22.03.2016 #3. Game Design: Art and Concepts, review the Coursera specialization.
#Game Design
Game Design: Art and Concepts Specialization is held by The California Institute of the Arts on Coursera platform. It consists of 4 courses and the last Capstone Project.
Course 1: Introduction to Game Design.
In this course, you will learn how to make a simple game on a one piece of paper with two six-sided dice. You will make games for one and a few players. You will receive the basic knowledge: what is the game design document, how to make the rules, why do you need a narrative story, what is the game balance, a lot of different necessary things. The teacher - Fran Krause, has a good humorous, he explain everything very nice and easy.
I recommend you to start with this course when you are not sure, do you want to study game design or not. After this course, you will be totally in love with making games.
Course 2: Story and Narrative Development for Video Games.
In this course, you will write more than draw, write the story. You will receive many of written supplements and examples. Sometimes you have to write a new story and sometimes to renew old that has been already written. After this course, you will know how to write idea sheet, story synopsis, character brief, and settings description.
I will give you short list of the definitions, which I learned:
- Spine - the logline or one sentence description of your story.
- Story Synopsis - a full summary of a story describing the journey of the main character, his or her goals, the conflict that arises, and how that conflict is resolved.
- Character Brief - a description of a character in a story or game. It may include physical description, backstory, and details about their involvement in the story.
- Setting Description - an overview of a location in a story or game.
- Idea Sheet - a list of ideas created from a free-writing or brainstorm exercise.
- Presentation Scheme -a document that outlines the game story through the gameplay.
- Gameplay Overview - a description of how the story of a game is revealed through gameplay and cut-scene animations.
- Gameplay Flowchart - a visual map of a game's story.
And resourses, where you can find the samples of Game Design Documents:
- Gamasutra, Indie Game Design Document Template (Jason Bakker)
- Runaway Studios, Game Design Document Sample (Chris Taylor)
- SEGAN, Game Design Document Examples (Will Jones)
- Sloperama, Game Design Document Outline (Tom Sloper)
In this course you will meet another teacher - Dariush Derakhshani, but I’m sure you will like him too.
Course 3: World Design for Video Games.
In this course, you will learn how to analyze the game and describe game world. You will search for the inspiration, build on the visual style of your world by creating a map or model, and describe the whole game process, step by step.
And the new teacher for this course is - Théotime Vaillant.
Course 4: Character Design for Video Games.
This course is led by my favorite teacher in this program - Fran Krause. You will return to the drawing and you will draw a lot. I really like this course because it's not usually "class" course, it's a course in a "wild" nature. You will spy for three famous and talented illustrators, character designers and animators. Sit behind them and observe the entire process from beginning to end. This course gives much more than all read tutorials and watched video on youtube. You will see all process: brainstorm, sketches, finding inspirations, drawing on paper and on the tablet, scanning and finishing the character.
Also, you will receive very creative assignments: to draw different characters with the different moods, proportions and destinies, to draw characters inspired by other characters, to draw characters with opposite abilities and so on.
I will give you links to the personal pages of these guest lecturers and you will understand why I'm so heartened.
- Andy Ristaino (A storyboard artist and formerly the lead designer and a character designer on Adventure Time.)
- Jacky Ke Jiang (Art director at thatgamecompany. Worked on Transformer Comic, Journey PS3 game, Adventure Time, Disney feature: Paperman, Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen etc.)
- Robertryan Cory (Animation Character Designer/Animator. Worked at Spumco, Nickelodeon, Paramount, MTV, Cartoon Network, HBO, Disney. Currently designing Gravity Falls.)
Capstone Project: Defining the Art and Concept of your Game.
It starts later, on April 2016. I will write you about it after finishing.
Welcome to my Study Experiments - here you can see some my assignments from these courses.
If this article helps you, you want to correct it or you want to ask me anything, please write me an email!