Game Design (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 15 Weeks
Category Archives: Undergraduate
Courses for All IMA Students
Math for Game Designers (GAMES-UT 242)
Game Design (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks
Sections (Spring 2022)
GAMES-UT 242-000 (14831)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Mon8:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by
Level Design Studio (GAMES-UT 162)
This course focuses on the theory and practice of level design for 3D video games. Students will develop fluency in conveying experience design goals and building 3D spaces, gaining a practical understanding of architecture, lighting, and CG texturing for digital spaces — as well as a more abstract awareness of architectural theory — culminating in a long-term hands-on level design project.
Art Direction for Games (GAMES-UT 202)
Game Design (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks
Sections (Spring 2022)
GAMES-UT 202-000 (14873)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Wed2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by
Tabletop Roleplaying Game Design (GAMES-UT 154)
Roleplaying games represent one of the most important design spaces in modern gaming. Beginning in the early 70s, these games quickly took root and influenced games far beyond their own sphere. Mechanisms like levels, classes and hit points have been adopted in a far-reaching swath of board, card, digital and mobile games. But despite their influence, the design of RPGs is largely unexamined. This class walks students through the design process from concept, to testing, to writing and production. At the same time, students engage in meaningful play with historically significant games. From week to week the students experiment with and design systems for roleplaying games with the ultimate goal of designing a complete game as part of a team.
Intermediate Programming for Games (GAMES-UT 181)
What does it mean to think in code? How do you decide which features are worth the engineering cost? How do you write systems other people can understand, change, and combine with their own work? What is “architecture” for, if not communication? Intermediate Programming for Games is a hands-on studio class about programming as a way of thinking and communication as the skill that makes that thinking useful. You will build several projects in C# (primarily with Monogame, including a Unity port of a service- and event-bus-based architecture) that force you to design clear boundaries, readable public APIs, and modular systems that survive changing requirements. The work is practical, but the goal is not “more syntax.” The goal is to get better at deciding what to build, explaining how your code works to others, and structuring projects so collaboration is possible. We will treat design patterns, dependency management, and content pipelines as tools for thinking and talking.
3D Modeling for Games (GAMES-UT 206)
This course is an introduction to 3D graphics for video games, starting with the foundations of 3D modeling and texturing in industry-standard tools. It focuses on building fluency with basic tools and techniques, as well as developing experience with aesthetic issues of look, style, and critical judgement in visual art.
Physics Game Studio (GAMES-UT 128)
Physics Games Studio is an advanced digital development elective combining building literacy of a genre of games and teaching the craft necessary to make an entry in that genre. It combines necessary technical skills students will have learned in their prerequisites with a literacy component like that of an arts history course, and through the technical prerequisites students will be able to analyze and critique this cross section of games, and then immediately turn the development of a critical eye toward the creation of their own work. Literacy is particularly lacking in the games industry since technology becomes obsolete at such a quick clip, a course like Physics Games Studio aims to tie directly this connection of literacy with the artistic practice of students as they finish up their degrees. This 7-week, 2-credit course which meets twice a week (once for class, once for lab) also signals a shift in the curriculum planning of the Game Center as we aim to offer a rotating selection of courses that focus on very specific literacies and skills, following the success of XR Studio: Designing Games for Headsets last semester.”
Board Game Design (GAMES-UT 352)
Board game design is a one-semester course for students who want to dig deeper into table-top games, from design to history to manufacturing. The first half of the course looks at the world of mass market games, which focus heavily on commercials, trends, plastics, licenses, low prices, and casual rules. The second half focuses on hobby games, designed for the dedicated game player, and the different styles of games in that world. The course is hands-on with at least one published game played in every class. There are multiple assignments where students bring these concepts to life through their own designs. Throughout the course, there is a focus on understanding players and designing games for a target audience.
Game Design (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks
Sections (Fall 2020)
GAMES-UT 352-000 (20568)09/02/2020 – 12/13/2020 Tue,Thu9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by
Games and Players (GAMES-UT 312)
Game and Players gives students an overview of player-focused approaches to understanding game play, from a variety of methodological and theoretical frameworks. The class combines readings and analysis with exercises that give students hands-on experience with the methods discussed.
Game Design (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks
Sections (Spring 2022)
GAMES-UT 312-000 (14777)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Fri2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Clark, Naomi
Traditional Card Game Literacy and Design (GAMES-UT 407)
The traditional deck of cards is a device of unparalleled convenience, accessibility, and flexibility. As pocketable as a harmonica yet possessing the spectrum of a piano, this humblest of gaming platforms supports an amazing variety of games: historical classics, 20th century classics, and games by modern game designers, ranging from children’s games to the most intense mental contests, along with everything in between. Every game designer should be conversant with the basic history of playing cards, possessed of a wide selection of games that can be played with a standard deck, and comfortable with using it as a design tool that often cuts straight to the heart of a game mechanic.
Procedural Generation for Games (GAMES-UT 126)
“Procedural generation” describes the broad category of techniques by which elements of digital games that have traditionally been designed by hand (e.g. levels, characters, puzzles, and narrative) can be designed by automated processes. In recent years, these techniques have been a major topic of interest for computer science research as well as a core design component of many commercially successful games. The course teaches students to understand and implement these techniques and explore how to best combine procedural generation techniques with good design practice to produce interesting and novel experiences (rather than just using procedural generation techniques for technical curiosity). Emphasis is also placed on how procedural generation can uniquely harness the affordances of computers for designing games. The course is fundamentally practical. While students will study existing games and techniques, they will also produce games of their own across the three assignments.
Intermediate Game Design (GAMES-UT 151)
Intermediate Game Design is a hands-on studio class where we will be creating several game projects. The main approach we take is learning by doing, where we engage with ideas and each other through the act of making. While we will be discussing all kinds of games, most of the actual design work will be in the analog world – card and board games, social and physical games, and making presentations and documents. The class addresses many core concepts relevant to any kind of creative production, including prototyping, playtesting, and iterating; formal systems thinking; considering games as cultural and social phenomena; and how to communicate and document ideas.
Modern Tabletop Games Literacy (GAMES-UT 404)
Modern Tabletop Games are undergoing a renaissance, with designers building upon each other’s innovations at a bewildering rate. The cornucopia of concepts in modern boardgaming can be daunting to a newcomer, yet any digital game designer is well advised to familiarize themselves with this parallel world, both to expand their “bag of tricks” and their notion of what a game can be. This class aims to familiarize students with a wide variety of “gateway games”: relatively straightforward exemplars that will give the student a solid foothold when further exploring their respective genre in our extensive library of boardgames. While doing so, we will be discussing related short readings in Characteristics of Games, in order to give the design strategies being engaged a broader context.
Intro to Game Development (GAMES-UT 120)
Introduction to Game Development is a practical course that introduces students to the methods, tools and principles used in developing digital games. Over the course of the semester, students work alone to create a two digital prototypes or ‘sketches’, before building on them to produce a final polished game, using the lessons learned in the earlier prototypes. This is a hands-on, primarily lab-based course, and so the focus is on learning by doing rather than on reading and discussion.
Tackling Representation in Games (GAMES-UT 112)
Identity and representation are two of the most pressing and complex issues for contemporary video games, that without recognizing them an artist or critic would be missing a large part of how games are important in culture. With growing art and activist communities, video games are diversifying and grappling with a wide range of topics rarely seen before in the genre, and with it a greater need for informed perspectives on the topic of how marginalized people are depicted in media. This course discusses foundational theories of identity and encourages students to contribute their own ideas towards the design and interpretation of representation in games.
Game Design (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks
Sections (Spring 2022)
GAMES-UT 112-000 (14735)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by
Introduction to Narrative Design (GAMES-UT 161)
Narrative Design is an advanced game design course where students learn a variety of strategies to bring together game design and storytelling, both in table-top and digital games. Every assignment covers a different challenge when it comes to integrating systems design with storytelling. Students also learn some of the basics of storytelling, such as character development, dramatic action, generating conflict, and world-building.
Intermediate Game Development (GAMES-UT 121)
This course reflects the various skills and disciplines that are brought together in modern game development: game design, programming, asset creation, and critical analysis. Classroom lectures and lab time bring these different educational vectors together into a coherent whole; the workshop is organized around a single, long-term, hands-on, game creation project. At the completion of this course, the student is able to: 1) Describe typical work practice in game development. 2) Demonstrate competency through actual implementation of code and assets. 3) Work with a game engine, and understand the basics of how to build a game in the engine.
Game Design: Professional Practice (GAMES-UT 152)
Advanced Game Design focuses on the practical skills that working game designers need to get a job – and what they do at a company once they are there. Over the course of the semester, students work on two full project proposals – each proposal including design documentation, production and schedule planning, and a prototype specification. In addition, students take a handful of “game design tests” – based on actual game industry tests that are part of the hiring process. Along the way, we visit a few NYC-based game companies, as well discuss issues relevant to working game designers today. The goal of the course is to work on our communication, design, and planning skills, and get a sense for what it means to be a working game designer. Required: Intermediate Game Design.
Fame (MCC-UE 9346)
Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Mon
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Mon
Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks