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CS 477: Digital Game Design (JSON)

Catalog description: An introduction to digital game design. Topics include design, development, and playtesting of games. The course is structured to use team-based learning.

Prerequisites: C S 371 or consent of instructor    (Catalog Link)

Credits: 3 (3)

Coordinator: Phoebe Toups Dugas

Textbook: Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Third Edition, Tracy Fullerton
    (also: online reading)

BS degree role: selected elective

Course Learning Objectives

  1. Describe, analyze, and/or critique games with a consistent vocabulary
  2. Design, develop, and playtest games
  3. Understand the formal systems of games
  4. Communicate game designs through demonstrations and presentations

Course Practicum Requirements

  1. Usage of a version control system (Subversion or Git) for at least the project
  2. Development of a game in a high-level programming language (e.g., Unity, Unreal Engine)
  3. Construction of physical prototypes
  4. Usage of burndown charts for project tracking

Course Topics

  1. Project specification: developing vision, concept, scoping, milestones, and effort estimation
  2. Prototyping: creating physical prototypes, low-fidelity prototypes
  3. Development: constructing a game in a high-level language
  4. Playtesting: executing playtests with horizontal / vertical slices, writing reports, iterating design
  5. Recent topics in digital game research

Course Improvement Decisions

(Course improvement decisions or recommendations from past assessments)

  1. May 2020: Transition paper prototyping to virtual methods

ABET Outcome Coverage

(Provide Mapping to ABET Student Outcomes)

  1. TBD

Other Notes

(Any important notes or issues to consider)

  1. none