The University of Southern California already has a reputation for running the country’s top ranked game design program, but now the university will do more than teach students how to make games: It will teach them how to make game companies.

The USC Games program offers instruction in multiple facets of game creation, but while the university has always helped connect students with big name game studios like Electronic Arts, it had no guidance for students who would rather work independently. Starting this year, USC Games will hold a new event called Bridge, which gives student teams the chance to pitch their studio ideas to a panel of mentors, much like other startup pitch events.

“The thought behind Bridge is so many of our student teams, at this moment, this particular spring Demo Day, have an amazing game. They have a great team that has really weathered the whole year of production together,” USC Games director Tracy Fullerton told GamesBeat. “And they get a lot of interest from publishers, VCs, people who’re interested in possibly acquiring the games. We want to make sure that we help them capitalize on that interest. We don’t want to just say, ‘Oh, here’s our great student project. And everyone go home and take the summer off!’ because you have momentum behind a project and momentum behind a team.”

He added, “And then if you have interest and momentum, I think it’s important that you be able to take that next step. The idea behind Bridge is really just that. It’s a bridge from being a student team, a student game, to really helping them take that next step.”

Bridge will focus on helping students with the business side of creating a game development studio rather than the actual games creation process itself.

While USC may be the first university with a game studio pitch competition for students, it is not the first university to help students form their own startups companies. For example, New York University has the NYU Summer Launchpad program, an accelerator for NYU alums that provides workspace, mentorship, and $7,500 in seed money without taking any equity in the startups it helps create.

photo credit: BagoGames via photopin cc