Week 1 Introduction

• Introduction to Game Design
• Reading: Crawford - Chapter 1
• Lab: Open Lab Intro
• Lab: Art Intro
• Lab: Godot Intro
• Class recordings:
  • Introduction to Game Design
  • Art Intro
  • Godot Intro Part 1
  • Godot Intro Part 2
  • Godot Intro Part 3
• Assignment 1: First Open Lab Post
  • Create an avatar in Piskel to use for the Open Lab Avatar
  • Take a screen shot of your Avatar inside the intro Godot scene
  • Post on Open Lab

Week 2 Character

• Character Design
• Piskel App
• Lab: Character Design
• Lab: Character Animation
• Class recordings:
  • Character Design Lecture
  • Character Design Lab
• Assignment 2: Character Design and Animation
  • Create three variations of a design for your player character
  • Post the sketches on Open Lab
  • Choose one design to make an animation
  • Make animations for Idle, Walk, Jump and Hit states
  • Post animation sprite sheets on the Open Lab

Week 3 Setting

• Game Setting
• Lab: Scenery
• Lab: Backgrounds
• Lab: Tilesets and Platforms
• Lab: Designing with Tilemaps
• Class recordings:
  • Setting Lecture
  • Scenery Sprites
  • Simple TileMap
  • AutoTiles
  • Background
• Reading: The Designer’s Notebook: Sorting Out the Genre Muddle
• Assignment 3: Scenery
  • Create the setting of a scene using a combination of scenery sprites, backgrounds and TileMaps
  • Scenery should have a cohesive theme that creates an identifiable world
  • Document the scenic elements with a screen shot from the game scene
  • Post a screen shot of the scenery and sprites on the Open Lab

Week 4 Genre

• Game Genre
• Reading: Watch Early Video Game History and A Brief History of Video Games and look at Video Game History Timeline
• Lab: Rewards
• Lab: Collecting Items
• Lab: Obstacles and Collisions
• Class recordings:
  • Genre Lecture
  • Collecting Items
  • Obstacles
• Assignment 4: Rewards and Obstacles
  • Create art for a reward for the player to collect
    • Include an idle state animation and collected animation
  • Create art for a stationary obstacle for the player to avoid
    • Include an idle state animation and collected animation
  • Add rewards and obstacles into a scene
  • Create a Global script to track the number of items collected
  • The script can also track the player health or number of lives
  • Post screens shots of the items in the game along with the spritesheets on the Open Lab

Week 5 Indie games

• Indie games
• Reading: Play Syoban Action
• Lab: Enemies (Moving Obstacles)
• Class recordings:
  • Indie games lecture
  • Enemy Lab
• Assignment 5:
  • Create art for a moving enemy
  • Include idle, walking, attack and death animations
  • Add a moving enemy into a Godot scene
  • Post sprite sheet and documentation on Open Lab

Week 6 Level Design

• Level Design
• Lab: Level Design
• Class recordings
  • Level Design Lecture
  • Level Design Lab Part 1
  • Level Design Lab Part 2
• Assignment 6:
  • Build a level in Godot
  • Document the player’s progress through the level
  • Post screen shot or video on the Open Lab

Week 7 Sound

• Sound effects
• Lab: Gameplay Sound Effects
• Lab: Background Music
• Class Recordings
  • Sound Desin Lecture
  • Background Music
  • Gameplay Sound Effects
• Assignment 7:
  • Add sound effects to player, obstacles and rewards
  • Add background music or sound

Week 8 Midterm

• In class workshop
• Create an itch.io account
• Lab: Exporting a Build
• Lab: Publishing on Itch.io
• Class recordings
  • Exporting a Web Build
  • Publishing on Itch.io
• Publish a build of your game and post on Itch.io

Week 9 User Testing

• Browser Games
• User Testing
• Class recordings
  • User Testing Lecture
  • User Testing Lab
  • Browser Games
• Assignment 8:
  • Create a user testing form
  • Playtest games and fill out user testing surveys in class

Week 10 Emergence & Progression

• Emergence & Progression
• Lab: NPCs
• Lab: Dialog Systems and Add-Ons

Week 11-13 Advanced Topics

• Lab: User Interface Design
• Lab: User Interface Layout
• Lab: User Interface Metrics
• Lab: Checkpoints and Portals
• Lab: Physics and Projectiles
• Lab: Level Design 2

Week 14-15 Final Project Workshop

• Final Project Requirements
  • Godot game exported and published on Itch.io
  • Original art for all of the characters, items and scenery in the game
  • Documentation on the Open Lab/Itch
    • One video of gameplay
    • 3 still images from the game
    • Written description of the game
  • Students can collaborate