Art & Design: Games + Playable Media B.A.

Information and Policies

Introduction

Art & Design: Games + Playable Media (AGPM) values a joyful and rigorous critical discourse in order to build new imaginaries of climate, gender, racial, and disability justice.

Our program is a community of artists that believe in the power of games as an artistic medium for transforming how we experience agency in a world fragmented by capitalism, colonialism, and systemic oppression. We critique art and games that capitalize on systemically toxic player culture, industrial standards that homogenize our approach to storytelling, and exploitative technologies that continue to oppress. Students build toward a multidisciplinary arts practice situated within the broader landscape of contemporary art, media art, performance, and/or social practice.

Our approach to games as a contemporary art practice foregrounds the importance of designing more thoughtful, nuanced, and radical systems for participation that cross medium, positionality, and forms of cultural expression. We support work that self-reflexively acknowledges its context, community, and the ethics that underlie its intention. We work to co-create spaces for thoughtful and transformative play to cultivate the embodied experience of connection, collectivity, and co-liberation in action. Students learn to create projects that are accountable to communities beyond the institution and are guided by a decolonial, intersectional and antiracist framework.

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 non-digital 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, performance art, and new media art

• Exhibition methods for games in traditional art spaces and public spaces

The Art & Design: Games + Playable Media (AGPM) Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz, focuses on the creation of novel game systems, spaces, and configurations that can produce broad ranges of player experiences, for a wide variety of purposes.

Students in the AGPM major learn to understand game design as an art in and of itself, positioned within the context of a number of more disciplinary approaches. Furthermore, students understand game design as a practice of creation, within a much larger and deeper social and historical context.

Program Learning Outcomes

1. Aesthetics. Students demonstrate understanding of aesthetic fundamentals through sustained and intentional application of a range of visual arts and design practices, both physical and digital.

2. Designing Experiences. Students critically engage with audience feedback to iterate and revise an interactive project in a way that preserves the artist’s creative and political goals.

3. Games as Art. With a foundation in existing artworks, students design, develop, and create a series of interactive artworks.

4. Games as Activism. Students develop a creative practice, and critical study, of games and interactive media by generating critiques of game systems through a lens of power and oppression, and utilizing these critiques in their artwork. 

5. Play as a Radical Endeavor. Students explore and create a series of playful experiments towards expressive goals that embrace risk and build upon failure. Students analyze play as a vehicle for disruption, resistance, and joy.

6. Sense of Self As Artist. Students begin to establish and explore their unique sense of artistic identity and areas of intention and interest, demonstrated via a portfolio of artwork and written work, exhibition, or performance, that expands definitions of games, interactive art, and play.

Academic Advising for the Program

Please refer to the AGPM advising page for the most up-to-date information on drop-in hours and appointments.

You can reach the AGPM office via phone by calling (831) 459-1919.

If you are a prospective junior transfer hoping to join AGPM, please be sure to carefully read the section below titled Transfer Information and Policy.

Getting Started in the Major: Frosh

Students are admitted to UC Santa Cruz with a "proposed major" in most cases, and later petition to officially declare the major. Admission to UCSC does not guarantee acceptance into a particular major. Students must be declared in a major by the end of the second year (or equivalent), so learning about and preparing for a major is a primary goal for first-year students.

Students interested in entering the Art + Design: Games + Playable Media (AGPM) program as frosh can do so as long as they are admitted into UC Santa Cruz. Incoming frosh do not need to satisfy any programming or art requirements prior to arriving at UCSC.

While frosh may not need to satisfy specific requirements, students interested in entering the program as frosh are urged to make interactive artwork—from paper game prototypes to text-based choose-your-own adventure stories. Developing an arts practice in any medium is also helpful, including theater, drawing, writing, music, sculpture, filmmaking, and others. Finally, deepening your understanding of technology can help, if that is your interest, including computer programming, participating in maker groups, or whatever else grabs your interest.

Transfer Information and Policy

Transfer Admission Screening Policy

In preparation for transfer to AGPM, students are required to demonstrate proficiency in design and visual art topics. Broadly this includes courses in 2D and 3D concepts, forms, or production; and specific art and design topics such as color theory, typography, interaction design, motion graphics, and performance.

The following courses or their equivalents are required prior to transfer, by the end of the spring term for students planning to enter in fall. Check assist.org for a list of courses at your community college that fulfill these areas.

Complete one courses or its equivalent from each of the following areas:

Intro to 2D Concepts

Intro to 3D Concepts

Art and Design Topics

Additional Suggested Courses

In addition, the following courses are recommended prior to transfer to ensure timely graduation:

• Community college courses that are articulated for credit with courses in the Foundational Courses and Lower-Division Arts Requirements and Electives courses listed in the Requirements and Planners tab.

• Transfer students who meet the requirements above and complete general education requirements will be able to complete the major in two years as shown in the academic plan in the Planners section of the Requirements and Planners tab on this page. Because of the number of credits required by the B.A., transfer students who have general education requirements remaining may need to take summer session courses and/or additional courses over the academic year to allow graduation in two years. 

• Prospective students are encouraged to prioritize required and recommended major preparation, and may additionally complete courses that articulate to UC Santa Cruz general education requirements as time allows.

Getting Started in the Major: Transfer Students

Students are admitted to UC Santa Cruz with a "proposed major" in most cases, and later petition to officially declare the major. Admission does not guarantee acceptance into a particular major, although transfer students' records are screened for preparation for many majors at the time of admission. Junior transfer students must be formally declared by the deadline in their second quarter of enrollment.

Transfer students are strongly advised to attend a UC Santa Cruz summer orientation session for transfer students. Transfer students should consult with an AGPM academic advisor prior to enrolling in classes to determine their status and to begin the declaration of major process as soon as possible.

Please see a recommended academic plan for junior transfer students in the Planners section of the Requirements and Planners tab on this page.

Major Qualification Policy and Declaration Process

Major Qualification

To qualify for the AGPM major, students must complete the following major qualification courses:

Students need to complete these major qualification courses early in their studies so that the petition to major status is accomplished by the end of their sophomore year.

Junior transfers should submit a major declaration form by the campus deadline in their second quarter.

Transfer students who are proposed in a different major and have advanced standing when they enter UC Santa Cruz require permission from the department to change into the major at any point after admission. Students who would not have met the transfer screening requirements at the time of admission will not be granted permission to change into the major.

The following course

Plus one of these courses

Plus one of these courses

Appeal Process

Denials of admission to the major may be appealed by submitting a letter to the AGPM advising staff, addressed to the chair of Performance, Play & Design within 15 days from the date the notification was mailed. The appeal letter must describe why the prior performance is not an accurate reflection of the student's potential. Within 15 days of receipt of the appeal, the AGPM advising staff will notify the student and their college of the decision.

How to Declare a Major

Students should submit a petition to declare as soon as they complete the major qualification requirements or reach their declaration deadline quarter (whichever comes first).

The Petition for Major/Minor is available in MyUCSC. Go to your Student Homepage and select the Undergraduate Student eForms tile > Petition for Major/Minor.

Students petitioning when the campus declaration deadline is imminent (i.e., in their sixth quarter, for students admitted as frosh), will either be approved, denied, or provided with conditions (e.g., completion of some courses with certain grades) that will be resolved within at most one more enrolled quarter, even if they have not completed major qualification (MQ) courses.

Letter Grade Policy

All courses used to satisfy any of the Art & Design: Games + Playable Media major requirements can be taken for a letter grade or as Pass/No Pass. This includes both introductory lower-division and advanced upper-division requirements. Please note campus policy that no more than 25 percent of the UCSC credits applied toward graduation may be graded on a Pass/No Pass basis.

Course Substitution Policy

Students are able to petition a course to count as a substitute for any given elective requirement via the AGPM Course Substitution Petition form. Once submitted, requests are reviewed by the program chair. After they come to a decision, the AGPM advisor will reach out to the student and let them know whether their petition was approved or not.  

Requirements and Planners

Course Requirements

Lower-Division Courses

Foundational Courses

Complete the following three courses:

Plus one of the following three courses

Lower-Division Arts Elective

Complete one lower-division course from the following:

Check with the Art Department and the General Catalog for restrictions or prerequisites on art courses.

Junior transfers fulfill the lower-division arts elective requirement as part of the transfer screening requirements.

History of Art and Visual Culture Requirement

Complete any one 5-credit History of Art and Visual Culture (HAVC) course. This can be either a lower- or upper-division course.

Upper-Division Courses

The upper-division coursework for the AGPM major consists of a minimum of eight total upper-division courses of five credits or more. At least four of these eight courses must be ARTG courses numbered 100-189, and a minimum of one ARTG course must be taken from each of the three topic areas: Craft Refinement; Social Interventions; and Performance, Portfolio + Exhibition. The remaining four upper-division courses may be chosen from ARTG courses 100-189, the three topic areas, and the upper-division electives list (see section after senior comprehensive requirement).

Craft Refinement

Complete at least one course from the following list:

Social Interventions

Complete at least one course from the following list:

Performance/Portfolio/Exhibition

Complete at least one course from the following list:

Disciplinary Communication and Senior Comprehensive Requirements

All courses which satisfy the Disciplinary Communication and Senior Comprehensive requirements may also satisfy the AGPM topic area requirement.*

Disciplinary Communication (DC) Requirement

Students satisfy the DC requirement by receiving a passing grade in one of the following courses:

Senior Comprehensive Requirement

Students satisfy the senior comprehensive requirement by receiving a passing grade in two of the following courses, one of which may also satisfy the DC:*

Upper-Division Elective Requirements*

In addition to ARTG courses number 100-189 (minimum of 5 credits), and courses in the three topic areas above, the following courses may be taken toward the eight upper-division course requirement. The courses listed below are mostly offered across campus via other departments and programs separate from AGPM. Prerequisites and scheduling of these courses are completely determined by each individual department.

Revised: 08/28/23

Planners

The tables below are for informational purposes and do not reflect all university, general education, and credit requirements. See Undergraduate Graduation Requirements for more information.

Art and Design: Games and Playable Media B.A. Planner

** WRIT 2 should be taken in or before spring quarter of the second year.

In addition to the specific courses shown in the four-year planner, a student must complete courses satisfying the ER, MF, SI, SR, TA, PR and C (WRIT 2) general education requirements.

*Students must make sure they complete one course that satisfies the DC requirement and one course that satisfies their senior comprehensive requirement.

Transfer Students Planner

The two-year planner assumes that a student has completed all general education requirements before transferring to UC Santa Cruz.

*Students must make sure they complete one course that satisfies the DC requirement and one course that satisfies the senior comprehensive requirement.