Video Game Design Curriculum

The three phases consist of:

Phase 1 - Foundations

During the Foundations phase, you spend most of your time in direct teaching experiences. You learn core ideas such as Object Oriented Analysis and Design, the necessary principles of User Experience (UX) Design, troubleshooting, storytelling and storyboarding, and usability analysis. It's basic training for brains. This lays the groundwork necessary to be able to move the next phase, Implementation.

Phase 2 - Implementation

During the Implementation phase you spend more and more time learning to apply your new knowledge and skills (from Foundations) to small projects or portions of projects. We want you to start breaking down the big challenges into smaller ones. From there, you build the solution up from the smaller, easier to solve, problems. Once you get the hang of project process, we move you into the Specialization Phase.

Phase 3 - Specialization

Specialization is the phase where the rubber really hits the road. You spend your time tackling projects that will hone your confidence to chow down on whatever challenge comes your way. Whether you are making mincemeat of a thorny game level problem or knocking a user design problem out of the park, during the Specialization phase, you will build a set of unique portfolio pieces that show just how badly your next employer wants you as their ace in the hole

Portfolio? But I'm a developer/coder/analyst! Proof is in the pudding, baby. The more you can show your next team leader that you not only know the answer, but how you got there, the more they will be confident you have what it takes to make a difference on their team.

Below is a list of the types of knowledge and skills you will be tackling while you sharpen your mind at Guru.

Theory

1. Critical Studies of Interaction Design and Games
   1. game criticism
   2. interaction design criticism
2. Games and Society
   1. games through history
   2. games for entertainment
   3. games for learning
   4. games for simulation
3. Interaction Design
   1. drawing on Industrial Design foundations
   2. innovation vs. standards
   3. usability standards
   4. design innovations
   5. testing and training
4. Game Design
   1. game engines
   2. world logic
   3. level design
   4. story and character
5. Interaction Programming
   1. interaction architecture
   2. interaction production
   3. interaction development roles
6. Game Programming
   1. game architecture
   2. game production
   3. game development roles
7. Visual & Audio Design
8. Interactive Storytelling
   1. non-linear paths
   2. super-arcs & sub-arcs in a plot
   3. building authentic player specific information
9. Production Best Practices
10. The project production cycle
    1. risk management
    2. change management
    3. testing and feedback
11. Business of Gaming
    1. intellectual property
    2. ethics
    3. marketing
    4. geographically dispersed production
    5. publisher/developer relations
    6. content regulation

Skills

1. Foundations of Programming
   1. object oriented concepts
   2. programming design patterns
   3. translating requirements to code
   4. troubleshooting code and ensuring quality
2. . Languages
3. 1. ActionScript (AS3)
   2. PHP
   3. game engine scripting languages (i.e. UnrealScript)
4. Client/Server
   1. connecting to a remote server
   2. ingesting services into your application
   3. troubleshooting client/server applications

Applied

1. Critical Studies of Interaction Design and Games
   1. game criticism
   2. interaction design criticism
2. Games and Society
   1. games through history
   2. games for entertainment
   3. games for learning
   4. games for simulation
      1. Interaction Design
         1. drawing on Industrial Design foundations
         2. innovation vs. standards
         3. usability standards
         4. design innovations
         5. testing and training
      2. Game Design
         1. game engines
         2. world logic
         3. level design
         4. story and character
      3. Interaction Programming
         1. interaction architecture
         2. interaction production
         3. interaction development roles
      4. Game Programming
         1. game architecture
         2. game production
         3. game development roles
      5. Visual & Audio Design
      6. Interactive Storytelling
         1. non-linear paths
         2. super-arcs & sub-arcs in a plot
         3. building authentic player specific information
      7. Production Best Practices
      8. The project production cycle
         1. risk management
         2. change management
         3. testing and feedback
      9. Business of Gaming
         1. intellectual property
         2. ethics
         3. marketing
         4. geographically dispersed production
         5. publisher/developer relations
         6. content regulation