Is there any open courseware available for online video game design courses?
Students in the best classes for video game design might want to supplement what they have learned with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) open courseware on “Videogame Theory and Analysis”. In this class you will explore the contemporary cultural, educational and social purposes of video games.
Video game design students should also consider MIT’s “Interactive and Non-Linear Narrative: Theory and Practice”. You will study interactive forms of narrative in its evolution from print to digital media. MIT offers a number of other related courses that should interest students in both video game design online classes and traditional classes.
University of Southern Queensland has a course in “Object-Oriented Programming in C++”, which is an essential component of game design. This class will teach you to apply the basic theories of object-oriented design, which is a programming structure composed of data fields and their interactions.
“Instructional Games”, from Utah State University, examines the field of video games from an educational perspective. The course includes a game design project.
“Values at Play” from Hunter College investigates how game designers implant social values into games through narrative and mechanics. Students also learn how to incorporate these values into their own work.
What blogs or other online resources might be useful in my video game design courses?
Lostgarden, a blog run by Daniel Cook, Chief Creative Officer at Spry Fox, features posts on game design theory, art and business. The blog covers everything from 3-D modeling to copyright infringement.
Designer Notes is run by Soren Johnson, who has worked on 2 Civilization games as well as Spore and Dragon Age Legends. His blog covers all aspects of the industry from the perspective of a working designer.
Gamasutra is a comprehensive resource for gaming news, blogs, jobs, Twitter feeds and more. It runs the Game Developers Conference, the Independent Games Festival and Game Developer magazine.
GameDev.net is the leading online community for game developers, from beginners to veterans. The site features news, articles, forums, classifieds and much more. Students in an online video game design course who lack opportunities to interact with their peers will find this site an invaluable resource.
What magazines or journals can I read while I study in my offline or online video game design classes?
Game Studies is a nonprofit, open-access journal that gives scholars a peer-reviewed forum and provides an academic outlet for ongoing discussions about games and gaming. If you are a student in a top video game design class, you might even consider submitting an article.
The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has just begun publishing Game Design and Development Education. The journal covers all aspects of teaching game design and development to students no matter what their education level is. Those pursuing video game design online training should find this journal an excellent addition to their classes.
The International Journal of Computer Games Technology is a peer-reviewed and open access journal that publishes articles on the research and development of technology used in video games. As sales of PC games are starting to rise again, thanks to digital distribution sites like Steam, students who want to design games for computers will find this journal essential reading.
Students in accredited video game design courses online and on-campus should also read Edge Magazine. It is not a scholarly journal, but it features hundreds of articles on the design and business of games as well as available jobs in the industry.
