Corona-Norco Unified School District Course of Study

CORONA-NORCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT COURSE OF STUDY

NAME OF COURSE: Digital Game Design

DEPARTMENT: Business/Technology

CREDENTIAL REQUIRED: Single Subject Business, Computers, or IT

GRADE LEVEL: 10 - 12

REQUIRED PREREQUISITE(S): History of Video Games, VGD - Intro to 3D Modeling

CREDITS: 10

LENGTH: Year-Long

LECTURE HOURS: 180

COURSE CONTENT:

This course introduces digital game design, including planning, designing, and developing an original digital game. Topics include analyzing the target audience, pitching an original game concept, understanding the Game Design Document (GDD), the iterative process and rapid digital prototyping.

Completion of this course and successfully meeting the standards established in conjunction with Riverside Community College District (RCCD) - Norco College, students may earn (4) college credits. The RCCD articulated course is Digital Game Design (GAM 23).

UC “a-g” REQUIREMENTS: None

COURSE MATERIALS:

Materials will be periodically reviewed to ensure they are up to date and appropriate as software updates and industry demands vary.

Software

·  YoYo Games Ltd - GameMaker: Studio

·  Unity

·  AutoDesk - 3DS Max

·  Photoshop

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS:

Possible Textbooks, used as reference

·  Brookey, R. A..Hollywood Gamers: Digital Convergence in the Film and Video Game Industries. Indiana University Press, 2010.

·  Cannon-Bowers, Janis.Serious Game Design & Development: Technologies for Training & Learning. 1 ed. Information Science Reference, 2010.

COURSE OUTLINE:

1.  Digital Game Design Processes

a.  Designing with Constraints

b.  Target Audience Analyses

c.  Pitching an Original Game Concept

d.  Rapid Digital Prototyping

2.  Game Genre studies in relation to core mechanics including

a.  Action Games

b.  Adventure Games

c.  Strategy Games

d.  Role-Playing Games

e.  Sport Games

f.  Simulations

g.  Artificial Life

h.  Puzzle Games

i.  Online Games

j.  Other Genres

3.  Application of Game Design Principles Including

a.  Formal elements of games

b.  Mechanics and dynamics

c.  Rules and gameplay

d.  Game balancing

e.  Level Design

f.  Flow and player psychology

4.  Team Dynamics

a.  Life Cycle Documents

b.  Team Management including communication, milestones/deadlines and responsiveness

5.  Digital Game Making Techniques

a.  Creating, editing Art Assets

b.  Creating, editing and importing Audio Assets

c.  Scripting basics, adding logic to your game

d.  Debugging techniques

e.  Testing and iterative refinement

f.  Version Control and File management