Game Design In a College Course
~ A Survey ~
Presented by:
Larry Cummins
With Appreciation to My Advisor:
Dr. Arturo I Concepcion
Original Intent
GOAL: To survey information to see what different universities
are currently doing in Game Design and Game Programming
1) Game Design & Development (GD&D)
- play goals
- how it is played
- aspects that make it fun
- organizational phases of development
- submittal & feedback process
- evolution of the game in this process
2) Game Programming
- how to build a game
- especially using XNA
- software development process
- implementation
Investigated Sources
CONFERENCES:
• Computer Games, Multimedia and Allied Technology Conference 2009, Singapore
http://www.aigamesnetwork.org/main:events:cgat
• E3: Electronic Entertainment Expo, Los Angeles
www.e3expo.com
• The Game Developers Conference Austin, 2009
http://www.gdcaustin.com/
• Game Developers Conference Europe, 2009
http://www.gdceurope.com/
• The Game Developers Conference 2009, San Francisco
https://www.cmpevents.com/GD09/a.asp?option=C&V=1&SB=4
• Gamescom 2009, Germany
http://www.gamescom-cologne.com/
• The International Consumer Electronics Games Innovations Conference 2009, London
[IEEE Consumer Electronics Society]
http://ice-gic.ieee-cesoc.org/
• The L.A. Games Conference 2009, Los Angeles
http://www.lagamesconference.com/
• The New York Games Conference 2009, New York
http://www.nygamesconference.com/
• Nordic Game Conference 2009, SWEDEN
www.nordicgame.com/
• Tokyo Game Show 2009, Tokyo
http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/english/
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - IEEE Xplore
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/guesthome.jsp
SOURCES FOR THIS PRESENTATION:
• 3rd International Conference on Game Development in Computer Science Education, 2008, Miami
http://www.microsoft4me.com/faculty/events/adgd2008/
• 4th International Conference On The Foundations Of Digital Games, 2009, Orlando
http://www.fdg2009.org/
• The ACM Digital Library
Association for Computing Machinery
http://portal.acm.org/dl.cfm?coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=65824273&CFTOKEN=55429939
An Additional Intent
• These papers reiterate the fact that there has been a
significant drop in Computer Science (CS) student
enrollment and retention for most of this decade
• They also consider that CS and Information Technology
(IT) has a typical imbalanced population of only 5 - 6%
women
• For a few years CS departments have used Game Design
(GD) to attract more students
• This became another aspect of my research into the use
of Game Design in a College Course
From Intent to Present
With refined goals this presentation will focus on six classroom
experiences and will provides some insight to answer these
questions:
1) A Course in Game Design & Development (GD&D)
- What are characteristics of the course?
- Can Game Design incorporate play to make it fun?
- What attracts students to a course in Game Design?
- How successful are courses in attracting and retaining
students?
- How can the male-dominated majors become more gender
balanced?
2) The Process of Game Programming
- What software and hardware are being used?
- What are phases of development for Game Design?
Six Experiences Examined
• RIT
Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, NY
• UV
•
•
•
•
University of Victoria, British Columbia
UCSC
University of California, Santa Cruz, CA
GT & SCAD
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, GA
DWC
Daniel Webster College, Nashua, NH
DPU
DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Demographics
Univ
Year
Class
Size
RIT
2008
60
freshmen
Game Design and Development
UV
2007
56
Undergrads
Computer Science Survey class
UCSC
2007
212
Undergrads
Foundations of Interactive Game
Design
GT &
SCAD
2008
13
6
14 Jr & Sr
5 grads
Handheld Augmented Reality
Game Design
DWC
2008 Various All undergrad
years
DPU
2007
25
Composition
Course
Game development throughout
the CS curriculum
Mostly Jr & Sr Console Game Development
Environments
Design Environments
Univ
Software
Hardware
RIT
• Java
• An RIT program that allows Java to work with the Wii remote
• Wii remote
• PC-based
UV
• Game Maker
• PC-based
UCSC
• Game Maker
• PC-based
GT &
SCAD
• Studierstube ES (STBES [written in C++])
• Visual Studio 2008
• T-Square
• Maya
• Maya plug-in to export models & keyframe animations
• a stand-alone model viewer
• Gizmondo mobile
device (Bluetooth)
DWC
• Freshman: C#.net
• Sophomore, Juniors: some XNA building on the C#.NET
foundation
• Senior: encouraged to develop entire game engine in C++
• PC-based
DPU
• XNA all the way through (other courses use C/C++, OpenGL)
• 20 Xbox 360
consoles
RIT – The Attraction
GD&D Majors
• Advantage: high interest in expressing creativity in
GD&D compared to other majors
• Disadvantage: low interest in problem solving
RIT – Lessons
• Wii remote - the physical manipulation is very attractive to
students
• Game Design included about 10% women, twice the average
for CS & IT
Retention:
- CS
56% (1st year)
- GD&D 93%
Results of a subsequent C++ course:
- GD&D 48% As 25% Bs
- CS
25% As 29% Bs
• GD&D students believe:
1) career would be long hours
2) it’s a hard industry to enter
Result: none have changed to the RIT GD&D major
UV – The Waterfall Lifecycle in the Context
of Game Design
Game Design Process Waterfall Lifecycle
Conceptualization
Phase
Requirements
Project Deliverables
Project Schedule
Specification Sketch
Specifications
Initial Design Document
Architectural Design
Prototype Phase
Game State Diagram
Alpha Version Executable
Detailed Design
Implementation
Playtesting Phase
Revised Design Document
User Guide
Playtest Feedback
Testing & Debugging
Finished Product
Beta Version Executable
Final Design Document
Final User Guide
UV - Conceptualization Phase
Game Design Process Waterfall Lifecycle
Conceptualization
Phase
Requirements
Project Deliverables
Project Schedule
Specification Sketch
Specifications
Initial Design Document
Architectural Design
Game State Diagram
Define formal elements: objectives, rules, resources
Define dramatic elements: story, characters, challenge
Deliverables:
- Project Schedule: with milestones equivalent to deliverables
- Specification Sketch:
explains game concept
interface mock-ups
game controls
flow of game-play
- Design Document
- Game State Diagram: to visualize the Architectural Design
UV - Prototype Phase
Game Design Process Waterfall Lifecycle
Prototype Phase
Project Deliverables
Alpha Version Executable
Detailed Design
Implementation
Revised Design Document
User Guide
Workload: team determined distribution of work between members
Deliverables:
- Alpha version minimum requirements:
1) artwork for sprites
2) defined game objects
3) system behaviors (e.g. game structure)
4) executed basic events (e.g. start game)
- Revised Design Document
- Users Guide
UV - Playtesting Phase
Game Design Process Waterfall Lifecycle
Playtesting Phase
Project Deliverables
Playtest Feedback
Testing & Debugging
Finished Product
Beta Version Executable
Final Design Document
Final User Guide
“…one of the most critical phases of Game Design…”
Feedback: test others’ games and give them feedback
provide input for iterative design loop
re-evaluate requirements, specifications and design
Incorporate changes from feedback received
Deliverables:
- Beta Version Executable
- Final Design Documentation
- Final User Guide
UV - Lessons
• Game Maker good for: 1) short learning curve, 2) no programming
experience required, 3) rapid prototyping
Survey results for interests in:
• Game Design: decreased 70%
CS degree: decreased 20%
• Further programming: 25% increased, 40% decreased
• More CS courses: 20% reduced, 15% increased interest,
67% non-majors not likely to take more CS courses
Possible causes:
• Those with little programming bogged down in technical details and
couldn’t work on design
• Those with programming experience did well with implementation
but lacked conceptualization
Suggestion:
• Equal emphasis on conceptualization and implementation
“Students appeared to have reached the conclusion that the reward-towork ratio for game development is not one-to-one.”
UCSC – Demographics
- Female population similar to Engineering 15 - 20%
- Largest population of courses examined
UCSC – Class Lessons
• Students demo games they like at the beginning of class
engaging, fewer missed classes, late arrivals are less disruptive
• Taught: game elements, genre overview, challenge & conflict,
level design, history of games, narrative, games & culture
• Original non-computer-based game taught students rules and
limitations
- an unusually high percentage of drinking games were designed;
suggest discouraging them [due to iterative testing requirement?]
- games based on cards were remakes of existing games
• 6 best demoed to a panel from the computer games industry
- top 4 got prizes, very motivating to polish their games
UCSC – Results
• Each year this course is taught 1-3 students declare GD
as their major
• Game design can be done in a large classroom aimed at
freshmen & sophomores
• It is effective in attracting non-engineering students
• Programming experience is not necessary and not a
deterrent to create working computer games
GT & SCAD – Class Process
• Special Challenges: 1) inter-institutional class & 2) designing for
a new technology handheld device
• 3-5 students per team including 1 or 2 SCAD students
• Assignments required a playable prototype with demo video
- 1 week of ideas & concepts
- 1-2 weeks for feedback and implementation
- 1 week presentation, tweaks & fixes
• Groups analyzed formal aspects (rules, mechanics, genre,…)
- what was compelling or effective
- how that could be used in an AR game
- BUT done too much and students start mimicking existing
games
GT & SCAD – Game Design Process
• Goal: create an AR board game, since a board game
depends on game pieces and a board which correlates
to markers and multi-marker boards in AR
• The AR physical interactions:
- must be tested as soon as possible (not like 1st person
shooter controls or 2D platformer controls)
- must be allowed to evolve with the game which makes
the game in constant prototype
• Beginning of first 2 prototyping cycles were spent playing
and analyzing board games
GT & SCAD – Results
• Prototyping
- Prototype live AR interactions early result is more successful
- Too much paper prototyping caused groups to miss deadlines
- Rapid prototyping: more time for trying ideas, failing and fixing
Device Limitations
• Had to use a low-polygon count model to ensure a frame rate that
made their games playable
• Limited 256x256 texture size was a challenge for some but
restricting for others
• Inter-institution experience: SCAD students didn’t feel that they had
technical knowledge or “owned” their projects
DWC – Curriculum Software
Freshman: write complex C#.net games
Sophomore: Gaming Majors and some CS use
XNA to develop multi-player gaming systems
Senior: if pursuing career in game industry
encouraged to develop entire game engine in
C++
DWC – Curriculum Process
• 1st year
- given an executable and specifications
score is based on sophistication of code
makes learning faster and the project is more game-like in itself
- teams create a casino-oriented gaming system
individuals make their own prototype of one of the casino games
game integration, documentation, Q&A, final testing
• 2nd year: game theme in assembly on 16-bit processor
• 3rd year: broad CS themes, Unix/Linux, web, networking, programming
• 4th year: teams choose their tools, many select C# .NET
Knowing C# .NET and XNA they will be ready for any 3D development of
games, commercial training or defense
DWC - Results
• Adding game development in the freshman year
CS increased enrollment 240% due to:
- students are attracted to games
- most DWC CS majors want to pursue a career
in GD industry
• Game focus in CS provides: complexity, range of
CS challenges, software engineering, teamwork,
basis for cross-disciplinary knowledge integration
like math, physics & logic
DPU - Systems
• Hardware: awarded 1 of 5 Microsoft grants that year:
provided:
- 20 Xbox 360 consoles
- 20 Creator’s Club licenses
- funds to purchase monitors and
- upgrade the game development labs
• Software: XNA is used all the way through for students
to learn all aspects of console game creation
- other courses use C/C++, OpenGL
DPU – Course Schedule
DPU – Class Process
• First 7 projects done individually, so students learn all aspects
• 8th project option to work in a team up to 4 members
• By requiring all students to be familiar with all aspects means
more exposure to content pipeline
• Understanding the content pipeline:
- speeds up design
- reduces frustration, improves morale
- better represents students’ abilities
• Students encouraged to share artwork and code, get extra
credit if any is used by another student
• Students design game level and asset budgets, like polygon
counts, sound size, image map size, & memory use
DPU – Game Design
• Start by creating font, icons, 3D model, camera & object
paths, animation, sound, programming is deemphasized,
goal is a “rail shooter” game
• XNA Pipeline is implemented with a visual interface that
helps students better understand the process
• XNA Game Studio which is the integrated development
environment, code is written & debugged in C#
DPU - Results
Average Grades
• 16 programmers: 86%
• 3 CS majors:
86%
programmers
• Milestones 79%
• Quizzes
80%
• Final
91%
9 non-programmers: 79%
16 GD majors:
79%
non-programmers
74%
71%
88%
• Gave NON-TECHS: importance of naming convention at front end
and how used at back end, why some rules intrinsic to games
• Gave TECHS: glimpse into world of artists
FUTURE
• Try to minimize programmer vs non-programmer difference in
performance
• May split into 2 courses: 1) intro skipping some things, making it
based more on path-based animation, 2) allow creation of more
advanced content
Survey Results
Game Design & Development
What are characteristics of the course?
• GD gives student more freedom to be creative
• Individual student games combined to create a suite
• Some courses programming experience is not necessary
Can Game Design incorporate play to make it fun?
• Students find physical interaction attractive, like with the Wii
remote
• Students had to learn game principles by playing
What attracts students to a course in Game Design?
• Students are attracted to GD for the creativity
• There are cross-discipline aspects that can attract student in
Art, Communications, Computer Science, Interactive Media,
Music and Writing
Survey Results
How successful are courses in attracting and retaining students?
• Higher retention rate and test scores of GD students than CS
• 2 experiences had negative results for attracting students to CS
How can the majors become more gender balanced?
• More female students ARE attracted to GD than CS or IT (creativity?)
• An increase from the typical 5-6% to 10-20 %
Game Programming
What software and hardware are being used?
• 2 of the 6 surveyed use XNA and 2 use Game Maker
• Others use C# .Net, Java and Studierstube
• They design for the PC, Wii remote and Xbox
What are phases of development for Game Design?
• One clearly adapted the Waterfall Lifecycle to GD process
• Others adapted processes with milestones and deliverables
References
Barba, Evan, Yan Xu, Blair Maclntyre, and Tony Tseng. “Lessons from a class on handheld
augmented reality game design.” Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on
Foundations of Digital Games, April 26 - 30, 2009: Session on ICFDG-09 technical papers.
2009. 2-9. [GT & SCAD]
Bayliss, Jessica D., and Kevin Bierre. “Game design and development students: who are they?”
Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Game development in computer science
education, February 28-March 3, 2008. New York:Association for Computing Machinery,
2008. 6-10. [RIT]
Goulding, Tom. “Complex game development throughout the college curriculum.” ACM SIGCSE
Bulletin 40 (2008): 68-71. [DWC]
Linhoff, Joe, and Amber Settle. “Teaching game programming using XNA.” Proceedings of the
13th annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, June
30 - July 2, 2008: Session on Games as a motivational tool. New York:Association for
Computing Machinery, 2008. 250-254. [DPU]
Rankin, Yolanda, Amy Gooch, and Bruce Gooch. “The impact of game design on students'
interest in CS” Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Game development in
computer science education, February 28-March 3, 2008. New York:Association for
Computing Machinery, 2008. 31-35. [UV]
Whitehead, Jim. “Introduction to game design in the large classroom.” Proceedings of the 3rd
international conference on Game development in computer science education, February 28March 3, 2008. New York:Association for Computing Machinery, 2008. 61-65. [UCSC]
Reference Links
GDCSE08-02
RIT
Game design and development students: who are they?
Bayliss, Jessica D., and Kevin Bierre
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1463673.1463675&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=59445291&CFTOKEN=71978036
GDCSE08-07
UV
The impact of game design on students' interest in CS
Rankin, Yolanda, Amy Gooch, and Bruce Gooch.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1463673.1463680&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=59445291&CFTOKEN=71978036
GDCSE08-13
UCSC
Introduction to game design in the large classroom
Whitehead, Jim.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1463673.1463686&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=59445291&CFTOKEN=71978036
FDG 09-01
GT & SCAD
Lessons from a class on handheld augmented reality game design
Barba, Evan, Yan Xu, Blair Maclntyre, and Tony Tseng.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1536513.1536525&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=58406739&CFTOKEN=38457990
ACM-24
DWC
Complex game development throughout the college curriculum
Goulding, Tom.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1473195.1473223&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=64248841&CFTOKEN=17112394
ACM-30
DPU
Teaching game programming using XNA
Linhoff, Joe, and Amber Settle.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1384271.1384338&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=64248841&CFTOKEN=17112394