Our Curriculum
Source: https://etc.cmu.edu/academics/curriculum Parent: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/academics/overview-programs
We're not like any master's program you've ever seen.
Our two-year curriculum provides our students with a unique foundation in everything they'll need to thrive highly-competitive industries.
The first semester of the program (AKA the "Immersion Semester") gives students the tools to succeed in their time here. This sequence of four foundational courses — Building Virtual Worlds, Improvisational Acting, Visual Story, and ETC Fundamentals — teaches them how to collaborate, problem-solve, communicate and lead. This is especially important because the rest of their time at the ETC will be defined by projects.
For each of the three remaining semesters, students will spend the 14-week period working together to a real product or prototype. Students also have the opportunity after their first semester to choose elective courses aligned with their specific areas of interest — whether that's here at the ETC or one of the many courses offered in other CMU schools or departments.
Immersion Semester
At the ETC, the first semester provides a shared framework for all incoming students by introducing them to the concepts and methods they'll need to thrive during their time here. Structured around collaborative projects, these four required courses emphasize creativity, quick-thinking, and teamwork: the same skills they'll rely on throughout the program. That's why we call it the Immersion Semester.
Immersion Semester Courses
Building Virtual Worlds
Started by Randy Pausch, Building Virtual Worlds is a core pillar of the ETC’s curriculum. The goal of the course is to take our first-semester students — who come to us from all different backgrounds and with wildly different talents — and to put them together to do what they couldn't do alone: make an entirely new virtual world. Combining regular lectures, critique of group projects, guest lectures, and workshops, the course teaches students about interactive world building, interdisciplinary teamwork, playtesting, iteration, and related topics. At the end of the semester, we hold an annual showcase we call Fall Festival — the biggest event of the year at the ETC, and one entirely dedicated to celebrating what our students have accomplished.
Visual Story
In Visual Story, students are taught the language of filmmaking and the director's craft in order to apply it to the cutting-edge narrative technologies they’ll focus on for the rest of their time at the ETC. Over the course of the semester, students learn how to identify and control the basic building blocks of visual storytelling for more effective communication. Through lectures, hands-on projects and critiques, the class demonstrates how essential visual modes of communication are to video games, films, theme parks and digital experiences.
Improvisational Acting
Improvisational Acting is where our students learn to be a team. The class is a dynamic space where students build trust, break through creative blocks, and learn to thrive in the unknown together. Working alongside each other, students sharpen their ability to react in the moment, tune into one another, and transform uncertainty into opportunity. Through fast-paced exercises and playful experimentation, students explore the foundations of improvisational acting — not as a performance technique, but as a foundation for future collaboration.
ETC Fundamentals
ETC Fundamentals introduces students to what we mean by “entertainment technology,” establishing a shared interdisciplinary vocabulary of the design and development aspects pertinent to the field. Throughout the semester, ETC faculty and industry professionals provide students with historical context and experiential referents, in addition to giving them the opportunity to begin shaping their professional networks.
Student Projects
After the Immersion Semester, students shift their focus to project courses: a new one each semester. Each project course challenges an interdisciplinary team of students to produce working artifacts and playable prototypes. Following CMU tradition, the emphasis is on making real things that work. Each project consists of a student team and faculty supervisors, and many have external companies, nonprofits, or school districts as clients.
Electives
After their first semester, ETC students take a new elective each term, giving them the opportunity to explore different disciplines and identify the areas of entertainment technology that most inspire them.
With a wide range of electives offered both within the ETC and across other CMU departments, students are encouraged to tailor their coursework to match their interests and goals. Faculty and staff provide personalized guidance to help each student chart a path aligned with their professional development.
Concentration in Transformational Play
In partnership with the Center for Transformational Play, this concentration links insights about how people think, feel, and behave with the design of playful systems that address real‑world challenges. Students will remain part of the main ETC cohort with a concentration‑specific path of approved electives, main‑campus project teams with seminar support, and a required summer project between years one and two.
Ready to Build What’s Next?
The ETC is for dreamers who do — for technologists, storytellers, designers and worldbuilders who want to create experiences that move people, that challenge old ideas of what entertainment is and that redefine what’s possible.