Game Design and Development

This course is a fundamental course that covers the process of designing and developing complete, commercial games from inception of design idea through development and production. Topics will include structure of a video game, game design team roles, game design documents, game genres, player experience, game mechanics, game balancing, level design principles, storytelling, character development, game world design, user interface design in games. Students will be able to design, build, and test on personal computer using GameMaker Studio.

This course is an introduction to game programming using a modern game engine.  Topics include scripting game objects, graphics, game mechanics, sound, animation, physics, user interface design, animation, movement, spawning, collision detection, scenes, lighting, visual effects and artificial intelligence. Students will be able to design and develop a complete game using the Unity game engine and C# programming language.

This course is an introduction to the techniques and effects used in programming games for modern games. Topics include basic 2D and 3D game graphics tools, game mathematics, colors and pixels, ray tracing, rasterizing, shader programming, surfaces, direct and global illumination, special effects, and rendering.  Students will be able to create visually appealing graphical assets for video games.

This course is an introduction to the 2D and 3D animation principles and techniques used in modern video games. Topics include 3D animation principles, animation fundamentals, skeletons, rigging, skinning, spline curves, collision movement, forward vs. inverse kinematics, state machines, physics, dynamics, ragdoll, animated textures/shaders, pose, facial, sprites, frame rates, parallax scrolling, and 2D visual effects animation. Students will be able to demonstrate animation knowledge using Autodesk Maya.

This course is an introduction to the various techniques and algorithms used for the implementation of artificial intelligence in video games. Topics will include finite state machines, randomness and probability, sensory systems, flocking, path-following and path-finding, steering behaviors, navigation mesh, behavior trees, and machines learning. Students will be able to develop artificial intelligence for game characters in games using a variety of tools and APIs available using modern game development environment.