About USC Games

USC Games is a flagship collaboration offered jointly by the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media & Games Division (IMGD) and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Computer Science Department. This unified brand brings our programs under one umbrella, allowing students and faculty across the University of Southern California to collaborate together in creating innovative games.

 The program at the USC School Cinematic Arts focuses on both the design and production of interactive media and games. Students emerge as creative media leaders, fluent in many forms of visual expression and storytelling, with a sophistication in designing and developing innovative interactive experiences that expand the state of interactive art and play across domains, such as entertainment, education, health care and social action.

The Computer Science Games program at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering provides students with grounding in the fundamentals of computer science and a cross-disciplinary background in game development. Students emerge with an engineering-oriented game-programming skillset, with an understanding of key technologies and the ability to lead complex technical teams in the development of games.

In addition to an Advanced Games class, USC Games presents the annual USC Games Expo, an event showcasing games created at the university that is open to the public, and also produces an industry event at the annual Game Developers Conference. USC Games also collaborates with game design programs at other colleges and universities.  For more information go to games.usc.edu; or connect at uscgames@usc.edu

Press Releases

Games as a Service and Live Operations (GLO) Course Announcement

First-Ever Lawson Scholars Announcement

Sony Contribution to Lawson Fund Announcement

John Riccitiello Gift to USC School of Cinematic Arts Announcement

USC Games Lawson Fund Announcement

Microsoft Contribution to Lawson Fund Announcement

USC Games Logos

USC Games Images

About Games as a Service and Live Operations (GLO)

A first-of-its-kind academic class, Games as a Service & Live Operations (GLO) focuses on the “live” component of game development. Students will learn how to take the components of making a game for a live audience, using tools, systems, and processes to create engaging, continuous, games ecosystems. The games students work on in GLO are always built with live service in mind.

The class is hosted at the top-ranked USC Games program at its launch, but the vision is to expand its footprint. Over time, students from other USC schools and partner universities will be added to a network that will all benefit in learning how to make games that track, predict, and adapt to player engagement.

GLO Logo

About the Gerald A. Lawson Fund

The Gerald A. Lawson Endowment Fund will provide student support for Black and Indigenous students who wish to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees in game design or computer science from USC’s prestigious program. With financial support from additional game and technology companies and donors, USC Games’ vision is to expand the initiative and support other aspects of diversity and equity, including salary support for additional Black and Indigenous faculty as well as labs and projects that addressed issues that affect these marginalized communities.

The fund is named in honor of Gerald “Jerry” Lawson, who is widely considered one of the fathers of modern gaming for his pioneering work that led to the development of removable, commercial ROM cartridges.

For more information, please visit the Gerald A. Lawson Endowment Fund website.

Portraits of Gerald A. Lawson