What does story mean in games, how to construct it, and how to tie it to play elements.

Session 22: Story in Games

Elements of a unified game aesthetics with an eye twoards project 3.

Session 9: Coding Tips

Guest lecture by Courtney Stanton on the how to's of producing videogames.

Session 11: Videogame Production

Guest lecture by Ichiro Lambe and Rohit Shenoy on the state and functioning of the independent games industry.

Session 23: The Indie Industry

Guest lecture by Seth Sivak on how to design games that are fun to play and teach the player the rules of the world.

Session 16: Game Design Fundamentals

A consideration of how choices of game mechanics impact aspects of the play experience.  Includes bonus overview of CMS games curriculum.

Session 25: Choosing Mechanics

Where to find free audio and graphic elements, tools to generate them yourself, examples of sophisticated games built from easy pieces.

Session 10: Cheap Assets

Tools and techniques for running a development process with diverse and geographically disparate groups.

Session 20: Process

Guest lecture by Eitan Glinert on best practices for rapid iterative prototyping.

Session 14: Rapid, Iterative Prototyping Best Practices

When, What, Why, and How to cut features from a game.

Session 19: Cutting Features

Guest lecture by Jenna Hoffstein on designing games for usability, taking into consideration player attention and visual design.

Session 15: Usability

A presentation on the mechanics of paper prototyping, how to playtest, and forming groups for project 1.

Session 1 Part 3: Paper Prototyping, Playtesting, and Group Formation

Looking back on and evaluating Sprints, appreciating team members, and recapping sessions.

Session 12: Sprint Retrospectives, Appreciations, and Recap

Analyzing games based on the feeling of their play, decision vs. fate, skill vs. chance, rules vs. play

Session 13: Gamefeel - Decision and Fate

Detailed breakdown of design process subunits, including kinds of tasks lists with demos, daily scrum and other meetings, and sprint reviews and retrospectives.

Session 6: Task Lists, Daily Scrums, and Sprints

Session 7: Quality Assurance and Focus Testing

Elements of a unified game aesthetics with an eye towards project 3.

Session 8: Aesthetics and Project 3

Session 1 Part 2: Brainstorming

In part 1 of first class meeting the instructors introduce the course, give an overview, and detail the syllabus.

Session 1 Part 1: Introduction, Overview, and Syllabus

How to manage videogame development projects: Waterfall, Agile, and Scrum.

Session 4: Project Management

Creating Video Games

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