Instructor Spotlight: Tom Corbett

Within the Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology (IDeATe) network at Carnegie Mellon, talented instructors come together from departments across campus to build a collaborative atmosphere and grow interdisciplinary expertise and creative inquiry through making. We asked Assistant Teaching Professor with the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) Tom Corbett a few questions about his work, to find out more about the ways he inspires students to innovate beyond the traditional boundaries of their primary majors.

Q: In your own words, give us an overview of what you teach for IDeATe.

A: I teach a number of courses that cover the design and development of video games and related entertainment experiences. Included with this are a number of courses around “extended reality” or XR (the catch-all name which covers virtual, augmented, mixed reality and beyond). Most of my courses were created for IDeATe’s Game Design minor, although some also qualify for the Immersive Technologies in Arts and Culture minor, and a few others.

Part of what I teach covers the fundamentals of game design — things like game mechanics, narrative, aesthetics, and user-centric design. Other parts cover the technology pipelines that bring these and similar experiences to life. But perhaps the most important part is the process of creating, testing, and iterating.

Although my courses are based around creating games, what they are really focused on is how to navigate complex creative development with interdisciplinary teams. Game development requires a multitude of skill sets, and every student has something unique to contribute. It is that combination of different talents and different backgrounds that hopefully result in experiences that are bigger and more successful than a student would have been able to make on their own.

A: A lot of what we’re doing is teaching how to design, period — how to shepherd a project from early ideation through final delivery. Students learn how to rapidly prototype and iterate their creation, how to design for a user or with a particular audience in mind, how to playtest, how to manage a production schedule, and how to present their work. These are valuable soft skills that should serve them in whatever future career they pursue — it just so happens that we’re making games while we’re learning them. This makes everyone a little more excited to work on their homework.

At the same time, a number of specific courses are geared toward particular skills and technologies — and even if a student doesn’t want to be a programmer, we can still give them exposure to virtual reality, to game engines, to real-time graphic engines. The entertainment industry tends to drive what is “state of the art,” but these pipelines have applications across a variety of other fields. There are professionals in many disciplines that utilize 3D modeling and spatial visualization, including architects, designers, filmmakers, engineers, educators, and so on. Individuals in those disciplines can benefit from being proficient with these tools, using them to realize their visions and communicate their ideas.

Q: Within IDeATe, students have the chance to work on projects with other students from across campus. What opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration does your class offer? Why is that important?

A: I see game design as one of the few academic areas where “group work” really makes sense. Often group work is just five students from the same major and who have had the exact same curriculum being grouped together, and you have a lot of redundancy of skill and knowledge. For teams in my course, that redundancy is eliminated — everyone has to be the subject matter expert for their area of responsibility. They get to make impactful decisions and contribute based upon their unique knowledge or skill that they are studying or have a high interest in.

When I put students together in teams, it is based on a skill survey that they complete. I don’t initially know whether it’s going to work out or not — there is only so much that a survey can tell you, so it’s always a bit of a gamble. But every now and then I will see a team that not only clicks while they’re in my class, but continues to collaborate with one another for years beyond.

Q: What do you find most meaningful or impactful about teaching with IDeATe?

A: What’s exciting for me about this job is that it’s always shifting — there are always new technologies and new games and new platforms and new challenges that arise with that, along with new students every year. A lot of my efforts with IDeATe have been helping to establish and grow our curriculum, to build competency and capability with newer technologies, and we continue to expand those offerings.

Over the last 10 years of the program, the offerings have expanded dramatically and interest among students and faculty continues to grow. I think that the students and faculty have embraced the idea of having this interdisciplinary place, which speaks to the unique opportunity that IDeATe provides. You can break out of your college and explore other interests, even if you just take one class and never pursue a minor. IDeATe is helping contribute to CMU’s legacy of recognizing great ideas everywhere — the more we cross-pollinate, the more interesting and valuable the result.

Q: What’s one key takeaway you hope students in your class have learned by the end of the semester?

A: First, that everyone has something to offer. Maybe you have a talent for character art, or gameplay programming. Maybe you’re not a programmer or an artist, but you’re organized — then you can be a producer. Maybe you have a passion for sound design. Maybe you discover a hidden passion for writing NPC dialog. Maybe you’re really good at interviewing test subjects. There is probably something that you are good at, and hopefully we can help you find it.

The other takeaway is that there are no shortcuts. You have to do the work. Design — game or otherwise — is a process where the work has to be done in order to be successful. You must brainstorm, build, experiment, and reflect, and then do that over and over, for your product to grow and succeed. If you don’t do the work, you don’t learn the lessons.