Content and Systems Design
If you’ve ever enjoyed the experience of playing a video game, you’ve had a first-hand lesson in how important content and systems design are. The experience of a game is driven by four major components: content, systems, narrative, and user experience. This class will help you learn to design all four components, and build a deeper understanding of the game development process and an introduction to concepts in scripting. This online class has optional live sessions.
Course Topics
Planning Game Design
A critical part of game creation is the planning phase. Students will learn how to plan out the process of game design, and create the necessary resources for a development team to function effectively.
Content Design
Content makes up the “nouns” of a game: characters, places and objects.
Building compelling content is part narrative, part visual design and part worldbuilding. Students will engage with all of these concepts.
Systems Design
Systems are the “verbs” of a game: running, jumping, combat, and so on. Students will learn how to plan out game systems using functional components and flow charts. Students will also be introduced to the anatomy of script creation within games.
Narrative Design
Narrative in games is more than just dialogue. It’s in the content and systems as well. Students will learn how to ensure that the mechanics, places, and people of their games convey and support the overall narrative.
Principles of User Experience
User experience - sometimes called quality of life - is a mixture of UI, useability, and other topics. Students will explore these topics and learn the importance of user experience in ensuring.
200
Disclosure
This course is delivered online through an institution of the Lower Cost Models Consortium (LCMC) that is different than your degree-granting institution that awards the academic credit for the course.
