Another place you might look is at Macromedia's Flash. That covers both the artistic side and (to a certain degree) the logic side of building games, and Flash skills are certainly marketable these days. Our very own John Hattan has some good (and addictive [wink]) Flash games over at The Code Zone, and of course Flash games in general are pretty prolific these days.
There's another product as well, that uses a Flash-style "visual" sequence for building up game logic. Can't remember the name, think it starts with a V. Does that ring a bell with anyone?
[edit] Virtools. Might be worth looking in to.
Starting Class in Game Design - Need help from experts
Too bad you can't use Unity. It's a great app. BlitzMax is another great option. Not so much an engine, but fairly simple to program in. I would suggest Torque. It's crossplatform (for Mac and PC) and is about $100 for an indie license.
Unity is a pretty commercial application. It uses C# for scripting, has direct integration with reading Maya 3d scene files with all the textures, uses PhysX physics engine. Also has a shader engine, web plugin (optional), networking, audio handling, and integrated editor. It is a pretty advanced piece of software and has been used for Gooball, a commercial game from OTEE.
Unity Whitepaper
Quote:Original post by OrangyTangQuote:Original post by leskern
4. Free products (like LUA) are fine, but paying for a better solution is key. We like to offer REAL-WORLD solutions, not stripped-down toys. Unity is about 300 a pop. No problem there.
Uh, if you want 'real world' then Lua is a much better choice than whatever on earth this Unity thing is.
Unity is a pretty commercial application. It uses C# for scripting, has direct integration with reading Maya 3d scene files with all the textures, uses PhysX physics engine. Also has a shader engine, web plugin (optional), networking, audio handling, and integrated editor. It is a pretty advanced piece of software and has been used for Gooball, a commercial game from OTEE.
Unity Whitepaper
Author
Quote:Original post by ApochPiQ
Another place you might look is at Macromedia's Flash. That covers both the artistic side and (to a certain degree) the logic side of building games, and Flash skills are certainly marketable these days.
We actually have a web class with a Flash component, but wanted something a little different... Thanks though.
Author
Quote:Original post by Kraz
I recently completed a 2 term game design course at Drexel University.
I think we will "eventually" do a 2-term course, as game design is now a VERY serious affair, and a GREAT career. I mean, if I had planned this it would have been a 2-term with a pre-requisite in programming basics, and maybe Photoshop and 3D design. But alas, I have what I have... pretty much nothing at this point.
Thanks for the reply.
There was a guy who posted here a while back who taught a class about game design aimed at 'everyone'. He also wrote a NES basic compiler thingie and his students made nes games. Damn if I can find a link though. I recall his approach was to combine technical and non-technical people on teams so the techies could do the coding and the others could do the art and writing etc... in that way grades were based on the teams result.
edit1;
Yeah, serious money for the universities. What other course will have 100 students signed up so quickly? IMHO it's pure folly for anyone to complete such a program and expect to actually get a job in games based on that alone when there are tons of digipen grads who're unemployed.
edit2; oops, that edit1 was a bit cynical wasn't it? Oh well gaze in wonder at my google-fu!!!11
edit1;
Quote:I think we will "eventually" do a 2-term course, as game design is now a VERY serious affair,
Yeah, serious money for the universities. What other course will have 100 students signed up so quickly? IMHO it's pure folly for anyone to complete such a program and expect to actually get a job in games based on that alone when there are tons of digipen grads who're unemployed.
edit2; oops, that edit1 was a bit cynical wasn't it? Oh well gaze in wonder at my google-fu!!!11
Author
Quote:Original post by SageofAges
There was a guy who posted here a while back who taught a class about game design aimed at 'everyone'. He also wrote a NES basic compiler thingie and his students made nes games. Damn if I can find a link though. I recall his approach was to combine technical and non-technical people on teams so the techies could do the coding and the others could do the art and writing etc... in that way grades were based on the teams result.
edit1;Quote:I think we will "eventually" do a 2-term course, as game design is now a VERY serious affair,
Yeah, serious money for the universities. What other course will have 100 students signed up so quickly? IMHO it's pure folly for anyone to complete such a program and expect to actually get a job in games based on that alone when there are tons of digipen grads who're unemployed.
edit2; oops, that edit1 was a bit cynical wasn't it? Oh well gaze in wonder at my google-fu!!!11
Cynicism is a VALUABLE tool used in the right hands! It sometimes makes one pause and reflect on a CLUSTER-F**K such as mine, that once a door is opened, sometimes it leads to... more doors than one might care to open!
Thanks...
Oh, this is a HIGH SCHOOL, by the way.
"Yikes" is my favorite way to express what I feel.... :)
And thanks for the link... it will go in the "pot" of possible solutions.
Author
Looks like the first iteration of this class will use Alice. (www.alice.org) I spoke at length with quite a few folks, and listened to the fine replies here (THANKS!) and decided that Alice offered a way to let the students actually MAKE something in one semester. Later, if made into a true career path class, we will re-visit it. But I have to admit here that the folks involved with proposing the class pretty much dropped the ball. With funds stretched to the limit as it is, in my opinion we needed to offer a complete solution, not a "fun" class. But that's water under the bridge, what's done is done.
Thanks again.
Thanks again.
Alice certianly looks interesting, and there is probably enough there to show the content creation and development path of a game.
Most people here are froma programming background (including me) so you probably get answers skewed towards programming, but game design in itself is a HUGE topic. Perhaps the class should focus on game design, using alice as a tool to realise that design.
The ideas of Resource management, goals, game theory, conflict, balance, economy, tradeoff decisions, etc.. Are at the root of game design, and I think make for a fairly meaty, and thought provoking curriculum. Much of game design is based off of economics.
A player's heath is a resource, the gaining and losing of health is an economy.
Taking things from that angle could take the focus off of the more technical aspect of making games, and focus more on the essentials of what makes a game fun/challenging, etc.. And who knows.. 10 years from now we could get a fresh breath of innovative games from new designers ;)
Most people here are froma programming background (including me) so you probably get answers skewed towards programming, but game design in itself is a HUGE topic. Perhaps the class should focus on game design, using alice as a tool to realise that design.
The ideas of Resource management, goals, game theory, conflict, balance, economy, tradeoff decisions, etc.. Are at the root of game design, and I think make for a fairly meaty, and thought provoking curriculum. Much of game design is based off of economics.
A player's heath is a resource, the gaining and losing of health is an economy.
Taking things from that angle could take the focus off of the more technical aspect of making games, and focus more on the essentials of what makes a game fun/challenging, etc.. And who knows.. 10 years from now we could get a fresh breath of innovative games from new designers ;)
I am a Computer Science Department Advisory Board member for a Washington State high school, and have worked with this high school's technology teacher extensively on developing curriculum for her computer science classes, specifically in regard to game development. I'd be happy to give you input on my experiences. Send me an email if you are interested in talking and we can chat off-line.
Cheers,
roger_hq
Cheers,
roger_hq
Given the timeframe and scope of your class it might be best to use existing technology to give the students a __Feel__ for what it's like to create a game. What I mean is, get the Unreal Map Editor, teach them the ins and outs, let them build levels with it (which is similar to using a 3D package such as Maya, but more intuitive) and then from there maybe move onto some kind of scripting.
The Unreal Engine is very powerful, and you can use the level editor straight out of the game I believe. This won't exactly teach them a whole lot about the subject of designing or programming entire games, but given what you have to work with and what you are aiming to do, I think it might be a good stepping stone. There is a plethora of knowledge about using the Unreal Editor, as well as vast amounts of support and info on basic scripting events (I know they do Kismet now, not sure if that's what they used to do as well) for the UT2004 game.
Buy UT2004, and let them make levels, that's where I'd start.
The Unreal Engine is very powerful, and you can use the level editor straight out of the game I believe. This won't exactly teach them a whole lot about the subject of designing or programming entire games, but given what you have to work with and what you are aiming to do, I think it might be a good stepping stone. There is a plethora of knowledge about using the Unreal Editor, as well as vast amounts of support and info on basic scripting events (I know they do Kismet now, not sure if that's what they used to do as well) for the UT2004 game.
Buy UT2004, and let them make levels, that's where I'd start.
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