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Courses - Spring 2024
INST
Information Studies
Open Seats as of
07/26/2024 at 08:30 PM
INST705
Game Design Studio
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, Aud
Recommended: Programming experience will be useful, but not strictly necessary.
Credit only granted for: INST408J, INST608J or INST705.
Formerly: INST608J.
Learn the fundamentals of game design by applying elements and principles of game design, such as goals, rules, and challenges, to create board games, card games, and digital games. Students will be introduced to the basic tools and methods of game design: paper and digital prototyping, design iteration, design critique, and user testing. Students will design several games of different types to add to a growing portfolio of game design concepts. Students will also learn how to use their skills to deconstruct and critique the components of existing games, as well as gain an understanding of the role of the game designer in real-world game development teams.
Every week, we'll read foundational and cutting edge work on games, watch videos of key talks in the field, and play a videogame, using a format called Read, Watch, Play. We'll begin the semester by talking about how failure and feedback lead to certain types of emergent experiences, then learn about flow, narrative, what it means to become the character in a game, what game experiences inherently miss, how 'cheap shot' games seek to manipulate their players, and so on. We'll wrap up the semester with a small project of your choice, in whatever format and on whatever topic you find interesting!