Video Game Design, Web and Social Platforms, Interactive Media
Discover video game design, digital art, storytelling, software development, web design and social media technologies in our Games and Interactive Media program. The Bachelor of Arts in Digital Media offers two tracks: Game Design & Web and Social Platforms. Both undergraduate and graduate programs are available.

Video game character model of anthropomorphic cat

Programs

Undergraduate Degrees

    • Game Design Track
    • Web & Social Platforms Track

Minors

Your Place For Answers

Our advisors can put you on the right path and in the right class. We offer undergraduate and graduate advising. Please call our office to schedule an advising appointment.

Services include academic advising, limited access program admission counseling, degree audit interpretation, course override assistance and many other services.

Seek Advising

internships

Internships are often the beginning of successful careers for students. Most internships are taken for academic credit and the academic department provides guidance in the pursuit of internships, approves the internship, and supervises the intern.

Looking to do an internship and have questions? Check out our Q&A for more information.

Our students have gone on to work at companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Epic Games, and Facebook. The GaIM program has a LinkedIn page to help stay connected before and after graduation: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12337293

Student Work

UCF Game Design Showcase

Check out the trailers for our students’ game design projects that were shown during our UCF Games Showcase 2023.
 
 
Watch Here

Physical Computing – Experimental Game Controllers


Students were tasked to make extraordinary game controllers.
 

Studio II – Interactive Film Installation


This student project used proximity sensors to activate autobiographical narratives.
 

Studio II – Experimental Text-Based Video Game


A text-based video game where you try to solve your own murder.
 

Physical Computing – Sensory Intervention Assignment


Students used RC cars with accelerometers and LED pixels in conjunction with time lapse photography.
 

 

Design element

Anxiety Engine

Fotoon Helmi

The purpose of my project is to demonstrate human emotion and the feeling of anxiety through kinetic machinery. The sculpture acts in three different stages. Its behavior starts with normal emotional responses and develops into an extremely nervous machine.
View Project


Design element

ArtiFACT

Rachel Donley

ArtiFACT is part of a transmedia narrative about artifacts and beings called Drifters that travel between worlds, and a person determined to unravel their mysteries.
View Project


Design element

Bump It In

Daniela Morales

Interactive Installation that allows the user to participate in a playful engagement with the environment, promoting the use of the whole body as an input method. The player can form part of the screen, interacting and changing the movement of the falling shapes. The aim is to bump the shapes into the openings on each side of the screen, exploring and challenging the body’s movement in different ways. The user will need to analyze their motions in a strategic way in order to manipulate the shapes as needed.
View Project

Games and Interactive Media

Faculty and Staff

In NSCM, our people are our strength. We have faculty with diverse interests and expertise who bring the ideas of the day to life.

Games and Interactive Media Faculty & Staff

UCF Ranks in Top 10 of Game Design Universities

The UCF Nicholson School of Communication and Media’s undergraduate Games and Interactive Media Program (GaIM) is now the #6 ranked game design program in the world according to the Princeton Review.
 
 
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Latest News

Dr. Maria Harrington Honored with Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Research
Featured Games and Interactive Media
Dr. Maria Harrington Honored with Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Research
Oct 02, 2024
Associate Professor, Dr. Maria Harrington is deeply honored and grateful to have received two awards offered by UCF Faculty Excellence. The first one is the...
GaIM Professor Becomes a Board Member to Games for Change Local Chapter
Faculty Games and Interactive Media
GaIM Professor Becomes a Board Member to Games for Change Local Chapter
Oct 02, 2024
Games for Change (also known as G4C) is a prestigious nonprofit organization in the game development community and industry. The organization provides support, visibility, and...
Digital Media Student Prepares Presentation for Prominent Conference
Faculty Games and Interactive Media Students
Digital Media Student Prepares Presentation for Prominent Conference
Sep 04, 2024
Digital Media and IST M&S MS student Christopher Webb completed research with Dr. Maria Harrington, defended a MS thesis last Spring, and is publishing and...

More Games & Interactive Media News Stories

Research

Faculty in the Department of Games and Interactive Media (GaIM) pursue research and creative works related to a variety of topics that draw on their expertise in such areas as design, story, and interactive media. Digital Media M.A. research showcases our student’s work in the program.

Maker Space

To help support GaIM research and teaching, the NSCM/GaIM Maker Space opened in November 2019. It is designed for games and interactive media research, including games, mixed reality (augmented and virtual), physical computing, and web/mobile creation and research.

It is located in the Communication and Media Building on the newly-opened UCF Downtown campus. It is outfitted, among many other items, with several high-performance gaming computers (for programming and playing games), multiple VR equipment including Oculus Rift and Quest headsets, Microsoft-donated computers for use with the headsets, and eye-tracking equipment.

For more information on the Maker Space or to make a reservation, please contact Maker Space manager Jordan Lipscomb at GaIMMakerSpace@ucf.edu.

Explore Further

Maker Space facilities