PROGRAMS
Game Production Courses 4
GLOBAL GAME STUDIES
In this course, students are introduced to worldwide interactive entertainment, critical theory and analysis of games, and a history of electronic and non-electronic games. Topics covered provide an in-depth analysis of games across cultures and the importance role-playing within games has in society; analysis will include both ancient and modern games.
HISTORICAL ARCHETYPES AND MYTHOLOGY
Historical Archetypes and Mythology explores how myths, fairy tales, and folklore link disparate cultures. This course provides an analysis of common themes and underlying similarities of human cultures while exploring how these myths and archetypes continue to define individuals and cultures. Students examine how myths and archetypes influence popular entertainment, and how corporations and media outlets use these tools to create dramatic messages, sell products, and influence consumer behavior. Topics are enhanced by group discussion, in-class workshops, research, and writing assignments.
LEVEL DESIGN
In this course, students use level editors and other tools to design game environments by placing physical obstacles and rewards along with non-physical elements such as event triggers. Students learn to create levels that offer variety within a cohesive experience, keeping in mind pacing, escalating tension, and climaxes.
PRE-PRODUCTION
In the Pre-production course, student teams compose comprehensive game design documents for their final projects; the document describes a game’s story, characters, gameplay, user interface, asset lists, program hardware and software requirements, and all other details necessary to construct a game. Based on the design document, the student teams also create a technical design document, which communicates technical and programming elements of a game to programmers and other software engineers.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
This course teaches fundamental project management skills in an agile development environment. Particular emphasis is given to tools and software for planning, scheduling, tracking, and reporting project progress. Students will apply the project management techniques acquired in this course in Game Production I, Game Production II, and in the development of their final project.
