DU Department of Computer Science   DU Game Development Program   Professor Leutenegger  

Introduction To Game Design, Winter 2013
Course Information and Syllabus


Dr. Scott Leutenegger
Professor and Director Game Development Programs
leut@cs.du.edu
Office: JGH 323, x12821
Office Hours: Mon 9 - 10, Wed 12 - 1:30, and by appointment


About This Course

This course covers fundamental game design practices and how to transition from a design, to prototype, to final game. The course will cover theory, design, and simple art-making. Students will be required to develop a simple 2D computer game. We will not be teaching programming, although the course will help you further develop/refine your programming skills.

Course Meeting Times

The lecture is held in JGH 318.

Pre-requisite

COMP 1771 or 1672. The ability to program interactive applications in Processing, Java, or Actionscript is assumed.

Grading


Reading summaries & quizzes 20%
Design/Art Exercises 20%
Paper Game Assignment 1 10%
Paper Game Assignment 2 10%
Paper Game Assignment 3 10%
Final (Digital) Game 30%

Required Books

You will be working in groups of two. The basic presumption is that the work you hand in was done by you two, and ONLY you two. Occasionally it may be necessary to ask someone for help. You are permitted to do so, provided you meet the following two conditions.

I shall not deduct credit for small amounts of acknowledged assistance. Such shared interest can be beneficial to all concerned. We do reserve the right to give less than full credit in circumstances where it appears that there has been large-scale division of labor, and you are not getting as much learning out of the assignment as you should. Unacknowledged help will be deemed as cheating and will result in a grade of F for the course and cheaters will be brought to the attention of the Dean. Cheating on an exam will be result in a grade of F for the course and cheaters will be brought to the attention of the Dean.

Course Calendar and Assignments

The calendar below contains links to homework assignments, links to programming projects, as well as important dates for you to keep in mind. First is brief topic guide, followed by the full calendar. Note, this is a guide, we may deviate from this order.

Topic Guidline

Week 1 Introduction, Skill vs Luck
Week 2 Formal Elements
Week 3 Dramatic Elements
Week 4 System Dynamics
Week 5 Playtesting
Week 6 Digital Prototypes
Week 7 2D GameArt-Making
Week 8 Workshop and Playtesting
Week 9 Workshop and Playtesting
Week 10 Workshop and Playtesting

Calendar

Date Topic Reading Assignment Misc Due
1/7 Warmup Exercise
1/9 Exercise 2 (Luck vs Skill) Chapter 2 Chapter 2 reading summary
1/14 Complete exercise 2
Formal Elements
Chapter 3 Chapter 3 reading summary
1/16 Exercise 3
Brainstorm Game 1
Paper Game 1 Assignment
1/21 MLK: No Class MLK: No Class MLK: No Class MLK: No Class
1/23 Playtest/peer-grade game 1 GAME 1
1/28 Chapter 5 Chapter 5 reading summary
1/30
2/4
2/23 AnimationExample.zip

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