Bachelor of Arts in Art and Design - Games and Playable Media

Art & Design: Games & Playable Media (AGPM) is an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in the Department of Performance, Play, and Design at UCSC.

Students in AGPM obtain a degree focused on the creation of games as art and activism, focusing on wildly original, creative, expressive games including board games, role-playing games, immersive experiences, and digital games. Students make games and art about issues including climate justice, Black aesthetics, and queer and trans games. Students study interactive, participatory art, with a focus on learning about intersectional feminist, anti-racist, pro-LGBTQ games, media, and installations.

The AGPM major focuses on the following areas of study - students interested in the major should expect courses and curriculum centered around these topics:

Digital and analog games as art, activism, and social practice
Feminist, anti-racist, LGBTQ games, art, and media
Participatory or performance-based games such as role-playing games, urban / site-specific games, and theater games
Interactive art including VR and AR
Exhibition methods for games in traditional art spaces and public spaces

Learning Experience
The foundation of the program is the creation of games as art, with students learning to make games from faculty who are practicing artists who present games in museums and galleries, and designers who make games for deep educational experiences. Students also learn about how the history of art, from conceptual art, performance, feminist art and environmental art, lead to interactive media and digital art, which led to games as visual art. In this major, students design games, interactive art and participatory art, individually and in groups. Our courses are often cross-listed with Theater, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies and Feminist Studies to create vibrant opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration.

They require all applicants who attend a school in a country where English is not the native language or whose language of instruction in high school secondary school was not English to adequately demonstrate English competency as a part of the application process In most cases if less than three years of your secondary schooling was with English as the language of instruction you must meet UCSCs English proficiency requirement.
Freshmen may demonstrate competency by submitting scores from one of the following tests Please note that TOEFL IELTS or DET exam scores are preferred but the score from ACT English Language Arts or SAT Writing and Language can also be used to demonstrate English language proficiency.
Earn a grade point average GPA of 3.00 or better 3.40 or better for a non-resident of California in these courses with no grade lower than a C.
TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-based test iBT or iBT Home Edition Minimum score of 80 or better Paper-delivered test Minimum score of 60 or better.
IELTS International English Language Testing System Overall band score of 6.5 or higher includes IELTS Indicator Exam.
SAT March 2016 or later Writing Language Test 31 or higher.
SAT prior to March 2016 Writing Exam 560 or higher.
ACT combined English Writing or English Language Arts portion 24 or higher.
AP English Language and Composition or English Literature and Composition 3 4 or 5.
IB Standard Level examination in English Literature or Language and Literature 6 or 7.
IB Higher Level examination in English Literature or Language and Literature 5 6 or 7.