Course Description

Fundamental ideas underlying the design of games, which occurs before the programming stage. How games function to create experiences, including rule design, play mechanics, game balancing, social game interaction and the integration of visual, audio, tactile and textual elements into the total game experience. Game design documentation and play testing. Students will design their own game during the semester. This course is offered as both EST 310 and ISE 340.

Advisory Prerequisite: basic computer skills
SBC: TECH

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the process of game design.
• Analyze the needs, desires, and constraints of the audience that a game is designed for.
• Design games using proven guidelines, tricks, and principles for designing an effective game.
• Demonstrate an ability to use digital prototyping tools to create a digital game prototype.

Course Delivery Mode and Attendance Policy

Classes, unless otherwise indicated, are held in-person. Classes are structured around in-class activities and group work, and therefore regular attendance is a necessity. If you miss more than 2 classes before teams are created, you will not be placed on a team and you will be expected to do the projects on your own. If you miss more than 2 classes after teams are created, you will be dropped from the team and expected to do subsequent assignments on your own.

At the same time, I understand that things come up, and people get sick. If you are sick, do NOT come to class. If you do miss a class, you will usually have an opportunity to make up any missed in-class assignments.

On the first day class meets, you will be asked to select a seat in the classroom. This will be your seat until teams are formed later in the semester. You will be asked to fill out a placard with your name, which will be collected at the end of each class and then placed back on the desks before the next class meeting. Please do not sit in a seat that has someone else's name on it. This is for the purpose of taking attendance and contact tracing, should it be necessary.

Office hours will be conducted primarily on Zoom. You must sign up for office hours on my calendar. You can also set up a special appointment with me by sending email. Please be on-time as appointments are only 15 minutes long.

If you need to contact me, the best way to communicate is through email. If you use Brightspace’s email tool from the course site, it will automatically include your full name, course name and section when you send me an email. Please allow between 24-48 hours for an email reply. Your Stony Brook University email must be used for all University-related communications. You must have an active Stony Brook University email account and access to the Internet. All instructor correspondence will be sent to your SBU email account. Plan on checking your SBU email account regularly for course-related messages. To log in to Stony Brook Google Mail, go to http://www.stonybrook.edu/mycloud and sign in with your NetID and password.

Technical Assistance

If you need technical assistance at any time during the course or to report a problem with Brightspace you can:

• Phone: 631-632-9800 (client support, Wi-Fi, software and hardware)
• Submit a help request ticket: https://it.stonybrook.edu/services/itsm
• If you are on campus, visit the Walk-Up Tech Support Station in the Educational Communications Center (ECC) building.

Textbook

We will be using the following textbook:

T. Fullerton, Game Design Workshop, 4th edition, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019, ISBN 978-1-138-09877-0.

In addition, readings from the current literature will be assigned. These may be found in the Course Materials section of the Brightspace site for the course.

Course Materials and Facilities

We will be using Class Question for attendance and the daily quizzes. If you already have a Class Question account, skip to step 2. If you are new to it, start at step 1.

1. Go to classquestion.com/students and click "Click here to register". This link will allow you to register for the site.
2. Once you have registered, go to classquestion.com/students and sign in.
3. Click "Add Class" at the bottom. Enter the Class Code for this class - ZCMKX - and then click "Add Class".
4. Your class will be added to the dropdown menu at the top. You can now click the "Sign In" button to log into your class!

We will be working in the Multimedia Lab for this class. Lab hours and lab procedures will be discussed in class.

Your SBU email address has been assigned an Adobe Creative Cloud named-user license. A notification email will be sent directly by Adobe. The account and software will be accessible at account.adobe.com. Please provide your email address at the sign-in screen and select the "Company or School Account" option when prompted. Afterwards, you'll authenticate with your NetID and Duo at the SSO portal. You can also use Adobe apps on campus.

You are responsible for backing up your own work. To do this, you may use a USB data key, a portable drive, or Google Drive.

Course Requirements

• Class Participation - 25%
  Class participation includes presentations, discussions, and In-Class Activities (ICA). If you are physically in the classroom during the activity, you automatically get credit for doing that activity. If class is being held online, or if you are absent for any reason, you have 1 week to make it up. You can miss up to two (2) ICAs without impacting your grade. If you do all of the ICAs, that will count as extra credit. Make-up ICA assignments will be posted in Brightspace on the day of the activity.
   
• Homework - 15%
  Homeworks are done out-of-class, individually. Designs must be presented in class on the day they are due. They also include reporting your reflections and evaluations of others' designs. See the Assignments section of Brightspace for further details.
   
• Game Designs - 40%
  Over the semester, you will work in teams on two (2) game designs. You will be assigned to a different team for each design. Designs must be presented in class on the day they are due. See the Assignments section of Brightspace for further details.
   
• Quizzes - 20%
  
At the beginning of class you will be asked questions about material covered in the previous class(es) that you will answer using Class Question (see above for how to sign up). You may miss up to 6 questions without penalty. If you answer more questions correctly, that will count as extra credit. No make-up quizzes will be given, no exceptions.

Advisories

Critical Incident Management: Stony Brook University expects students to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, or inhibits students' ability to learn. Be aware that "disruptive behavior" will include refusal to abide by any University protocols, including current Covid-19 protocols. For the latest COVID guidance, please refer to: https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/strongertogether/students.php.  

Student Accessibility Support Center: If you have a physical, psychological, medical, or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact the Student Accessibility Support Center, 128 ECC Building, (631) 632-6748, or at sasc@Stonybrook.edu. They will determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential.

Academic Integrity: Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Faculty is required to report any suspected instances of academic dishonesty to the Academic Judiciary. Faculty in the Health Sciences Center (School of Health Technology & Management, Nursing, Social Welfare, Dental Medicine) and School of Medicine are required to follow their school-specific procedures. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty please refer to the academic judiciary website at http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/academic_integrity/index.html

Course Evaluation: Each semester Stony Brook University asks students to provide feedback on their courses and instructors through an online course evaluation system. The course evaluation results are used by the individual faculty, department chairs and deans to help the faculty enhance their teaching skills and are used as part of the personnel decision for faculty promotion and tenure. No individually identifiable data are ever reported back to the university or instructor. Students who have completed previous evaluations can view all faculty ratings at: https://classie-evals.stonybrook.edu/

My Own Advice

Do all of the assignments, and come to all of the classes. It will affect your grade.

Think of me as your cranky client. There may be times when you disagree with what I say about your work. Just remember that I am the one giving out the grades. When I make a suggestion, be sure to listen, because it is likely to have an impact on your final grade.

Start your assignments early. That way if you have trouble, you can get help in time to finish your assignment by the due date. This will also help you to avoid a last-minute crunch in the lab.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. If you don't understand something, it's likely that your classmates don't understand it either. Raise questions in class. If you need further explanation, come see me during office hours. If you can't make my office hours, send me email. Be sure to do this before you get hopelessly lost.

Work with other students. I do not mean that you should copy each other's work (which will not be tolerated). Rather, you should learn from one another. If you can't figure out how to make something work, see how your colleague did it. It is also useful to discuss different ways of approaching a problem.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you anticipate having any problems with this class. If alerted to them early on, I may be able to accommodate your needs.

Schedule

Although most readings will come from the textbook, additional "readings" may come from the web. Classroom activities build on the readings, so discussion topics should be considered ahead of time. Participation in classroom activities and presentations is required. Please note that this schedule is approximate, and subject to change.

* Asynchronous online class: see Brightspace for the day's assignment