Eugene Russiyan
Aspiring journalist, chief editor of the portal GameRulez.
Occupation game designer is becoming increasingly popular. A few years ago, the mass consciousness countrymen viewed the development of computer games, rather as outlandish fun, not able to compete with the "serious employment" and bring real earnings. Russian geymdev gradually established itself as an interesting and promising area, which combines the expertise of a variety of areas, and specialized conferences began to collect thousands of visitors from a number of curious and indifferent.
Before neophyte, dared to embark on the thorny path of game design, offers several possibilities can be infinitely large storm Russian companies, it is possible to find one of the many indie studios and join her and some brave souls decide to build your own right command. It is worth remembering that a vacancy "game designer" often refers to a completely different position: tester, Programmer, Level-designer, writer, analyst, counter (designer and mathematician), concept designer, designer of mechanics and even artist.
The specificity of infant industry affects: sometimes you have to be all these people just a little bit at a time and much more. The game designer defines the concept of an ideal future games and broadcasts it to all team members in the form of specific technical tasks. The more versatile and mnogozadachen worker, the higher its chances of becoming a cool professional in your field.
Those who have long been dreaming of becoming a part of the vibrant and original world igrodelov, we offer a list of the most popular courses and worked on various aspects of game design. Go for it!
1. Introduction to game design
Area: Open edX.
Start of the course: It will be announced.
duration: 7 weeks.
Organizer: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Tongue: English.
A practical introduction to game design from one of the largest educational online platforms Open edX.
Games have always been close to the person, long before the onset of the digital era. What are the main elements of any game? What methods are used to create games? What is prototyping and iteration? Which way is an idea of the appearance on paper to implementation in physical or digital reality?
The course is easy to understand and thorough answers to these and other questions, and introduces the basic tools of game development. The Parties shall establish a board or video game (programming skills are required) as a final project.
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2. Concept in game development
Area: Open2Study.
Start of the course: 8 August.
duration: 4 weeks.
Organizer: Swinburne University of Technology.
Tongue: English.
The program is designed for a wide audience, from programmers and artists interested in working in the game industry, to simple fans video game all kinds of genres. The course teaches programming (except elementary level), modeling or painting. But he gives a basic idea of what is the main role of game designer, what is architecture and game mechanics, and physics as the balance of the game affect the feeling of the player how the testing is done product. The final part is devoted to the introduction of artificial intelligence technology to enhance the game experience variations produced.
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3. Game Design: Beyond the Game
Area: "Universarium".
Start of the course: soon (when dialing 3000 subscribers).
duration: 20 lectures.
Organizer: Wargaming.
Tongue: Russian.
Educational project by Wargaming employees, the domestic market leader in MMO games. The course assumes familiarity with the craft of game designer through the major stages of work on a game from the formulation of the initial idea to the drawing up of a design document, which is then converted directly to the game.
Few realize that for the most part the work of game designer - it's a bunch of thoughtful and meticulous scribbling. Thanks to the course you will learn how to correctly choose the wording and clearly communicate their ideas to the rest of the team, and even perform a number of technical tasks. Also focuses on the issue of monetization.
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4. Character design for video games
Area: Coursera.
Start of the course: August 1.
duration: 4 weeks.
Organizer: California Institute of the Arts.
Tongue: English.
The course is one part of the whole specialization in game design, open at Coursera. It is obvious that the integrity and well-developed game characters - an important aspect of a successful game project, no matter what genre it is. In this course, from different sides considered the construction of the game (as well as cartoon or cinematic - wait recognizable examples) character. Affected by such factors as motivation for action and expressive character, character animation and moving it in space, technical limitations in the design and so on.
The course is interesting not only a game designer, but also writers and lovers of cinema and comics.
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5. Online games: literature, new media and narrative
Area: Coursera.
Start of the course: August 1.
duration: 6 weeks.
Organizer: Vanderbilt University.
Tongue: English.
The course is designed for students who are interested in video games in general, and for passionate and advanced MMO-players. What's going on with the plot of a literary work or a movie, when it becomes the basis for the massively multiplayer online game? In the analysis of the heart - the trilogy "Lord of the Rings," Tolkien's famous professor, and famous works of romantic literature. Of course, the creators of the course in detail disassemble and other important issues: the history of the industry, especially online gameplay, originality of the narrative of the game and so on.
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6. The history of game design
Area: Open edX.
Start of the course: October 31.
duration: 5 weeks.
Organizer: Rochester Institute of Technology.
Tongue: English.
Amazingly, video games with us for more than 50 years - more since then, when computers were a whole room, cluttered closets buzzing, and the word "bug" meant nothing more than a violation of the electronics work insect!
A good game designer must be at least a little to navigate the history of the question. The course will tell about the appearance of the very first game, the invention and evolution of genres, VR-technology and the future of the industry as a whole.
Course creators - experts from the National Museum of games in Rochester, containing the world's largest collection of video games and related materials.
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7. Programming for Dummies: create your first mobile game
Area: FutureLearn.
Start of the course: It will be announced.
duration: 7 weeks.
Organizer: University of Reading.
Tongue: English.
The first steps in Java-programming for future igrodelov. Absolute beginners - the most it: in a fun and entertaining manner will tell you about the basic principles, algorithms and code structure and taught to translate their undoubtedly brilliant, but somewhat hazy ideas. As the main programming platform used by Google's Android Studio.
According to the results of the course you will have your own to create a simple mobile game that can be played on a computer, smartphone or tablet. Stop here or continue to create games - you decide!
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8. Advanced JS: Game and Visualization
Area: Khan Academy.
Start of the course: immediately.
duration: 36 hours.
Organizer: Khan Academy.
Tongue: English.
Programming advanced in JavaScript from the famous Khan Academy. To start the course, participants are introduced to the main components of video games and visualization process, learn to work with various programs and do with them buttons, sliders and menus, and by the end able to create animations and implement the 3D-model.
As a result, courses taken, in addition to the immediate pumping programming skills, you can make a platformer about content and beaver toy on memorization.
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9. Creation of 2D-games on the Unity 4.5
Area: Udemy.
Start of the course: immediately.
duration: 38 lectures.
Organizer: 3D Buzz.
Tongue: English.
Specialized course, the name of which fully reflects the content. In addition to exploring the advantages and opportunities are now extremely popular Unity engine, the listener expects the creation of a variety of controllers, basics of level design and development system of experience points and health, build a simple AI to control enemy units, the introduction of animation and eventually the establishment of two fully functioning levels of your future games.
Although the course is recommended, even for beginners in the basic requirements - a minimum of C # knowledge.
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10. gamification
Area: Coursera.
Start of the course: August 15.
duration: 6 weeks.
Organizer: The University of Pennsylvania.
Tongue: English.
Gamification, gamification, or - is the use of game elements or techniques, usually in non-gaming processes, such as the construction of a business strategy or solving social problems. The course introduces the basic mechanisms of gamification and demonstrates the effectiveness of their correct application. Due to the excursion into the history of gaming as a cultural phenomenon as a whole, the analysis of the game procedures and the description of types of psychological motivation Player course is extremely useful including developer of computer games. Especially if he wants to create commercially successful products.
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