DOWNLOAD PDF INTROUDCTION TO GAME DESIGN

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "DOWNLOAD PDF INTROUDCTION TO GAME DESIGN"

Andrew Mills
5 years ago
Views:

1 Chapter 1 : Free Online Course: Introduction to Game Design from Coursera Class Central Introduction to Game Design from California Institute of the Arts. Welcome! This course is an introduction to the primary concepts of gaming, and an exploration of how these basic concepts affect the way gamers interact with our games. Lennart Nacke course, game design, gamification, infr, syllabus 7 Comments Cite this article as: Introduction and Course Syllabus. Retrieved November 12,, from http: Welcome to the class: Basic Introduction to Game Design. My name is Dr. If you are reading this, you probably already know that game design is important for developing games, but did you know that there is no formal way to teach game design, yet? Other game development disciplines like art or programming have a more formalised curriculum, because their outcomes are visible and, therefore, easier to critique. We can easily point out errors or bugs in a computer program and critique artwork at least on a superficial level. However, design is much harder to grasp. We often say that a game is not fun, but do we really know what that means? In this course, we are going to find out what it means to design games. Dota 2 Valve Corporation, To sum up, we are going to discuss five points today that are important in this class. If you are enrolled at UOIT, this is critical information for you to proceed as an undergraduate student in our Game Development and Entrepreneurship program. Course dates and times How a flipped classroom works What topics we are going to cover How you are going to be able to evaluate your work in this class What the general rules and guidelines for this course are You are probably already aware that there are many problems with traditional lectures at Universities. Given that we have access to many new technologies, it sometimes feels like we are stuck in a very traditional learning structure in higher education. In the past three years, I have taught introductory courses in game design using different styles ranging from pure exercise-based active learning to strong gamification. This year is the first year that I am trying it with a flipped open classroom model that blends a little bit of gamification and lots of active learning into the mix. We will explain more about what this means for you as a student in this class below. I see this open part of my course a little bit as giving back to the game design community and I hope that it is useful. A strategy board game by Eric Zimmerman FunForge, This is important for understanding the very basic concepts that go into a game and to sharpen our understanding of games by critiquing them. While you may not feel that all the information is relevant to digital game development, rest assured that all games share fundamentals that allow game designers to work in any medium to create games. We will discuss some digital games in our learning materials as well. The topics of the week and the in-class exercises are designed to give you a broad theoretical, analytical and conceptual understanding of game design. Our goal is to understand what makes a game and then go about creating games. As a game designer, students need to provide information to players about the content of their game, about how to play it the things they need to do to progress in the game and the rules, and about the winning conditions. Students need to motivate people to play their games in the first place. Players need to feel empowered by the choices offered by their game and designing a game is essentially about designing meaningful and interesting choices for players. Course dates and times As part of our flipped classroom model, the lecture content will be available online before our in-class meetings, which will happen every Thursday from Research shows that active learning is beneficial if students have read the material for class before and come to the lecture prepared. I am available in my office on Thursdays right after class for in person consultation and office hours if you should need to meet. Your TA for this course will be Rina Wehbe and she will be happy to answer your questions via or in person as well. The flipped classroom I will make each topic of the week available by Friday evening the week before. The topic of the week will be made available to you as a blog post via www. This will include book chapters from your textbook, which will absolutely need to be read before participating in class on Thursdays. For some topics, embedded videos will be available on the blog as well possibly as links and will need to be watched. Most of the content is written and you will need to read the content before class to be well prepared. During our allocated in-class time every Thursday You will need to have the theoretical understanding from the online materials for the topic of the week before coming to class. Participation is an important aspect of this class, and everyone is expected to engage in discussion and work with their Page 1

2 classmates. The course will allow you to gather experience points XP to level up i. Topics of the course Currently our weekly topics are following closely from our textbooks: Romero and Ian Schreiber. Page 2

3 Chapter 2 : Free Online Course: Introduction to Game Design from edx Class Central An introduction to game design and game design concepts, emphasizing the basic tools of game design: paper and digital prototyping, design iteration, and user testing. A practical introduction to game design and game design concepts, emphasizing the basic tools of game design: paper and digital prototyping, design iteration, and user testing. The game design process in detail Techniques for creating innovative games The tools designers use to create a wide range of play experiences How to break down the elements of a game Who Should Take This Course Those interested in learning how to design games, and those with experience looking for a new approach to thinking about games. Course Requirements Table of Contents Part 1: Principles In the first three lessons of Introduction to Game Design LiveLessons, Macklin and Sharp introduce the principles and terminology of a play-focused game design process. Lesson 1 What Is a Game? Lesson 1 looks at what makes the design of games a thrilling but challenging practice. The Kinds of Play Lesson 2 considers the different kinds of play experiences game designers create for their players. The lesson takes a close look at competitive and cooperative play, chance-based and skill-based play, whimsical play, role-playing and simulation-based play. The lesson concludes with a discussion of the differences in playing as a player, and playing as a designer. Designing Play Experiences Lesson 3 returns to the game design tool kit, and adds a set of more nuanced tools for making play machines. The lesson introduces the concept of design values, a set of guides that establish the kind of play experience game designers want to provide their players. The lesson then examines six key factors in shaping play: Practice In the second part of this LiveLesson series, Macklin and Sharp introduce the iterative game design cycle, and demonstrate its application in the early creation of their videogame, Ping!. Conceptualizing Your Game Lesson 5 looks more closely at the first step in the iterative process: Macklin and Sharp demonstrate a number of techniques for taking ideas and turning them into solid game design concepts. Prototyping Your Game Lesson 6 explores the process for taking your ideas and beginning to give them form through experiments, or prototypes. Macklin and Sharp demonstrate the paper, physical and digital prototypes they made for their game, Ping!. Playtesting Your Game Lesson 7 introduces the fine art of running a playtest for game prototypes. Macklin and Sharp work through the stage of playtesting: Evaluating Your Game Lesson 8 covers the important steps of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your game prototypes based on the feedback received during playtests. Macklin and Sharp demonstrate how they reviewed the feedback, broke it down into strengths and weaknesses, and then began looking for solutions for making their game better. Repeating the Cycle Lessons 9 considers how game design is a series of iterative cycles that slowly flesh out the design of a game. The lesson begins by explaining the different kinds of prototypes. It then looks closely at the different kinds of playtests game designers use. The lesson concludes with a discussion of the ways to document your prototypes and playtests. Moving from Iteration to Production Lesson 10 concludes the Introduction to Game Design LiveLessons by considering the role of the iterative game design process in relation to the larger production of a game. The lesson then provides a checklist for understanding when to transition out of iteration and design and into production. The basics of production are then introduced. Finally, Macklin and Sharp discuss some techniques for building up excitement for your game during the game design process. About LiveLessons Video Training The LiveLessons Video Training series publishes hundreds of hands-on, expert-led video tutorials covering a wide selection of technology topics designed to teach you the skills you need to succeed. This professional and personal technology video series features world-leading author instructors published by your trusted technology brands: Page 3

4 Chapter 3 : Basic Introduction to Game Design: Course Syllabus Â«The Acagamic Introduction to Game Design introduces students to the principles of game design and provides opportunities for them to be put into practice using analog materials and methods. Students explore what motivates play, risk-taking and reward systems, and the visual design of games for serious applications and leisure. Introduction to Game Design: You read that right. A story is an important part of game design, but it is not the part that should be tackled first. In fact, for many games is it done at the end. Of course, many games suffer because the story was done at the end of the cycle. While it should not be the last thing to be done, it definitely should not be the first thing to be done. You have envisioned how this story will be told through your game. You get other developers or artists involved in your project or do it all yourself and expect the game to be a great game because of this great story you have. A game is not to be written because you have a great story. This is why so many games based on movies fail so hard. They try to design game play around a story. Games that have game play designed around a story rarely succeed. Games are meant to be fun. Most games are played to be enjoyed. Part of the enjoyment is the story. That is why I really like many games I play â because it has a great story. So are stories not important? Every game should have a story, even if it is a simple one. I think of games like Alan Wake, Batman: These games all have excellent stories. Game design is about solving problems â about completing challenges. Narrative on the other hand is a central part of game design. Story You should have a narrative though. A narrative and a story are not the same thing. A narrative helps you determine what emotion or idea you want to explore with the game. When designing your game, the emotion and the idea of the game are most important to nail down early on. The details of the story, level design, sound, general aesthetics, etc. However, it is critical to know what emotion and idea your game wants to convey. If you start with a story, then it will lead you in a world of hurt. You will be locked into a specific set of locations and places. There are ways around it, but it is good to prototype that part of the game to begin with before locking it down in your story. How many games have you grinded through just to see how the story ends? How many games have you played that had excellent game play but the story was mediocre at best, but you still enjoyed going back to play the game? It is hard to create a great game that also has fantastic story. But it was actually done as far back as Space Invaders. Space Invaders could have just been a triangle shooting at blocks. Instead, it used a story to make it more exciting and easier to understand. Originally, Space Invaders was going to be about a human army the player was shooting. They changed it to aliens for a couple of reasons. Violence against aliens was assumed more acceptable than violence against other humans, even opposing armies. But the controls were done so well that it rarely, if ever, felt like grinding in the game. The story was just a bonus â but, of course, a fantastic bonus. All aspects of making a game is important, but if you start with a story instead of a narrative you will be locking yourself in and most likely never get your game off the ground. Better yet, let me know in the comments what you think is the first thing you should start with when designing a game. Know someone who might like this? Page 4

5 Chapter 4 : Introduction to Game Design Methods Comparative Media Studies/Writing MIT OpenCourse Brief Introduction to Game Design (68 ratings) Course Ratings are calculated from individual students' ratings and a variety of other signals, like age of rating and reliability, to ensure that they reflect course quality fairly and accurately. Example Projects Brick Breaker Our Game Design lessons are designed to show students how to use their Python coding skills to create games. To create the classic BrickBreaker, students use nested loops to add rows of blocks to the screen, then use the physics engine and collision events to create the game mechanics. Basketball In this Basketball game, students learn how to add a click-and-drag event to allow the player to control how the the angle and speed of their shot. Then, students use the physics engine and a goal collision event to keep score when the player makes a shot. Recycling Game Some games include a positive social message. In the Recycling Game students players are given the goal of cleaning up garbage in the park and recycling it to make new useful items. Alien Scroller In this arcade-style scroller, students start by creating a hero, then add hostile characters and other obstacles, and finally challenge the player to maneuver their hero to the goal and will the game. Codesters Pedagogy Each project-based lesson has around 20 activities and its divided into 3 phases: Build, Modify, and Create. The activities in the Build and Modify phases are automatically graded, including debugging and assessment activities. The capstone Create project for each lesson is graded by the teacher using a rubric provided by Codesters. Build Students start by building an example project, through which they develop key coding skills. Debugging activities help students learn specific rules about syntax and the structure of code. Assessments include multiple choice questions and journal responses. Modify Once students have built their example project they are asked to customize the program to solidify their understanding and demonstrate proficiency with the skills they learned. Create Students create a new project from scratch that uses the same core skills skills they developed in the example project. This capstone project for each lesson creates opportunities for students to deepen their understanding and to demonstrate mastery of coding topics. For Mathematical Practice standards we address problem-solving skills, perseverance, strategic planning, and place value on developing an efficient problem solving approach. For Computer Science we address the standards identified in the Algorithms and Programming. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. In each lesson, students are given direct instruction as they build a example program that includes the programming concepts the lesson addresses. Throughout the build process, students are intermittently asked to solve "debugging" challenges that ask them to figure out a common problem and find a way to fix it. Look for and Make Use of Structure. The first lessons in our curriculum stress the importance of order and simple data structures in programming. Programs run in order; students create programs that follow a single path from beginning to end. As they build their example programs, they get instructions, examples, and non-examples that start to bear out the kind of structure that is inherent to high quality programs. When they are asked to create their own original programs, they make use of the structural elements from the lessons. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. Our curriculum starts students as beginning text-based programmers. Their first tasks are to use pre-built commands delivered in a certain order so that they get a certain visual outcome. All of our lessons have been developed with this framework concept in mind. We provided scaffolded instructions that walks students through the most basic programming concepts to levels where students are dealing with sophisticated and abstract programming concepts. Project-based Learning With Codesters, students learn to code by creating fun and engaging projects. Each lesson is structured as a project for students to build. And each project introduces students to new coding topics and concepts while reinforcing ones they have already learned. Students are motivated to persevere through learning to code in order to create the project they want to build. And they have fun while in the process. Monitor Student Progress Teachers play a critical role in helping students learn to code with Codesters. They can even drill down to see the actual code a student submitted that did not receive full points. Immediate Feedback As students follow the instructions in the Build and Modify phases of the project-based lesson, they receive immediate feedback about mistakes they might be making. This feedback is both in the student-friendly error messages and the hints and suggestions built into the automatic scoring system. Page 5

6 Immediate feedback helps students to understand and correct their mistakes and smoothes the path to learning to code. Chapter 5 : Introduction to Game Design LiveLessons (Video Training) InformIT Introduction to Game Design. This course provides a general introduction to what goes into the design and development of both video and analog games, with a particular focus on the use of games outside of consumer entertainment. Chapter 6 : Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development By: Jeremy Gibson Bond Master the Unity Game Engine to Design and Develop Games for Web, Mobile, Windows, macos, and More! If you want to design and develop games, there's no substitute for strong hands-on experience with modern techniques and toolsâ and that is exactly what this book provides. Chapter 7 : Introduction to Game Design: Don't Start with a Story Introduction to Video Game Design is a fun and easy text/software design guide that requires no previous knowledge of programming or game design. This text/software design guide introduces students to the fundamentals of video game design and provides hands-on experience using the freeware Game Maker game engine. Chapter 8 : Introduction to Game Design Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development is the first time that all three of these disciplines have been brought together into a single book. It is a distillation of everything that Gibson has learned teaching hundreds of game designers and developers in his years at the #1 university games program in North America. Chapter 9 : Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development, 2nd Edition â CoderProg Creating your first video game can be a daunting task, there's lot of work and sometimes you just don't know where to start with this series I aim to teac. Page 6

Intro to Interactive Entertainment Spring 2017 Syllabus CS 1010 Instructor: Tim Fowers

Intro to Interactive Entertainment Spring 2017 Syllabus CS 1010 Instructor: Tim Fowers Email: tim@fowers.net 1) Introduction Basics of Game Design: definition of a game, terminology and basic design categories.