GAME 1303 — Introduction to Game Design & Development
Collin College | Media Arts | Animation & Game Art
Fall 2026 · Tuesdays 9:00 AM – 1:50 PM
Section 001 — Unity 6.x · Section 002 — Unreal Engine 5.8
Instructor: [name] · Email: [collin.edu address] · Office: [room / hours]
Canvas: all assignments, files, and grades live in the course Canvas shell.
1. Course description
An introduction to the design and production of video games. Students learn the vocabulary and practice of game design while building a complete, playable game of their own over the course of the semester. All work is produced in a professional game engine — Unity 6.x or Unreal Engine 5.8 — using art the student creates.
No prior programming experience is required. This is a design and development course, not a scripting course: a library of documented helper scripts is provided, and students learn to read, wire, configure, and modify them rather than write systems from scratch.
2. Student learning outcomes
On completion, a student will be able to:
- Analyze a game in terms of its formal elements, core mechanic, and player experience.
- Pitch and scope an original game concept to a realistic one-semester size.
- Implement a core game mechanic using an engine's input, physics, and component systems.
- Design and build a playable level with deliberate pacing, gating, and difficulty.
- Construct a complete screen flow — title, HUD, pause, win, and lose states.
- Add feedback, audio, and camera work that produce readable, satisfying game feel.
- Run a structured playtest and iterate on the results.
- Package and publish a playable build, and evaluate the finished work in a post mortem.
3. Required materials
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Unity 6.x (Section 001) | Free Personal license; Input System and UI Toolkit packages |
| Unreal Engine 5.8 (Section 002) | Free via Epic Games Launcher |
| Adobe Photoshop | Available in lab; for 2D asset creation |
| Autodesk Maya | Available in lab; for 3D tracks |
| External drive or cloud storage | Back up your project every single week |
| Version control account | GitHub or Perforce; setup covered in Week 2 |
VR tracks use department Meta Quest 2 or HTC Cosmos Elite headsets, checked out through the lab.
4. How the course works
Every class period runs the same three-part shape:
| Block | Time | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 9:00 – 10:15 | One design topic paired with the engine features that implement it |
| Exercise | 10:30 – 11:45 | A short, hands-on build in the engine — graded, submitted same day |
| Lab | 12:00 – 1:50 | Work on your semester game project; instructor available one-on-one |
The semester alternates between exercise weeks and milestone weeks:
- 10 exercise weeks. Each teaches one design skill by building it in the engine. Exercises are self-contained — you build a small scene, not your project — so a failed experiment costs you nothing.
- 6 milestone weeks. The exercise block becomes live critique and review of a graded deliverable on your own game. No new exercise is assigned.
Exercises are deliberately sequenced to land the week before the milestone they feed:
| Exercises | feed | Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| Ex 2 The Verb + Ex 3 Rules & States | → | Core Game Mechanic (Wk 5) |
| Ex 5 Space & Pace | → | Level Map (Wk 8) |
| Ex 7 Screen Flow | → | Screen Layout (Wk 11) |
| Ex 10 Test & Iterate | → | Game Build (Wk 15) |
Game Pitches happen live in Week 2, so the class knows what everyone is making and the semester's engine topics can be weighted toward the genres actually in the room.
Two written deliverables — the One Sheet and the Game Design Doc — are homework, submitted online in Canvas. They do not consume class time.
5. Semester schedule
| Wk | Date | Milestone / Exercise | Design topic | Unity 6.x | Unreal 5.8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aug 25 | Ex 1 — First Playable | Play analysis & formal elements | Hub, editor, 2D project setup, sprite import, Input System install | Launcher, editor, project setup, asset import, Enhanced Input |
| 2 | Sep 1 | Game Pitches (live) | Concepting, hook & scope | Project organization, version control, folder conventions | Content Browser organization, version control, naming conventions |
| 3 | Sep 8 | Ex 2 — The Verb | Player verbs & core mechanics | GameObjects, components, prefabs, PlayerMove2D | Actors, components, Blueprints, BP_PlayerMove |
| 4 | Sep 15 | Ex 3 — Rules & States · One Sheet due | Rules, goals, win/lose & game state | Colliders & triggers, GameStateManager, scene reload | Collision & overlaps, BP_GameState, level restart |
| 5 | Sep 22 | Core Game Mechanic | — | Debugging your mechanic; Inspector tuning, ScriptableObjects | Debugging your mechanic; Details panel, Data Assets |
| 6 | Sep 29 | Ex 4 — Juice It | Game feel, feedback & audio | Sprite animation, VFX Graph, SoundPlayer, screen shake | Paper2D/Niagara, audio cues, camera shake |
| 7 | Oct 6 | Ex 5 — Space & Pace | Level design, gating & pacing | Tilemap, Rule Tiles, modular prefabs, checkpoints | Level blockout, modeling tools, modular assets, checkpoints |
| 8 | Oct 13 | Level Map | — | Scene management, Physics2D/Physics, materials | Level streaming, physics, physical materials |
| 9 | Oct 20 | Ex 6 — Story in the World | Narrative, theme & environmental storytelling | DialogueTrigger, trigger volumes, Timeline | Data Tables, trigger volumes, Sequencer |
| 10 | Oct 27 | Ex 7 — Screen Flow | UI/UX, HUD & screen flow | UI Toolkit — UXML, USS, UIManager | UMG widgets, anchors, bindings |
| 11 | Nov 3 | Screen Layout | — | Menus, pause, scene flow, save/load | Menus, pause, level flow, SaveGame |
| 12 | Nov 10 | Ex 8 — Point of View | Camera, composition & perspective | Cinemachine 2D/3D, confiner, XR rig (Quest 2 / Cosmos) | Cine Camera, camera rigs, VR template |
| 13 | Nov 17 | Ex 9 — Curves & Locks · GDD due | Difficulty, balance & puzzle design | Health, Score, Spawner, object pooling | Health/score components, spawners, pooling |
| 14 | Nov 24 | Ex 10 — Test & Iterate | Playtesting & iteration | PlaytestLogger, Profiler, bug triage, build prep | Session logging, Insights, bug triage, packaging prep |
| 15 | Dec 1 | Game Build | — | Build settings, platforms, publishing, .unitypackage | Packaging, platforms, publishing, plugin export |
| 16 | Dec 8 | Post Mortem | Evaluation & reflection | Wrap, portfolio, next courses | Wrap, portfolio, next courses |
6. The ten exercises
Every exercise is a build, not an essay. You start from a provided starter scene, wire up one or two helper scripts, make a design decision, and submit a short screen recording plus your scene or project files. Each is designed to finish inside the 75-minute exercise block.
| # | Wk | Title | What you build | Design skill practiced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | First Playable | A sprite on screen that moves with keyboard and gamepad via the Input System | Reading a game as inputs → response; project hygiene |
| 2 | 3 | The Verb | One core mechanic — jump, dash, grab, shoot, or swap — tuned to feel right | Identifying and isolating the core verb |
| 3 | 4 | Rules & States | A goal trigger, a hazard, and a win / lose / restart loop | Rules, objectives and game state |
| 4 | 6 | Juice It | The same action from Ex 2, rebuilt with animation, particles, SFX, and shake | Game feel and player feedback |
| 5 | 7 | Space & Pace | A short level with a locked gate, a key, and a checkpoint | Spatial design, gating, and pacing |
| 6 | 9 | Story in the World | A room that tells a story through props and three triggered text beats | Theme and environmental storytelling |
| 7 | 10 | Screen Flow | Title → game → pause → win/lose screens in UI Toolkit | UI/UX hierarchy and screen flow |
| 8 | 12 | Point of View | One scene framed three ways with a virtual camera; VR comfort variant | Camera, composition, and perspective |
| 9 | 13 | Curves & Locks | Health, score, a difficulty ramp, and one lock-and-key puzzle | Balance, difficulty curves, puzzle construction |
| 10 | 14 | Test & Iterate | A test build, three playtests, and one fix implemented live | Playtest protocol and iteration |
Each exercise exists in a Unity version and an Unreal version with identical design content and engine-specific steps.
Exercise grading — 2 points, two criteria
| Criterion | 1 point |
|---|---|
| Implementation | It builds and runs. The required feature works as specified, without errors in the console. |
| Design decision | You made and can justify a deliberate choice — tuning values, framing, layout, or feedback — beyond the default. |
Partial credit is not given within a criterion; each is met or not met. Exercises are due at the end of the class period. See Late work below.
Helper script library
Provided, documented, and free to modify. You are expected to read them and change values; you are not expected to write them.
| Script | Purpose |
|---|---|
PlayerMove2D / PlayerMove3D | Input System–driven movement, jump, dash; exposed tuning values |
SoundPlayer | One-shot SFX and looping music with pitch variance |
Health | Damage, healing, death event, invulnerability window |
Score | Score, combo, and high-score tracking with events |
GameStateManager | Playing / paused / won / lost states, restart, scene transitions |
UIManager | UI Toolkit screen switching, HUD binding, pause menu |
TriggerZone | Generic enter/exit event emitter for gates, goals, and hazards |
DialogueTrigger | Displays a sequence of text beats on trigger enter |
Spawner / ObjectPool | Timed or wave spawning with pooled instances |
PlaytestLogger | Writes timestamped session events to a local log file |
Unity scripts use the New Input System and UI Toolkit throughout. Unreal equivalents are Blueprint templates using Enhanced Input and UMG.
7. Milestones and homework
| Milestone | Wk | Format | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Pitch | 2 | Live: 3 minutes + 2 minutes Q&A, with one reference image | 5 |
| Core Game Mechanic | 5 | Playable build demonstrating your primary verb | 5 |
| Level Map | 8 | Level map plus a walkable blockout of it | 5 |
| Screen Layout | 11 | Title, HUD, pause, win and lose screens implemented | 5 |
| Game Build | 15 | Published playable build with build notes | 25 |
| Post Mortem | 16 | Live presentation plus written retrospective | 5 |
| Canvas homework | Due | Format | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| One Sheet | Wk 4 | One page: title, hook, genre, platform, audience, core loop, art direction | 5 |
| Game Design Doc | Wk 13 | Living document submitted as PDF; expands the One Sheet into mechanics, levels, UI, asset list, and scope | 10 |
8. Grading
| Item | Possible |
|---|---|
| Attendance | 15 |
| Weekly exercises (10 × 2) | 20 |
| Game Pitch | 5 |
| One Sheet | 5 |
| Core Game Mechanic | 5 |
| Level Map | 5 |
| Screen Layout | 5 |
| Game Design Doc | 10 |
| Published Game / Build | 25 |
| Post Mortem | 5 |
| Total | 100 |
| Extra credit | 5 |
| Grand total | 105 |
Grade scale: A ≥ 90 · B ≥ 80 · C ≥ 70 · D ≥ 60 · F < 60
Attendance — 1 point per class meeting, 16 meetings, one absence dropped, capped at 15 points. Attendance is taken at the start of the lecture block.
Extra credit — up to 5 points for attendance at industry events, meetups, game jams, or conferences. Submit proof of attendance and a short paragraph on what you took away. 1 point each, 5 maximum.
Late work — exercises are due at the end of the class period in which they are assigned; late exercises earn the Implementation point only. Milestones and Canvas homework lose 20% per week late. Nothing is accepted after the last class meeting.
9. Project tracks
You choose a track when you pitch in Week 2. Milestones are identical across tracks; the exercise deliverables and lab support adapt.
| Track | Scope | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2D (default) | Platformer, top-down, arcade | Student-created sprite art; Unity Tilemap or Unreal Paper2D |
| Puzzle | Grid, physics, or logic puzzle | Encouraged — lowest art burden, highest design return |
| Narrative | Dialogue-driven, walking sim, visual novel | Ex 6 becomes your primary design artifact |
| 3D | Small-scope 3D, one complete level | Requires modular asset discipline; scope is reviewed at pitch |
| VR | Meta Quest 2 or HTC Cosmos Elite | Ex 8 comfort work is mandatory; build target locked by Week 12 |
Scope warning. A finished small game outscores an unfinished ambitious one. The Published Game milestone is worth 25 points and requires something playable start to finish.
10. Policies
Original work. All art, audio, and design must be your own or properly licensed. Cite every third-party asset in your Game Design Doc and build notes. Using an uncredited asset is an academic integrity violation.
AI tools. Generative AI may be used for ideation, debugging help, and placeholder assets, but must be disclosed in your Game Design Doc. Final shipped art and design decisions must be your own.
Backups. Commit or back up your project every week. "My drive failed" is not an extension.
Accommodations. Students with disabilities may request accommodations through Collin College ACCESS. Notify the instructor as early in the semester as possible.
[Insert Collin College standard syllabus statements: academic integrity, withdrawal deadline, religious holy days, campus concealed carry, Title IX, and student resources.]