Fall 2024 Semester Courses
Game Design Fundamentals (SCI 31106)
This course introduces the core concepts of game design. Students learn central features of games including mechanics, difficulty, meaningful choice, system design, and fun. Assignments in class are the creation of non-digital games through an iterative design process that teaches essential ideas of prototyping, experimentation, and testing. This class prepares students for all types of game development by establishing fundamentals of the game design process.
Intro to Game Programming (SCI 31920)
This class introduces students to digital game development through the game engine Unity. Students learn the basics of the Unity interface and the fundamentals of programming in C#. Students will create simple game prototypes as assignments to learn core programming concepts. No prior programming knowledge is necessary, although assignments will be tailored to individual student's programming experience.
Game Programming 2 (SCI 31923)
This class looks at common code patterns used in game programming including player controls, physics, collision, simple AI, and state machines. Students use Unity to make simple games that utilize these patterns as a series of exercises and thereby build a collection of game systems that can be reused in future game projects. All programming in the class is C# and gear towards game development. Students should have previous experience studying object-oriented programming, either in Intro to Game Programming or any other C-based programming language course work or study, as the class will assume basic familiarity with code.
Game Programming 3 (SCI 31925)
This class continues the work of Game Programming 2 by looking at additional code patterns at work in games. Students continue to work in Unity on larger projects with a good portion of class dedicated to building an independent game prototype from scratch. All programming in the course is C# and geared towards game development.
In this class, students look at the discipline of level design, a critical skill in professional game development. This is a hands-on design class in which student make levels for a variety of types of games. Students learn techniques of both parameterized and instantiated level design and see the techniques involved in game design across a variety of game styles.
A major component of game design is the interface, the object through which interactions and communication happen between the player and the system. This class looks at how games use interfaces to think about how a user moves through a product and understands their experience. Looking at user interfaces, menu flows, feedback systems, and control choices, this class teaches the fundamentals of user experience and lets students experiment with designing digital interfaces of their own.
Last Updated: 11/15/2024 15:16