106211 - GAME DESIGN I

Subject type: Mandatory

Coordinator: Adso Fernández Baena

Trimester: First term

Credits: 4

L'assignatura s'imparteix en català/castellà, però tant les aportacions a classe com els treballs es poden fer en català o en castellà.

The materials can be provided in Catalan as well as in Spanish or English.

The subject Game Design I is the way for the student to enter the role of game designer. The contents are aimed at broadening the student's creative horizon in order to begin to properly and professionally document the ideas that will later become a game. To gain knowledge the subject is assessed with individual and group work and a written exam.

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

• E1.6 Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a video game in a reasoned and exemplary way.
• E2.1 Design game mechanics and rules that as a whole are called gameplay.
• E3.1 Describe the type of player for whom the game is designed.
• E5.1 Write and maintain the set of documents that is fully known as "Game design document GDD".
• E5.2. Communicate efficiently to the team of artists and developers and other members the specifications of the project, starting from the GDD.

The subject uses the following work methodologies:

Master class, Case study, Question-based learning and Small group laboratory
 

Topic 1. Video game genres

1.1. Genres: concepts and central elements

1.2. Proposed taxonomies

1.3. Genres and types of players

Topic 2. Design and documentation of video games

1.1. The video game design process

1.2. The Game Concept and the Game Proposal

1.3. The Game Design Document

1.4. Other relevant design documents

1.5. Oral presentation of documentation

Topic 3. Game mechanics according to genres (I): Platforms

3.1. Historical evolution of the genre from the perspective of design

3.2. Central mechanics of the genre

3.3. Case study

Topic 4. Game mechanics according to genres (II): Role

4.1. Historical evolution of the genre from the perspective of design

4.2. Central mechanics of the genre

4.3. Case study

Topic 5. Game mechanics according to genres (III): Strategy and Simulation

5.1. Historical evolution of the genre from the perspective of design

5.2. Central mechanics of the genre

5.3. Case study

With the aim of collecting evidence of the achievement of the expected learning outcomes, the following activities of an evaluative nature will be carried out (related to all the common competences):

A1. Laboratory exercises (I): Game Proposal of a Platform game (Evidence of learning outcome E5.1 and E5.2)

In pairs, the students will make several documents and presentations in front of their classmates and teacher in which they describe a project designed by all of them following the industry standard format.

A2. Laboratory practices (II): Game Proposal of a role-playing game (Evidence of learning outcome E5.1 and E5.2)

In pairs, the students will make several documents and presentations in front of their classmates and teacher in which they describe a project designed by all of them following the industry standard format.

A3. Individual work: Creation of a Game Design Document (Evidence of learning outcome E1.6, E2.1, E3.1 and E5.1)

Students, individually, must develop a Game Design Document based on one of the Game Proposals made in activities A1 and A2.

A4. Final Exam  (Evidence of all learning outcomes)

General criteria of the activities:

• The teacher will present a statement for each activity and the evaluation criteria.
• The teacher will inform of the dates and format of the delivery of the activity.

Each student's grade will be calculated based on the following percentages:

• A1: 15%
• A2: 15%
• A3: 40%
• A4: 30%

Final grade = A1 0,15 + A2 0,15 + A3 0,4 + A4 0,3

Considerations:

• You must obtain a grade above 5 in the final exam (A4) to pass the subject.
• An activity not delivered or delivered late and without justification (court summons or medical matter) counts as a 0.
• It is the student's responsibility to avoid plagiarism in all its forms. In the case of detecting plagiarism, regardless of its extent, in some activity it will correspond to having a grade of 0. In addition, the teacher will communicate the situation to the Management so that applicable measures can be taken in terms of disciplinary regime.

Recovery:

• You must obtain a grade higher than 5 in the resit exam to pass the course.
• The recovery will use the same system as the ordinary call, with A3 being the grade for the recovery exam. In this case, the practices cannot be recovered and it is also necessary to obtain a grade above 5 in the recovery exam to pass the subject.

Ernest Adams & Joris Dormans (2012), Game Mechanics, Advanced game design.
Berkeley: New Riders Games.

Jesse Schell (2011), The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Amsterdam:
Elsevier / Morgan Kaufmann.

Wesley Addison (2006), Level Design for Games: Creating Compelling
Experience. Berkeley: New Riders Games.

Katie Salen (2005), The Game Design Reader. A Rules of Play Anthology.
Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Katie Salen (2003), Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Scott Rogers, Level Up !: The Guide to Great Video Game Design, Wiley; 2nd edition (April 28, 2014)

Tracy Fullerton, Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Third Edition, AK Peters / CRC Press; 3rd edition (March 5, 2014). 

Anna Anthropy & Naome Clark (2014), A Game Design vocabulary. Boston:
Addison-Wesley.

Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Schreiber, Challenges for Game Designers, Cengage Learning; 1 edition (August 21, 2008)