Undergraduate Degrees

B.S. in Digital Narrative and Interactive Design

This program combines the strengths of creative writing, world-building, media studies, coding, and human-computer interfacing. Students learn how to build interactive narrative systems through games, literature, virtual reality environments, and other media experiences in a variety of fields. This major is operated jointly by the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and SCI.

What can you do with a degree in digital narrative and interactive design?

Students have a broad range of professional opportunities. Many students go on to pursue graduate degrees in computer science, data science, English writing, and media studies, and to work in fields like game design, journalism, computing and information fields, research, and beyond.

View full digital narrative and interactive design degree requirements in the Pitt Course Catalog.

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Required Courses

Gateway Course

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Composition Courses

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Programming Basics Courses

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Intermediate Programming Courses

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Interaction and Narrative Course

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*Students who take ENGLIT 0512 for their Gateway course may not use it to fulfill this requirement.

Media Literacy course

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Data Literacy Course

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Students must complete two elective courses from SCI and two elective courses from the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Courses offering a depth of knowledge in pre-identified areas of interest are clustered together to provide a guide for students. Students are not required to follow nor declare a specific track. Track options include:

Critical Making: This track focuses on understanding code as creative and expressive of social relationships. The coursework addresses human interfaces within cultural and social contexts, particularly the historical and contemporary relationship between social interaction and platform design.
Game Design: This track focuses on situating game production, advertising, and playing into current and historical social and cultural contexts. Coursework analyzes and evaluates the relationship between narrative and gameplay, and articulates critical facets of game design such as gameplay mechanics, balance, fairness, narrative, pacing, character, and aesthetics.
Online Media: Skills gained in this track will range from developing digital format narrative to communicate on behalf of organizations (for-profit or non-profit) and innovating online interactions to creating and critically analyzing content and data across the variety of specific digital formats.

Accepted courses for each track are listed in the Pitt Course Catalog.

The Capstone sequence allows students to design and implement a signature project to complete the major. Students start with the design project (Project 1) and complete the sequence with the implementation project (Project 2) in consultation with their advisors. Students seeking Independent Study or Directed Study options for the capstone sequence should work with their advisors to ensure that the work done in these courses will complete the sequence.