Creating a video game development course for my university - what should students learn?

[Joccaren]

First things first... Get some people truly experienced with it to teach. There's a bunch of stuff that isn't straight forward, or that isn't written down or obvious to a gamer or an academic, or a more hobbyist dev.

However, one tip is that there needs to be an equal focus on design, and programming. Go too much to the programming side, and you miss all of the actual design problems, and it becomes too much of a systems focused approach. We've all played those games, where its technically well made, but for whatever reason its not fun.
Focus too much on the design side, and they can't actually make games. I've seen some books and blog posts from devs who complain about work placement students from games design courses, who have only done some design work, and can't actually make the systems or do the programming they need to do sometimes.

A focus on both is important. I'd also recommend a highly practical approach rather than theoretical. Honestly, that goes for everything IMO, but especially for this sort of thing. Being able to actually do the stuff, rather than just talk about it. Practice is important, and being able to do things is best achieved through practice.

 

[Saetha]

I don't have much to say on the game development side of things, but as far as art goes I recommend you to make sure the course in question either A. Comes with a shit-ton of CompSci prerequisites or B. In no way requires the student to understand coding.

As an art major who stumbled into a game art class thinking it'd be all Photoshop and Maya only to learn that, no, the professor thinks I know C++ and Unity is failing me because I can't do any of the coding-related assignments, that's pretty huge fucking deal. Also make sure that said professor is halfway competent, and that your students aren't hanging around at the mid-semester point going "Okay, I know we're supposed to make all of our assets in 3DS Max, but we don't understand how to do something as basic as texture unwrapping." Because that's a huge fucking deal as well. Even moreso if your professor's failing students for not understanding a program that they did a shit job of teaching them in the first place.

...What? Venting? Me? Hell yes absolutely I'm venting. My uni's game art courses suck hard.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

But it is. Inherently so. Whether you want it to be or not.

Even if you go about it trying to be intentionally non-political the end result will still be a reflection of the values, priorities, beliefs and preferences of the people making it. KEEP POLITICS OUT OF X is itself a political statement.

Add to that the fact that most games are made with the intention of attracting an audience and selling copies in a capitalist market and boom, you're up to your neck in politics.

I always find this weird myself. "Keep politics out of it" just doesn't work. You're always going to be making some sort of political statement as long as you address any topic remotely controversial. Maybe it means "Don't broach any subject that's remotely controversial?" Which is still kind of a political statement by what you said, but also because you're opposing political beliefs that are based on representation such as diversity in gender, race, sexuality, etc... Not to say that any game that doesn't feature one of each is opposing it, but if you deliberately make the decision to avoid controversy you are.

That being said I think there's a right and wrong way to include political subjects in media. It's usually pretty clear whether a character is making a statement or an author, based on the way it's framed. It's cringeworthy when an author portrays every character that holds a certain belief in an extremely negative manner, and just all around poor writing.

EDIT:

To avoid this just being a tangent, I highly recommend you try to contact any industry professionals you can in your area and find out what sort of things they look for. They would have much better feedback than we would.

 

[Catfood220]

You should have at least one morning of the course explaining why its a bad idea to try to sue a critic who says nasty things about your game.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Item 1, on Page 1: Stay the fuck off Twitter and Facebook.
Item 2, on Page 1: Announce nothing other than technical details at the start.
Item 3, on Page 1: Any synopsis should be no longer or revealing than what you find on the back of a DVD.
Item 4, on Page 1: Some people will hate your game: be prepared for that.
Item 5, on Page 1: Some people will love your game: really be prepared for that (see also, pride before the fall).
Item 6, on Page 1: Compromise is good, recognizing when this is needed and when it is not is invaluable.
Item 7, on Page 1: Very few controversies are demonstrably worse than the cover up.
Item 8, on Page 1: Play test often.
Item 9, on Page 1: Do not court internet personalities of any stripe.

Those are the first things that spring to mind.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Teach them that it's okay to fail, often and quickly. It's kinda the fundamental state of game development anyway. Iterate, iterate, iterate.

Past that, fundamentals of coding that are broadly applicable. Like, students are currently running Vita devkits? ...Not exactly useful for game devs in general. Each company, sometimes each project, is going to be using it's own engines and programs. Consequently, you're going to have to be teaching things like communication and adaptability over specific engines and languages.

Honestly, I'm basically parroting Extra Credits. Go check them out on YouTube, they've got more than a few videos on the nuts and bolts of learning development.

 

[barbzilla]

Well it really depends on the type of class you wanted to teach. I think their needs to be two lines of development classes:
1: First line is dedicated to making a video game, but not just any video game, your video game. This is the line that promotes you gaining the knowledge and experience necessary to take a game idea from scratch and see it through to production and shipping, as well as how to work out the kinks that get left behind in a graceful, yet profitable, manner. All the while learning how to deal with publishers and investors, to keep them from ruining an otherwise unique project (or even deviating from the designer's design). Publishers are a huge part of why we have so many run of the mill AAA game projects that risk nothing and accomplish nothing as far as the medium goes. They want the maximum profit for their dollar spent, and usually don't want to risk any of their investment dollars on a whole new game idea when a tried and true game idea that you can just use one idea from your game on is a safer investment.

2: Second line is dedicated to making someone else's video game. How to function as part of a team. How to follow someone else's creative direction, yet still imbue it with a bit of your style (without compromising the lead designer's concept and vision). How to accomplish long term goals as part of a large corporation where you may not be communicating with every department working on the game as much as you probably need to. How to stay the course and not derail the project because of a design or vision dispute you have with the lead. I could probably think of a few more, but you get the idea.

After the intro classes you could move into more specific design areas as well as specializations. I am guessing this is a creative designer, and not a level, graphic, or engine design class, but you should probably have some intro level classes in each of these fields so that the creative designer has an idea of what is possible with their given time frame and budget.

 

[bluegate]

The best thing I could ever say is get professionals to help you with this, because if there is one thing I loath, it's useless university courses that lightly touch on certain subjects, but leave students with an underdeveloped skill set at the end of it;
They know a little about the subject, but not enough to ever be able to use the course as a credential to get hired somewhere, basically a waste of money and time.

 

[Zenja]

Man, that picture of GDC is really disturbing...

Like, REALLY disturbing.

I would focus on programming mostly with some graphics and audio files provided. It would probably help to provide art and SFX/Music even if only on a basic level. Perhaps do a collaboration with a computer arts class? I will also echo the sentiment of making sure that actual developers who make games for a living are able to come in and offer real life experience advice. At the end of the day, a course like this (being so specific) is essentially vocational schooling. It isn't the same as a more typical university course. To not treat it as such does a great disservice to the course.

 

[Here Comes Tomorrow]

You should teach them to not choose a shitty video game course and they should learn computer engineering and/or programming so that they can work in video games if they want, but also anywhere else in the very very likely event they don't get to go work for Ubisoft and pitch their amazing Far Cry/Assassin's Creed crossover game.

 

[American Tanker]

Man, that picture of GDC is really disturbing...

Like, REALLY disturbing.

You see why I want that presentation held up as the exact opposite of what you should do...

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Man, that picture of GDC is really disturbing...

Like, REALLY disturbing.

You see why I want that presentation held up as the exact opposite of what you should do...

If you create or teach a media thing, that thing is going to have politics in it.

Taking a bit of time to actually reflect what politics your thing is saying isn't a bad thing. Might help you catch that "I accidentally a nazi" thing you didn't intend to be there before the game ships.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

First and foremost, you should directly and bluntly denounce that recent presentation at the GDC. You know, the source of this image:

Make it clear to your students that games are not meant as tools of propaganda, and that anyone who thinks they are is fucking stupid.

Uhh, video games can be whatever the developer wants them to be, that's what free speech is

If you're putting your game out there for people to view, they are gonna criticize it, and some of that criticism will be political in nature

That's how a free society works, my dude

 

[American Tanker]

Uhh, video games can be whatever the developer wants them to be, that's what free speech is

If you're putting your game out there for people to view, they are gonna criticize it, and some of that criticism will be political in nature

That's how a free society works, my dude

My issues isn't having politics in the game itself.

My issue is the idea that the whole process, from teaching and learning, through all levels of development, are inherently political.

To me, it's just business. Make a good product, politics be damned.

Clearly, that's not the kind of world we're allowed to live in anymore.

 

[Amigastar]

Just a small rant:

I think the art of videogames is defined by how much immersion the player gets playing that game.
Example: Mass Effect:A is criticized for having lifeless Eyes and weird Animation
Thats one example of bad Videogames directing which takes the user out of the experience
This rule counts for all games. Age doesn't play into account. It happens in Links Awakening on Gameboy the same as in Zelda on Switch (just an example)
The developer basically decides what gets in the game and to fit these peaces all together coherently is (for me at least) the goal.
Off course thats just the top of the Iceberg

 

[Aerosteam]

Stress management under long hours with tight deadlines. The rest is honkey dorey.

 

[Aerosteam]

First and foremost, you should directly and bluntly denounce that recent presentation at the GDC. You know, the source of this image:

Make it clear to your students that games are not meant as tools of propaganda, and that anyone who thinks they are is fucking stupid.

*not sure if this applies in Scotland, but it sure does in USA.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Dont really know but maybe get them to try their hands at making a non digital game each person has to make a game and present it to everyone else and explain how to play it.

It could be a card game, board game book based game whatever they wanted. I think it will be interesting to see what they come up with as well as get a good idea of their creative strengths in that area it should also allow them to realise how hard it can be to create a good game.

With a bit of luck it could also stimulate good ideas for a video game or at least get them to think more creatively and hopefully head off some potential design decision problems.

Depending on the complexity of the game it would likely take way to long to field a proper finished prototype but it should not take long to field a working one that people can play at least with the designers help. Not sure how much time you have on the course but if its a full time thing it should not take long to do this.

It also helps that making games is likely more fun to do than listen to how to make them at least I am assuming people involved in a video game making course would find it interesting.

 

[Zenja]

Man, that picture of GDC is really disturbing...

Like, REALLY disturbing.

You see why I want that presentation held up as the exact opposite of what you should do...

If you create or teach a media thing, that thing is going to have politics in it.

Taking a bit of time to actually reflect what politics your thing is saying isn't a bad thing. Might help you catch that "I accidentally a nazi" thing you didn't intend to be there before the game ships.

Many great works of art can be displayed in a light that suggests they promote an offensive message. Michelangelo's David could be seen as offensive because it is pornography. Any art that promotes a religious message could be considered offensive to someone's non-religious beliefs. Any art that puts out a message that religion is false doctrine is also offensive to anyone's religious beliefs. Games dont need to be "safe spaces" THAT is exactly what the Supreme Court ruling was over a few years ago.

I don't buy games based on politics. I hate when a games marketing is political and not gameplay focused.

You don't find it disturbing that about 5 years ago there was a big pro-free speech case for video games in the Supreme Court, then immediately there was a big push for politics in games? To the point that now at the GDC they are blatantly saying that they are now making politics a central focus of game development? I am not much of a conspiracy theorist but I ain't thrilled at the idea of games being used as propaganda products.

Games are art and exploring different aspects of humanity is what art is all about. That includes the darker aspects of it. Exploring why we have the need to feel better than or even above others. (Racism and sexism) Exploring the desire to rise above the mundane. These things must be expressible in the game to fully explore them. Then sometimes its about what would be fun on a Saturday afternoon. Free of restraints, if you like it you like it, if you don't you don't. But not all games need to be exploring ideologies or be metaphors for some social construct. Sometimes people just want to survive against a zombie horde or whatever. Gameplay mechanics and synergy between gameplay and narrative and other such things should be central. Having politics be the central theme makes it so that many types of game design are just ignored.

 

[Zenja]

Stress management under long hours with tight deadlines. The rest is honkey dorey.

Sadly, this is probably the best training.