This semester-long course will have students look at games through a critical lens inspired by art and design. There will be a focus on using games as a medium for storytelling and building immersive experiences. Students will explore a variety of games including card games, board games, and a range of digital games and will refine their analysis and critique of the experiences those games provide.

1st Quarter

Foundations of Game Design – An introduction to the study and art of game design. Build a key vocabulary for critically analyzing games and experiences. Analyze the structure of all types of games, from digital to social, and how the core elements like rules and context shape them.

Analyzing Gameplay – Through simple card games and board games, explore player agency, random chance, and the social element to building rich experiences. Students will explore how many decisions they actually get to make in a game and what makes a gaming session fulfilling.

Programming Fundamentals – An introduction to the logic of game programming, usually through a block-based engine like Stencyl or Scratch.

2nd Quarter

Player-Centered Design – Reestablish a framework for development that focuses on the player’s experience. Discuss what makes actions and rules in different games intuitive and natural compared to ones that are frustrating or seem out of place.

Functional Art – Assets in games can be used to help push the player to make decisions and take specific actions. Here there is a focus on creating things like menus, icons, and layouts that serve a purpose in terms of game design. This segment has great learning opportunities in UI/UX design.

Portfolio Foundations – Start establishing a public digital portfolio. The site should contain various samples of art and gameplay in addition to a simple resume and writings about game design.

This semester-long course will have students begin a deeper study of the mechanics of games, with a focus on the programming and computer science essentials necessary to create simple digital games. Students will work within the medium of 2-D and 3-D computer games to practice creating intuitive controls, satisfying mechanics, and clear objectives. There will also be opportunities to practice storytelling within the medium.

3rd Quarter

Tabletop RPGs – Go through the fundamentals of tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. Build characters, practice battles, and run campaigns to see how a lot of the rules being programmed into modern games are performed in an analog setting.

Worldbuilding – By looking at resources like TTRPG bestiaries and story guides, explore how to use art and lore to build rich settings for games to take place in. Practice creating background art and character models that implicitly tell a story.

Professional Engines – Run through the tutorials for Unity and Unreal Engine to get an overview for what it takes to work in a 3D game engine. Special attention needs to be given to file and memory management.

4th Quarter

Studio Pipelines – Learn about how teams can effectively work together to create a game. Explore how different roles like art and programming are interdependent on each other and the importance of utilizing centralized design guides and goals.

Game Pitches – Prepare and practice a pitch presentation to show off work to a panel of judges. The key focus should be on individual’s skill development and potential rather than a cohesive final project.

This year-long course takes place concurrently with the Intro/Intermediate cohort. As such, it will follow a spiral-learning model where they will cover similar topics, but to a much greater depth. In the first semester, students will focus on balancing games through rules and guidelines. For example, they could use an economic lens to create functional resource-management systems and games where players make more meaningful choices.

1st Quarter

Design Philosophy – Give an opportunity to articulate a personal philosophy for game design. Have a focus on what experiences one wants to create with their game and how that will impact the players.

Design Documentation – Though there is no fixed format or expectation for a design document, practice creating a centralized guide to a game’s world and lore. Using a collection of writing, images, and other works, establish what is essential to the game.

Game Jam – Quickly create a short game under a set of specific constraints. Examples include using only 1 button, using only a set amount of colors, having a specific theme or setting, or eliciting a specific feeling.

2nd Quarter

Engine Analysis – Compare and contrast popular game engines in terms of what they can create and what the design and programming experience entails. The focus should be on the friction the developer must inevitable experience to bring their ideas to fruition.

Game Remake – Recreate a classic game with some sort of new gimmick. Examples done in the past have been a 3D pong (with the camera attached to the ball), Tetris with realistic physics, or a rhythm-focused platformer.

3rd Quarter

Dungeon Mastering – Practice leading a TTRPG session, with a focus on the prep that must be done. Improvisation and acting skills must also be covered.

Campaign Building – Create a short TTRPG campaign. Students will have the option to use pre generated characters and assets, or can attempt to build their adventure from scratch.

Mentoring – Help the intro students with their first steps into 3D engines. Learning the menus and commands can be frustrating, so building a visual guide for them can be helpful.

4th Quarter

Core Loop – Examine popular core loops of games across genres, and design one for the final project.

Final Pitch – Create a vertical slice of a game that showcases all the skills and practices the team has developed over the course.