The Drexel Gaming curriculum is a cross-discipline offering between the Digital Media program in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design and Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering.

The curriculum provides conceptual understanding of game design and practical experience in the design and the development of games and consists of an overview course taught by Digital Media (DIGM 260) and a co-taught foundational course (DIGM/CS 345) along with electives such as experimental and educational game design (CS 480) taught by Prof. Lee and a gaming workshop sequence (DIGM 461-462) designed by Prof. Diefenbach. Computer Science students may now select Game Development and Design as one of their tracks (areas of concentration, see bottom of page for details) and Digital Media students may take the gaming courses through their required and elective courses. The list of available courses follows:

An overview of computer gaming including the history of computer games, their foundation in traditional games and game theory, and their practice in the modern digital game. The relation of gaming genres, platforms, and audience will be examined. The class will teach critical evaluation skills required for being a functioning member in a game development team.

This course is designed to provide an introduction to scripting for games, including concepts of time, states, and user interaction. Development work is performed in Adobe Flash and ActionScript.

This course is designed to provide an overview to the pipeline process for video game creation, from asset creation to integration, as well as an overview to scripting for gaming. Students will be expected, by the end of the course, to effectively evaluate and utilize different game engines and tools for specific tasks. Students are exposed to a range of game technologies, engines, development environments, and scripting languages for both 2D and 3D development.

As part of the Game Development curriculum, Digital Media students and Computer Science students work together with other majors to design, prototype, and implement 3D video games in a model resembling the game industry. Games are developed in a variety of game engines such as Torque and using a variety of tools such as Maya, 3D Studio Max, and middleware packages. Project management, milestones, budget, asset management, and other soft-skills are stressed. In Game Development Workshop I, students work in groups of 4-6 to research and a develop a novel game concept, create a Game Design Document, and build a working game prototype. The best game is selected during a presentation before the school for full development in Workshop II by a multi-disciple team of 15 or more. Music majors, Script and Screenwriting majors, and others contribute to the final product. Project Bolt (www.projectbolt.com), designed by former Digital Media students Seth Kendall, Patrick Kemp, Juan Cardarelli, and Phil Doran, and developed in full by a team of 15 was the first full game produced by this course in 2005, and several team members have gone on to work in the gaming industry on games for the Playstation 3, Xbox360, and Nintendo Wii. See 3D games tab for other examples.

This course focuses on the design aspects of educational designs, and the unique challenges this offers. The goals of this course are as follows: (a) Understand and appreciate the critical role of psychology of play and the principles of game design in designing and developing educational games by reading and investigating current research results in game design, psychology of play, education, cognitive science, and human-computer interaction. (b) Understand and appreciate the critical role of an interdisciplinary team in designing educational games by working in a group composed of students from Computer Science, Media Art and Design, Education, and Psychology to design an educational game.

This course is centered around rapid prototyping, evaluation, and re-design of small games based on certain themes. The focus of the course is on experimental game play and game design, that is trying to find new and innovative game mechanics and game play instead of creating YA FPS, RTS, RPG, etc. The format of the course is to take a topic every 3 weeks and have a small group come up with a playable game based on that topic. For example, the topic might range from something standard like gravity to something abstract like love. The inspiration and the motivation for the course comes from two sources: Indie Game Jam and The CMU Experimental Gameplay Project. Development work is performed in Adobe Flash or similar rapid development environments.

The complete Digital Media degree requirements and course listings are here: http://www.drexel.edu/catalog/DEGREE/digm.htm

The CS gaming track requirements are:

• DIGM 260 Overview of Computer Gaming (Fall/Spring)
• CS 265 Advanced Programming Techniques (Fall/Spring) or DIGM 265 Scripting for Game Development (Summer)

• DIGM 360/CS 345 Computer Game Development (Winter/Summer)

• CS 480 Educational Game Design (Fall)
• CS 480 Experimental Game Design (Spring)
• DIGM 461 Computer Gaming Workshop I (Fall)
• DIGM 462 Computer Gaming Workshop II (Winter)

To learn a little more about the classes, research, and the process of RePlay, you can also view a presentation given at EG2008 by Paul Diefenbach by clicking here.