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Fran Krause, Dariush Derakhshani, and Théotime Vaillant

Stemming from the principles of storytelling and design established in CalArts’ renowned Animation programs, this Specialization lays a primary foundation for experimentation and exploration of video game design, story, character development, and winning gameplay before programming begins. These four courses emphasize the self-reliance and personal expression of the gaming artist, and encourage you to take conceptual risks and develop new modes of expression and form through gaming.

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What's inside

Five courses

Introduction to Game Design

(0 hours)
Welcome! This course introduces the primary concepts of gaming and explores how these concepts affect gamers' interactions with games. You'll learn what defines a “game” and the mechanics and rules behind different types of games. Through four linked assignments, you'll learn to create and describe a game concept and what makes a compelling game.

Story and Narrative Development for Video Games

In this course, you will examine how storytelling drives video gameplay forward. Looking at historical and contemporary games, you will evaluate and interpret story styles to identify themes and procedures for your own game ideas. We'll examine traditional narrative story processes and how they fit into game story flows and gameplay. Ultimately, you will learn to define character, setting, and structure to create a compelling game concept.

World Design for Video Games

Start creating your world. A game world is not just a backdrop for your game, it provides the context for your player. Ultimately, a game world should feel alive and wholly unique.

Character Design for Video Games

(0 hours)
In this course, you will explore concepts and approaches involved in creating successful character designs for video games. Following a first week delving into some foundational concepts, each of the remaining three weeks are structured as a master class where you will observe three professional character designers at work in the studio: Andy Ristaino (Adventure Time), Jacky Ke Jiang (Journey), and Robertryan Cory (SpongeBob SquarePants).

Game Design Document: Define the Art & Concepts

(0 hours)
The Capstone project lets you develop your game idea into a full proposal. A game design document defines your game's genre, look and feel, and gameplay evolution.

Learning objectives

  • Ways to create and describe a game concept
  • Evaluation and interpretion of different story styles
  • Concepts and approaches involved in creating successful character designs

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