Game development workshops mimic real-world process
Media School students pursuing the new Bachelor of Science in Game Design degree will set out on the job hunt with a published game on their resumes, thanks to a three-semester workshop project that sets them apart from graduates at other schools.
“We’ve made a very rigorous program,” said Ted Castronova, professor and director of the game design program. “Any student who goes through it is going to be really well prepared for the job market. They’ll have a finished game, which very, very few students have.”
Castronova is one of four people who make up the game design core faculty, including professor of practice Mike Sellers and lecturers Will Emigh and Norbert Herber.
Students craft preliminary ideas in MSCH-G 410 Game Design II: Systems. Then, in December of their junior years, they participate in “pitch day” to propose their prototypes to professionals in the game development community.
During pitch day, students pitch eight projects and a panel of professors and industry professionals select the five they think are most promising. Students build teams to work on developing those five projects in the coming workshop courses.
“It was incredibly intimidating,” said junior Angela Lograsso. “I pitched my own game that I had worked on in Game Design II. When I was up there, I was so excited and nervous.”
After pitch day, students complete their assigned projects in a series of three workshop classes, beginning spring semester of their junior years, which contribute to the development of their games.
Your Game, From Idea to Reality
Jonathon Brown, Class of 2017
My name is Jonathon Brown, and I’m a junior majoring in game design and management through the Kelley School of Business.
Max Lancaster, Class of 2018
I’m a marketing major in the Kelley School of Business, and I also take classes in the Media School.
Jacob Koonce, Class of 2017
My name is Jacob Koonce. I’m going into game design with a minor in theater.
Will Emigh, Game design lecturer
We talk to folks in the industry, and what they really want from students coming out is people who have finished products, students who have made games.
I’m currently working with a team on a rhythm-based game called “Beat Breakers.”
Which, it’s kind of like a a grid-based game where you’re like two very like iconic characters, kind of like champions, who have different move sets, and you like fight against each other on a tablet.
So the game that I’m working on in workshop is “Frankenship.” It’s a top-down, one-on-one space shooter game where you build the other person’s ship for them.
A game class is shown talking.
So it’s a game of sabotage. You build the other person ship, they build yours and then you fight to the death. This is not just a class project, this is something that’s going out into the world and representing them. It’s going to be submitted to festivals, they’re going to be showing professionals they meet at professional conferences. This is something that people can buy.
Footage from a game design class is show. Someone is standing at the front of the room presenting on a large projector.
Games have always been a major part of my life, and so after doing a lot of research and figuring out that there were all these different roles that came together, different mindsets, the thought process behind it, the planning, drawing board and all that jazz, it just really intrigued me.
The speaker is shown talking to his group of eight students.
What workshop gave me that my other projects didn’t was the experience leading a team of eight on a complicated game project. I think that workshop has prepared me for the AAA environment in that way.
It takes a lot of time and effort to get from a concept to a finished novel, finish movie or a finished game.
Everything can change.
That’s a big part of the game design process, where you think that you have something figured out, and then you go back and have to figure it out again.
You just want your game to be the best it can be, and you’re going to shape it, and it’s going to go through a bunch of different iterations before you finally get to what the game actually is.
Produced by Therin Showalter “Interstellar Travel” by JC Lemay and Laurent Dury, Accessed through Killer Tracks
In the first workshop, MSCH-G 450 Game Workshop I: Prototype, developers create a paper prototype of their ideas, the most basic version. The paper prototype is similar to writing a film script before production starts.
Lograsso just finished Workshop I and said she spent from 10 to 20 hours every week working on her team’s game design.
According to Castronova, the workshop classes are designed to mirror the way a professional game developers realize their goals.
“You start thinking about a game, make a prototype quickly, test with gamers and continue to modify, design, build and test,” he said. Then, “redesign over and over.”
For students, the next step is completing MSCH-G 460 Game Workshop II: Demo. Senior Nick LaPlante is in Workshop II and has been on the same game design team since pitch day, which doesn’t always happen because every game is regularly reevaluated to make sure the idea is still feasible. Some are scrapped if things don’t seem to be working out.
At this level, student developers rapidly work towards a finished product to submit to competitions, where developers get an idea of the fan appeal and feasibility of their games.
“Everyone in the workshop classes are in there because they love games and want to make a game that they’re passionate about,” LaPlante said. “It’s really exciting to see it happen. We’re all in our own little team bubbles, so every few months when we show off our games, it’s exciting.”
Finally, to finish out the process, students submit their fully functioning games to contests and market them to gain a fan base in MSCH-G 470 Workshop III: Publish.
“This is not just a class project,” said lecturer Will Emigh. “This is something that’s going out into the world. It takes a lot of time and effort to get from a concept to a finished game.”