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AUSTIN, Texas - In order to be responsive to the continuing advances of the creative industries, The University of Texas at Austin announced today the renaming of the Game Development Program to the Game and Mobile Media Applications (GAMMA) Program, effective as of today. The name change is in response to the exploding growth in game, mobile app, and creative media agencies and studios in Texas, as well as student demand to learn the necessary skills to be successful in these emerging organizations. “This is more than just a name change,” states Dr. Paul Toprac, Associate Director of GAMMA. “We are committed to expanding the University’s course offerings to teach a wide-range of knowledge and skills that are valued by these digital interactive and creative industries. Furthermore, students can now enroll in a series of courses to target a specific industry, such as the game industry or the mobile app industry.”

The GAMMA Program, a collaborative interdisciplinary undergraduate program with a current offering of more than 20 unique development courses, is expanding its course offering even further to include classes focused on the creation of mobile apps; hence, the necessary inclusion of “Mobile Applications” in its new name. "GAMMA will keep the University of Texas students current with the fast expanding and mutating world of gaming and mobile applications. It prepares our students to move into and innovate in these industries,” affirms Doug Dempster, Dean of the College of Fine Arts. “And it will provide a badly needed source of creative talent for the Austin."

The Provost funded the University’s Game Development Program in 2011, after lobbying by the local game industry for talented, well educated entry-level professionals, as well as student demand to learn the critical skills necessary to be successful in game studios. Now, only two years after its inception, the GAMMA Program has hundreds of students learning digital interactive and creative skills in the Department of Computer Science, College of Fine Arts, and Department of Radio-Television-Film. “The GAMMA Program aims to produce graduates ready to design, develop, and provide leadership in rapidly growing industries by providing students with the experience they need to enter a competitive job market both in Texas and around the world. The ultimate goal is to create a world-class program to match the world-class digital interactive and creative industries in Texas,” asserts Dr. Bruce Porter, chair of the Department of Computer Science. “The GAMMA Program is going to achieve that goal.”

For more information, contact: Paul Toprac, Game and Mobile Media Applications Program, (512) 471-9574.