Utah Games College of Architecture and Planning

Course Descriptions:

GAMES 6000 – Theories of Games and Play

In this required course for the MEAE, students will play and analyze games concurrently with studying contemporary research and theories about them. The medium of games will be examined from a variety of perspectives including their aesthetic potential, uses, culture, their industrial production, and more. In this way, this course provides opportunities for richer and more informed views on games as a cultural medium. The course involves significant amounts of reading, writing, and presenting.

GAMES 6100 – Rapid Prototyping

Rapid Prototyping is a project-based course focused on the prototyping phase of game development. Over the course of the semester, students will work in small teams developing prototypes of video games in a short amount of time. Each development cycle presents constraints, and students will put game design theories into practice to overcome emergent problems brought about by working in interdisciplinary teams. This course serves as an introduction to studio simulations and will help students form and test their identities as a game developer. 

GAMES 6110 – Game Studio

This course provides MEAE students with a venue to test and explore the skills they have learned during their first semester of graduate studies and guidance in abstracting their experiences. Working in multidisciplinary groups, students will follow an industrial model while building a video game from the ground up. This model includes the following phases: brainstorming, pitching, prototyping, and development.

Instructors act as coaches/mentors in the studio and as Executive Producers in stakeholder meetings, working with each team throughout the development process (pitching, prototyping, alpha, beta, gold) as they secure investment to build their product.

Students will work collaboratively on a medium-sized team to design and develop prototypes, meet milestones, and iterate based on playtesting. By completing this course, students will gain practical experience in taking a concept to market, resulting in a feature complete game for public release.

GAMES 6120 – Advanced Game Studio I

Students work collaboratively in large teams in the design and development of their master's game project. This course is the first of a two-course sequence that continues in Advanced Game Studio II.

GAMES 6130 – Advanced Game Studio II

Students work collaboratively in large teams in the design and development of their master's game project. This course is the second course of a two-course sequence that began in Advanced Game Studio I. Students are expected to publish their master's game project as part of this course.

GAMES 6500 – Design I: Gameplay Content Design

In this course students will learn and develop skills allowing them to perform the role of a game designer within a larger game development team. This course emphasizes gameplay content design: creating gameplay within a pre-established game context (e.g. missions, quests for a game). Designing such gameplay content generally entails determining what the gameplay beats, objectives, interactions, spatial layout, rewards, dialogue and story elements are. Students will pitch, present, document, and iteratively develop and polish their gameplay content using scripting and industry standard tools.

GAMES 6510 – Design 2: Technical Game Design

This course provides students with advanced knowledge in scripting for implementing game logic from a game design perspective. Students will use industry standard game engine scripting tools (e.g. Unity, Unreal) and languages (e.g. C#, Lua, Python) to ideate, digitally prototype, and create production ready systems, gameplay features, and/or mechanics. Course work will focus on planning, analyzing, and writing game scripts to implement student originated and instructor provided designs.

GAMES 6520 – Design 3: Game Design Communication

One of designers’ fundamental responsibilities is to effectively communicate design goals to cross-disciplinary development teams. This course covers the concepts and skills needed for communicating and presenting game design documentation in various modalities and formats including text, images, schematics, and also verbally. Students will practice by creating and presenting different kinds of game design documentation. Upon successful completion of this course, students will know how to communicate game designs accurately, persuasively, completely, and concisely in the appropriate formats to different stakeholders and members of a game development team.

GAMES 6530 – Design 4: Game Design Practicum 

Game Design Practicum gives students space to engage deeply with a chosen specialization within the field of game design (i.e. combat, level, mission, narrative, or systems). During this course, students will focus on developing a semester-long project that demonstrates mastery in their chosen area of expertise. The instructor will oversee individual projects, facilitate weekly group critiques, and provide individualized mentorship.  Students who successfully complete this course will produce a polished game design portfolio piece.

Sample Directed Electives for Game Designers:
Availability varies by term.

• GAMES 6010 – Level Design
• GAMES 6015 – Paper Prototyping
• GAMES 6020 – Ethics in Games
• GAMES 6025 – Serious Games
• GAMES 6030 – Experimental Gameplay
• GAMES 6035 – Narrative in Game Design
• GAMES 6040 – Games User Research
• GAMES 6045 – Games User Interface Design
• GAMES 6050 – Game Systems Design
• GAMES 6900 – Psychology of Games