The video game industry is one of the largest sectors in the world. Within this booming industry, video game designers are among the first to kick off game development, defining game rules, characters, and the central storyline. This 100% online course will help you design and create your own video game for the PC. You will be prepared to join a video game development team or strike out on your own as an independent designer.
Disclaimer: These courses are not offered at Snow College for credit or otherwise, but through a Continuing Education program partnership with Ed2Go. They are not eligible for financial aid through Snow College.
The role of video game designer will vary depending on where they work, but these professionals work on concepts like gameplay and user experience for a video game in the pre-production phase. This can range from defining game mechanics to creating levels and puzzles or drafting character art and animations.
Most industry experts suggest that you need to enjoy and understand video games to become a video game designer or developer. Hands-on gaming experience is a start, but you must also be able to draft and conceptualize a video game on paper and translate this idea into design software. Beyond this, you need to master the four major skill sets used by entry-level video game designers: programming languages, mathematics skills, game asset creation, and modern real-time game engines.
While video game designers are more involved with character, level and animation design, developers build out the world of a video game using various programming languages. Having both technical and design skills is an important aspect of planning and shipping a video game.
To succeed in this course, you will need basic computer skills and a high school-level understanding of mathematics.
Frank Luna
Frank Luna has programmed interactive 3D computer graphics for more than a decade. He has 15 years of C++ programming experience, having worked as a contractor, with Hero Interactive, and on the open source Scorch 3D engine. Since 2004, he has taught C++ and mathematics for games at the Game Institute. He has also written a number of best-selling textbooks on game and graphics programming, including "Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 11.0."
John DeGoes
John DeGoes began writing software and designing digital logic circuits during the early 1980s. He has been actively involved in the fields of computer science, mathematics, and game development for more than fifteen years. He has authored two games programming books, "3D Game Programming with C++" and "3D Game Programming with C++ Gold Edition" and several published articles on the subject. DeGoes holds a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from Montana State University-Billings and is working on his doctorate in applied mathematics.
This course is 100% online. Start anytime.
