Game Design Principles
Understanding the principles and process of game design is essential for anyone interested in video game scoring and sound design. This course provides an overview of video game design, exploring the iterative process of coming up with ideas, prototyping, testing, and revising that is at the heart of the video game industry. You will learn to analyze games through such elements as mechanics, systems dynamics, interface, navigable space, and avatars. The course examines the principles of game design from a visual studies perspective that connects video games with wider issues in art and design. Throughout the course, you will learn to create and revise game ideas based on the results of play testing and feedback from the other students in the course.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Understand the process for designing video games
- Define the concepts of mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics in a game, and how they are connected
- Analyze games using concepts and spectrums for player experience
- Recognize how video games are an art form, and how artistic imagery is an essential component in video games
- Identify several ways of categorizing games, and which ways are most helpful for understanding game audio
- Identify elements of storytelling and dramatic structure in games
- Explain the role of physics in terms of rules, mechanics, world building, and how they contribute to dynamics, aesthetics, game feel, and player experience
Syllabus
Lesson 1 Introduction to Game Design
Lesson 2 What Is a Game? What Is Play?
Lesson 3 Hands-On Game Design and Genres
Lesson 4 History and Aesthetics of Video Games
Lesson 5 Game Design and Visual Studies
Lesson 6 Players, Experience, and Games in Culture
Lesson 7 Elements of Games
Lesson 8 Story in Games
Lesson 9 Space and Place in Video Game Worlds
Lesson 10 Game Characters
Lesson 11 Interface and Control
Lesson 12 The (Near and Distant) Future of Gaming
Requirements
Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements
This course does not have any prerequisites.
Required Textbook(s)
- The Art of Game Design, 3rd Edition by Jesse Schell, A K Peters/CRC Press
- Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 4th Edition by Tracy Fullerton, A K Peters/CRC Press
Software Requirements
The following games should be purchased from the Steam® website:
- Portal 2
- Broken Age
- The Swapper
- Stanley Parable
- Evoland
The following list shows additional games for free that will be used in the course:
- Star Trek Online
- Hearthstone
- GameSalad
General Course Requirements
Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in live chats. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course.
Mac Users
- OS X 10.10 Yosemite or higher
PC Users
- Windows 7 or higher
All Users
- Latest version of Google Chrome
- Zoom meeting software (available in the course when joining your first chat)
- Webcam
- Speakers or headphones
- External or internal Microphone
- Broadband Internet connection
Instructors
Author
Lori Landay is a professor of cultural studies at Berklee College of Music and an interdisciplinary scholar and new media artist exploring the making of visual meaning in 20th- and 21st-century culture. She is the author of two books, I Love Lucy and Madcaps, Screwballs, and Con Women: The Female Trickster in American Culture, in addition to articles on topics such as virtual worlds, digital narrative, silent film, and television culture. Her creative work includes animation, graphic design, creative documentary, machinima, interactive virtual art installations, and music video. Landay has been awarded the Dean’s Award for Excellence in the Professional Education Division at Berklee College of Music, a Newbury Comics Faculty Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Enduring Questions Grant. She has consulted on and appeared in Finding Lucy, an American Masters documentary airing nationally on PBS and internationally, in addition to serving as the Information Technology Officer for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies from 2002-05. Landay holds a bachelor’s degree from Colby College, which included a year abroad at the University of York in England, master’s degrees in American Studies and English from Boston College and Indiana University, respectively, and a doctoral degree in English and American Studies from Indiana University.
Instructor
Danielle Riendeau is an editorial video producer at Vox Media’s Polygon.com, a game development instructor and an indie game designer. She holds an MA in Visual Media Art from Emerson College and has taught at Northeastern University since 2010, primarily game design and interactive storytelling courses.
Instructor
Ricky Rockley is a game designer, developer, artist, and teacher specializing in Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality. He graduated with high honors from The Art Institutes International – Kansas City with a Bachelor of Arts in Game Art Design; and would later return to teach Game Art and Design to students from across the world. Ricky’s creative and professional background includes ground-up development, 3D modeling, traditional and digital sketches/paintings, texture/material/lighting for games, animation, rigging, VFX, and sound design.
What’s Next?
When taken for credit, Game Design Principles can be applied towards these associated programs:
Associated Certificate Programs
- General Music Studies Professional Certificate
- General Music Studies Advanced Professional Certificate
- Game Audio Design and Production Professional Certificate
Associated Degree Majors
- Bachelor’s Degree in Music Production
- Bachelor’s Degree in Music Business
- Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Music Studies (Create Your Own Major)
- Bachelor’s Degree in Songwriting
- Bachelor’s Degree in Electronic Music Production and Sound Design
- Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition for Film, TV, and Games
- (Pre-Degree) Undeclared Option
- Bachelor’s Degree in Songwriting and Producing Music
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