Introduction to Game Development // TECH 217, DESIGN 521 Joe Mauriello, Game Designer and Developer, PETLab Starts Thursday, June 23rd from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm, then meets at same time for the next 3 weeks.  In this course we'll use the game building tool Game Maker to build digital games. While learning to use the software we'll also cover topics essential to game design and... [read more]

Introduction to Game Development // TECH 217, DESIGN 521 Joe Mauriello, Game Designer and Developer, PETLab Starts Thursday, June 23rd from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm, then meets at same time for the next 3 weeks.  In this course we'll use the game building tool Game Maker to build digital games. While learning to use the software we'll also cover topics essential to game design and development ranging from general game building techniques to game design fundamentals, as well as user experience design and more. At the completion of the course you will have an arsenal of techniques and working examples as the foundation for building your own game. Students should bring their laptops to each meeting.  Session I: Introduction to the course and tools After a brief discussion on some fundamentals of building games we'll dive right in and start building one. We'll use this as a way to learn our way around the interface and start looking at what is possible with the tool. Session II: How a game is put together This session will focus on how the guts of a digital game come together. Again, we'll learn by doing, this time we'll build a more complicated game that requires more inputs and more complicated interactions. Session III: Elements of game design In this session we'll break games down to fundamental components, game mechanics. Examples will be provided in game maker and may be used to build from. Session IV: Culmination This will be a working session where students will begin building a project of their own design, or they may refer to the example design doc provided in the previous session. I will offer advice on how to start their project and answer any questions they may have. Joe Mauriello is a New Jersey-based game designer and developer at PETLab (Prototyping, Education and Techonology Lab) at Parsons the New School for Design. Use the hashtag #gagamedevelopment to ask follow-up questions and continue the conversation. Can't make it? Sign up at http://generalassemb.ly to stay in the loop on future events and classes.