Get Gaming is part of Lesley University’s Precollege program. Highschool students come to Lesley for a few days during the summer and take an accelerated class. Get Gaming is designed as a sort of Intro-Intro to Game Design. Each day there is a general discussion round table where we talk about aspects of game design.
What defines a game and why do we play them?
How to make failure fun?
Silently (or not so silently) guiding the player.
Providing active feedback without overwhelming the player.
Fairness and Randomness
Perspective in Opposition: PvP and PvE
The second half of each class has the students learning how to make a game. The game is built in Unreal Engine, as Blueprint code is very accessible and easier to teach visually than a scripted language like C#.
Students are given a barebones template with all of the necessary assets to create their game and would follow along to lessons taught by me to implement features.
The game is a 3D platformer such as old N64 Collect-a-thons. Building out a large area with platforming challenges, pickups, enemies, and more to create at least 15 minutes of gameplay.
Students are graded in 4 areas. Attendance, Participation, Homework, and Final Project.
Due to the short form nature of the class Students must attended every day. If there is more than one excused absence per week the student may be forced to drop the class.
Students must participate in class discussions, pay attention to lessons, and work by themselves and with others on their game projects
For homework, students are assign a few questions either expanding on class discussions or getting their unique perspective on a completely different topic. Write a response, then respond to their classmates to continue the discussions.
The Final Project is scored on it’s completion, creativity, and quality (bug-free and level of polish).