership with the Baton Rouge Area Digital Industries Consortium, we know the digital media industry is very viable in our area.

Nerjyzed Entertainment is located here for the production of its BCFX game, and we have several other game companies interested in the area. With a combination of education initiatives and Louisiana's tax credit incentive program for media companies, Baton Rouge is poised to become a leader in the digital media industry, including video game design, scientific visualization, animation, rendering and much more. From the student’s achievements so far in this class, it is obvious that we definitely have the local talent who will go into building this industry.

You can read more about Gabrielle Allen at: http://www.lsu.edu/highlights/053/gabrielle.html.