Each student will be expected to contribute to the class based on his or her background. For example, computer science and computer engineering students will provide technical guidance and programming expertise while students in other sciences, arts and business areas will contribute from their own disciplines. As each student brings a potentially different skill set and expertise to the class, student deliverables will be highly personal. Prerequisite: none. (3 Credits)

Original course description is here. It has been deprecated, thanks to an excess ingestion of psyllium husks.

• Form student game design teams of no more than 4 students each by the second week of class.
• Develop expert consultant list (of students in our course) by second week of class.
• Participate in short, interactive lectures on game design and structure, digital prototyping, technical and design documentation, current game hardware and game device architecture, and team-based implementation organization.
• Read assigned portions of textbook to prepare for and supplement lectures.
• Participate in hands-on lab sessions during regular class meetings with a variety of game design, development and testing software tools.
• Participate in computer game design, programming and software evaluation tasks using Processing, GameMaker and other similar high-quality game development environments or platforms.
• Students with strong technical backgrounds (Computer Science, Computer & Electrical Engineering, etc.) will undertake significant technical design and development tasks, including elements of software engineering, object-oriented design, and programming.
• Students without a strong technical background (Arts, Business, etc.) will be assigned unique tasks based on their background and skill-set to contribute the much needed artistic design, business and marketing planning, story design, market research, and even game testing that will be essential to the projects undertaken.
• All students will be expected to "stretch" beyond their comfort zones, with non-technically oriented students attempting technical tasks, and technical students attempting non-technical tasks.
• Team-members will communicate openly with each other and with the instructor, and will periodically evaluate the participation and performance of members of their team.
• Students will participate in team-based, cross-institutional collaboration on the development of a single game or game design platform, to be completed by the end of the semester.
• Students will participate in small-team (Villanova only) design and implementation exercises to produce 2-4 games or gaming elements using industry standard game development tools.

• Students will demonstrate an understanding of the game design process, including creative, technical, and business aspects.
• Students will demonstrate an ability to collaborate with small, interdisciplinary teams to design, implement, test and evaluate small computer games to a degree appropriate to the student's academic background.
• Student will demonstrate an ability to collaborate with students at another institution (i.e. TCNJ) as part of a large team effort to design, implement, test and evaluate a large computer game or game design framework to a degree appropriate to the student's academic background.
• Students with a technical background (e.g. Computer Science, Engineering) will demonstrate an understanding of game software design and implementation through active participation in game development activities.
• Students with a non-technical background (e.g., English, Psychology, Business) will demonstrate an understanding of supporting and creative roles in technical game software design and will demonstrate an introductory level familiarity with game design tools and technology.

• Learn about the game design process
• Design and create games
• Develop technical and non-technical career skills
• Have fun

• Game Design Basics
  • The Role of the Game Designer
  • The Structure of Games
  • Working with Formal Elements
  • Working with Dramatic Elements
  • Working with System Dynamics
• Designing Games
  • Conceptualization
  • Prototyping
  • Digital Prototyping
  • Playtesting
  • Functionality, Completeness and Balance
  • Fun and Accessibility
• Working As a Game Designer
  • Team Structures
  • Stages of Development
  • The Design Document
  • Understanding the Game Industry
  • Selling Yourself and Your Ideas to the Game Industry
• Game Design Experience
  • Creating Game Ideas
  • Evaluating Games
  • Software Tools for Game Development
  • Game Design Terminology
  • Game Technology
    

15%  Homework assignments of various types
40%  Team projects & Individual contribution to team projects
15%  Comprehensive exam
25%  Final project
  5%  Participation (attendance, class discussion, intellectual contribution to class)