By Ripon Media in College Days on February 14, 2020
Course allows students to use their creative side to design video games
By Deana Johnson
Students during a class meeting for the Introduction to Game Design course.
Photo courtesy of Samuel Audisho.
This semester Professor Isaac Sung, a computer science and math professor, is teaching Introduction to Video Game Development for the first time on campus. This is a course he has been interested in teaching since he started at Ripon this last fall, he explained. Sung is hoping Ripon College allows him to offer this course on a regular basis, as video games are one of his main research areas.
Introduction to Video Game Development allows students to be creative and think outside the box to create their own video game. Because the class entails a lot of creativity, it is a bit different than other classes as far as structure is concerned. While the beginning of the course is more lecture based, “the majority of the semester will be project driven. Students split up into teams, forming their own ‘indie game studios’ and work on creating a video game that they can be proud of,” Sung said.
By working in teams to complete their video games, students are gaining the ability to use practical skills as well as learn how to work efficiently and effectively in a group setting.
“It teaches some core concepts of how to rapidly and interactively design a product as well as other software engineering principles. Introduction to Video Game Development allows students to gain the ability to create video games in Unity and C#, and agile software engineering principles and methodologies,” Sung said.
Not only do students get to walk away from this course with the knowledge to create their own video games, but they also get to leave haven already made their very own game which “should make for a very rewarding class for any creative individual who is interested in design or who enjoys playing or making video games,” Sung said.