Having a Game Design Minor at Grove City College
What is Game Design?
The Game Design minor at Grove City College is formally “Computer Game Design and Development”. As such, it covers many aspects of video games while focusing on design and development. Students take part in many disciplines through the classes from coding, writing, and teamwork, to music, entertainment, and story building. However, though Game Design may seem fun and it is (to me), developing games is difficult and is exceptionally time consuming.
How is game design academic?
Unfortunately, game design courses do not consist of only playing games. But sometimes that’s the homework! There are many design principles taught in its classes. These principles help the games made with them bring out the most fun for the player. As said earlier, game design as a whole is multidisciplinary. The fact that game design not only requires coding skills but also education in storytelling, psychology, teamwork, and sound design reveals the academic resolve needed for the minor. Not only does it require a great amount of teamwork, but game design also requires hard work.
What’s it like having a game design minor at Grove City College?
I am a computer science major and so I already met the prerequisites for the classes in the game design minor. These prerequisite classes include Computer Programming I and II for the Data Structures and Algorithms requirement, which I also already met. When creating games, the programmer often implements special data structures or algorithms to organize the game’s code efficiently. These topics and tools allow the game developer to code intelligently and understand what the code is doing, so it’s only natural that the class would be required. These classes have allowed me to really enjoy the game design classes by providing a strong foundation so I can focus solely on the games themselves rather than learning a new coding language.
The Courses
The minor consists of 19 credit hours. Three of which cover your choice of a creative writing topic such as Character Development or Screenwriting, or a technical design topic such as Design Software using the Adobe cloud. The rest are advanced computer science courses. Aside from the Data Structures and Algorithms course mentioned earlier, the first three of these are the main game design classes and are as follows: 2D, 3D, and Networked Game Design and Development. The last required course for the minor is the student’s choice of iOS Programming, Android Programming, or Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. In my experience, the game design courses have become some of the most fun yet time-consuming classes I have taken at the college.
The Projects Games
Some people love it, some don’t but to me, creating games has awakened a new passion. The amount of work and drive to create a game is immense but absolutely worth the skills learned and product that comes from the work. Over the course of semesters for each of the three main game design minor classes, students form teams and create a game. At the end of the semester, each team presents their game as the final exam. It’s awesome to see all the games my fellow classmates come up with! So far, I have created a 2D side scroller akin to Super Mario Bros or Shovel Knight and a 3D escape room puzzle game as my final projects. I’m excited to work on a game for my upcoming Networked Game Design and Development course!
What’s next?
As a computer science student, I am seeking a job in a related industry such as in software development or AI. Ideally, I would like to use my game design skills since I enjoy making games. For Game Design I have a few options, I can look for a job as a game designer, I can design games as a hobby, or I can use the skills I learned in the minor in my future endeavors. Grove City College’s game design minor has been incredibly useful in enhancing my skills and revealing a new passion for something I may not have otherwise tried.
