Students interested in pursing a career in animation, computer-generated imagery, game design and development and mobile gaming now can receive a degree in digital entertainment technology.

The DET major will be available beginning Fall 2011 and will allow students to learn, explore and create the technological aspects of the entertainment industry.

Dr. Fortune Mhlanga, director of information technology and computing, said he believes the major is a significant contribution to the digital entertainment market.

“We’re going to produce Christian leaders and influence a positive direction in which the industry should take,” Mhlanga said. “We feel that the digital entertainment industry is really in need of that.”

Previously, students only could minor in digital entertainment. But a high demand for the major caused faculty to start formulating a degree plan, Mhlanga said.

“Students who were minoring in digital entertainment have really been pushing us,” Mhlanga said. “Some of them have actually left because they had not been able to further pursue what they were interested in.”

The major will be interdisciplinary, including classes from the departments of Art and Design, Journalism and Mass Communications, English and Business.

Mhlanga said the major will attract and accommodate a wide variety of incoming students interested in gaming, animation, film and entertainment.

“We can take a broad spectrum of students,” Mhlanga said. “When you talk to a high school student about digital entertainment, they jump to that,” Mhlanga said. “That’s what they want to hear.”

Dr. Brian Burton, assistant professor of digital entertainment and information technology, said the vision for the digital entertainment major was introduced in 2007. By Fall 2009, the university had launched the DET minor. However, as students continued to request the major regularly, he said the change became an obvious necessity.

“The major focus of the major is towards game development,” Burton said. “Whether that’s for personal computers, Macs, the web, iPhones, iPads, Androids and, now, the Nook. That’s what we’re creating for.”

Burton said he is excited that students will create material to support so many platforms. In designing games, students will manipulate artwork, level designing, programming and music to create the full game environment, he said.

The major includes four digital entertainment technology courses, as well as a class in computer science and information technology.

“Students typically put in 30-40 hours a week of developing,” Burton said, “not because they need to, but because they want to.”

Students can dedicate their 12-hour concentration to digital design, mobile development or a combination of the two, which Burton said allows for flexibility with the students’ degree plans.

Burton said he believes this major furthers ACU’s commitment to training the next generation of Christian leaders.

“Gaming is now one of the largest entertainment industries in the world,” Burton said. “We’ve been involved in the industry, but now we want to make more of an impact within it.”

For more information about the upcoming digital entertainment major and classes offered under the major, go online and visit www.acu.edu/academics/sitc/programs/undergraduate/det/index.html.