The Guildhall at SMU is a video game university located at the Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...

 (SMU) Plano campus. Students learn how to create a game, from the basics (e.g. 2D games) to a total conversion. Graduates present their work at a semiannual exhibition. Graduation is accompanied by keynote

Keynote

A keynote in literature, music, or public speaking establishes the principal underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address...

s of established game developers such as Gabe Newell

Gabe Newell

Gabe Logan Newell is the co-founder and managing director of video game development and online distribution company Valve Corporation.-Work:...

 or Richard Garriott

Richard Garriott

Richard Allen Garriott is a British-American video game developer and entrepreneur.He is also known as his alter egos Lord British in Ultima and General British in Tabula Rasa...

.

Some of the student cohorts (teams working on a project) made their work public, for example the Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...

mods

Mod (computer gaming)

Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...

 Eclipse

Eclipse (Half-Life 2 modification)

Eclipse is a mod for the video game Half-Life 2. It is a fantasy-themed action-adventure viewed in third-person. Eclipse was developed by CelTech Studios, a group of students from The Guildhall at SMU and released June 17, 2005.-Storyline:...

and Weekday Warrior

Weekday Warrior

Weekday Warrior is a mod for the video game Half-Life 2. It was developed by students at The Guildhall at SMU and released in its final state on 7 June 2006....

. The latter was the Independent Games Festival

Independent Games Festival

The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...

2007 winner in the Best Mod category.

Notable mentions

• 1UP.com article