Narrative Design Workshop |
This course examines the critical elements that make strong story concepts and how they can be shaped to create the foundations of great games. Students will design, narrative, game play, physical environment (world, gameplay spaces), and other key elements. Guest speakers will include veteran game designers and writers. |
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2D Game Design |
This course exposes students to the beginning technology of 2D games. Each student gets the experience of running her own game studio in collaboration with 1-4 classmates. Students deliver a working digital game at the end of the semester. Industry standards such as Agile, Scrum, Confluence, and JIRA expose students to state of the art production methods and enable teams to deliver software efficiently. Students are supported by a technical instructor/mentor who assists with programming as an active member of their team. Students take increasingly advanced variations of this course in the course of their degree so they will acquire more sophisticated skills each successive semester. At the end of the degree they will have a portfolio of working software projects. |
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Introduction to Game Analysis |
The focus of this course is the study and deconstruction of video games. Students learn how to break any game down into Formal Elements, Dramatic Elements, and Dynamic Elements and become versed in the language of Playcentric Design. Students are exposed to the video game canon via study of both seminal games as well as contemporary masterpieces. Deliverables are game deconstruction presentations suitable for a student portfolio. |
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Game Design Studio I |
This is a companion to the 2D Game Design class. Students work in teams to build their working digital game and receive individualized tutelage and direct coding support from their instructor. Students learn that they can produce working software—even with beginner skills in a short time. They sharpen their skills by practicing this process multiple times in the degree. |
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Playcentric Design |
This course provides a foundation of knowledge for understanding games as playable systems. Students learn the language of Playcentric Design and practice the craft of prototyping, playtesting, and iteration in an environment independent of computers. This is to provide the student hard skills that can be used throughout a career in games—transcendent of changing technologies. The student will: 1) Understand Fundamental Theory – See how any game breaks down into Formal, Dramatic, and Dynamic systems. And learn how the three interrelate. 2) Learn Core Development Process – Acquire the skills of prototyping, playtesting, iteration, presentation, and collaboration. These timeless skills can be applied to all game types present and future. 3) Practice, Practice, Practice – All students prototype multiple games -on paper regardless of technical skills. All students gain extensive experience critiquing and analyzing games via formal playtests with fellow students. At the end of the course each student will have a portfolio of paper game prototypes. |
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Introduction to 3D Art |
This course introduces students to Autodesk’s Maya Animation, Visual Effects, and Compositing software, a robust application used throughout the video game industry for the creation of visual assets. Students learn how to optimize the Maya interface for enhanced productivity. They are introduced to polygon tools and taught polygonal modeling in a hands-on environment. Students gain practical understanding of polygonal modeling for organic characters, and hard surface models. Students will also learn the basics of UV mapping, nurbs modeling, texturing, and three-point lighting using D-map and raytrace shadows. |
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Systems Literacy |
This course builds upon the foundations established in the Playcentric Design course, and focuses on advanced study of system design and play mechanics. The course is workshop-focused, meaning a substantial portion of time is spent actively engaged in the paper prototyping process. Readings and lectures supplement discussions as we explore more sophisticated facets of the playable systems and user experience design. Creating system literacy is the primary goal; and everything else we do supports that aim. Students will leave the course with multiple portfolio-ready game prototypes. |
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3D Game Design |
This course exposes students to the intermediate technology of 3D games. Each student gets the experience of running her own game studio in collaboration with 1-4 classmates. Students deliver a working digital game at the end of the semester. Industry standards such as Agile, Scrum, Confluence, and JIRA expose students to state of the art production methods and enable teams to deliver software efficiently. Students are supported by a technical instructor/mentor who assists with programming as an active member of their team. Students take increasingly advanced variations of this course in the course of their degree so they will acquire more sophisticated skills each successive semester. At the end of the degree students will have a portfolio of working software projects. |
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Publishing Video Games |
This course provides the student with an understanding of the business of video games with a special focus on game publishing, deal structures, and product lifecycle. Students learn to see the world through the publisher’s eyes and in the process gain insight in how to plan, budget, pitch, launch, and monetize games. Students are exposed to these topics via lectures, exercises, and assignments. Students leave the course with a practical and state of the art of the game business including perspective on mobile games, console games, browser games, free to play games, and other business paradigms. |
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Usability Video Games |
Usability testing enables game developers to systematically identify and resolve issues that detract from the player experience. Students learn and practice formal usability testing using real test subjects. Students learn best practices for how to get valid (non-skewed) data and how to communicate findings to a dev team effectively. |
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Game Design Studio II |
This is a companion to the 3D Game Design class. Students work in teams to build their working digital game and receive individualized tutelage and direct coding support from their instructor. Students learn that they can produce working software—even with beginner skills in a short time. They sharpen their skills by practicing this process multiple times in the degree. |
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Art Direction for Game Developers |
This course examines the role of visual design in building games. The course exposes students to the craft of the Art Director via a combination of theory and practice. Students learn basic skill set presentation (art history, color theory, composition, typography, basic digital media skills). Students learn to think about projects in terms of the constraints of technology, client needs, and end-user experience. The course covers basic UX/UI concepts. Students learn formal ideation and problem solving for visual design. Students learn to master the look and feel of an experience. |
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Mobile Game Design |
This course exposes students to the intermediate technology of mobile games. Each student gets the experience of running her own game studio in collaboration with 1-4 classmates. Students deliver a working digital game at the end of the semester. Industry standards such as Agile, Scrum, Confluence, and JIRA expose students to state-of-the-art production methods and enable teams to deliver software efficiently. Students are supported by a technical instructor/mentor who assists with programming as an active member of their team. Students take increasingly advanced variations of this course in the course of their degree so they will acquire more sophisticated skills each successive semester. At the end of the degree students will have a portfolio of working software projects. |
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Game Design Studio III |
This is a companion to the Multiplayer Game Design class. Students work in teams to build their working digital game and receive individualized tutelage and direct coding support from their instructor. Students learn that they can produce working software—even with beginner skills in a short time. They sharpen their skills by practicing this process multiple times in the degree. |
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Level Design |
In this class students work on paper and with level editor tools from commercial games to create high quality play experiences within existing games. Students learn and practice scripting to optimize the play experience including pacing, save points, ratio of obstacles versus power ups, and other game play concepts. |
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History of Video Games |
This course focuses on the rich history of digital games starting with MIT’s Spacewar from 1962 and showing how and why the medium transformed through the 1970s when Pong and Atari first had mass cultural impact—all the way through each successive era to today’s world of connected consoles, smart phones, and Google Glass. |
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Storyboarding |
This course teaches the student how to communicate stories and ideas effectively using visual storyboarding. Students learn storyboarding best practices and practice the craft. Case studies are presented from animation, motion graphics, and interactive media. Students get hands on practice making storyboards for game concepts and formally test whether they communicate what the student intended to an audience. Students learn about rapid storyboarding using hand-drawn sketches as well as state of the art storyboarding software. |
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Narrative Theory |
This course builds on the knowledge developed in Intro to 3D Art and explores deeper technical, workflow, and artistic aspects of 3D visuals. |
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Object Oriented Programming |
This course educates the student on the principles of OOP. OOP is a model organized around objects as opposed to actions and data rather than logic. Students learn using the C++ programming language and learn that other, less popular object oriented languages operate on the same core principles. |
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Improvisational Acting |
Students learn by doing that improvisational acting helps them develop skills in team communication and collaboration. They also learn about problem solving, spontaneity, and listening skills through group performance. |
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The Great Video Games |
This course explores both the concept of games as art including opposing scholarly points of view. The artistic merits of commercial games is explored through case studies of seminal works. And the nascent field of art games is explored via a survey of the field. |
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Collaborative Thesis |
This hands-on course exposes students to the advanced responsibility of choosing her own technology (in collaboration with teammates) for her or his AFA thesis project. Each student gets the experience of running her own game studio in collaboration with 1-4 classmates. Students deliver a working digital game at the end of the semester. Industry standards such as Agile, Scrum, Confluence, and JIRA expose students to state of the art production methods and enable teams to deliver software efficiently. Students are supported by a technical instructor/mentor who assists with programming as an active member of their team. Students take increasingly advanced variations of this course in the course of their degree so they will acquire more sophisticated skills each successive semester. At the end of the degree students will have a portfolio of working software projects. |
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Game Design Studio IV |
This is a companion to the Collaborative Thesis class. Students work in teams to build their working digital game and receive individualized tutelage and direct coding support from their instructor. Students learn that they can produce working software—even with beginner skills in a short time. They sharpen their skills by practicing this process multiple times in the degree. |
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Thesis Production Workshop |
This course provides students with thesis mentorship, support, and guidance through their final AFA semester. |
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Ethics of Video Games |
Ethics refers to standards of right and wrong in society. Students study and debate ethics in play experiences and how play is a way of learning about the real world. Poignant case studies are presented from games such as: September 12 (an anti-terrorism simulator), Grand Theft Auto (an amoral, open world), Populous (a god game), Bioshock (a game with a morality engine) and other games. Students learn about meta-game behavioral issues such as cheating, violence, and the four types of players found in online worlds—Explorers, Achievers, Socializers, and Killers. |
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Storyboarding |
This course teaches the student how to communicate stories and ideas effectively using visual storyboarding. Students learn storyboarding best practices and practice the craft. Case studies are presented from animation, motion graphics, and interactive media. Students get hands on practice making storyboards for game concepts and formally test whether they communicate what the student intended to an audience. Students learn about rapid storyboarding using hand-drawn sketches as well as state of the art storyboarding software. |
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Narrative Theory |
This course builds on the knowledge from Narrative Design Workshop I and delves deeper into core concepts. Works of scholars such as Henry Jenkins, Jesper Juul, and Gonzalo Frasca provide the student with an intellectual venture through advanced narrative theory supported by case studies. Examples include Emergent versus Embedded Narrative, Narratology versus Ludology, and the Neuroscience of Narratives. |
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Advanced Level Design |
This course builds on the knowledge from the previous Level Design course and delves deeper into core concepts. Student’s work with level editors from the games Minecraft, Little Big Planet, and Warcraft III to make sophisticated play experiences. Students are required to make YouTube videos of game play as potential portfolio pieces. |
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More Information |
More details about the AFA Game Design degree program is available here. |