This document provides an introduction and overview for a course on game design and development. It introduces the instructor Luca Galli and lists some of the topics that will be covered over the course, including rapid game prototyping, game jams, traditional game design principles, and introductions to Unity3D and Construct 2 for game development. The course will include sessions at different technical difficulty levels and aims to help students refine game ideas and learn skills for turning board games into video games.

1. LUCA GALLI
@Leyart86
PLAYER ONE
Videogame Design for all
Introduction

2. ABOUT ME
LUCA GALLI
Director of Production – Moonsubmarine ltd
Shushing Fairy
Ph.D. - Politecnico di Milano
2
• BACKGROUND & INTERESTS
• Robotics & Artificial Intelligence
• Game Design
• Crowdsourcing e Human Computation

3. Goal of this course is simple: know each other,
share a passion and learn how to bring it on!
Make (possibly good) games!

4. BLOODBORNE

5. JOHN ROMERO

6. ARE ALL AAA GAMES GOOD?

8. INDIE GAMES
(AND WHY YOU SHOULD LOVE THEM)

9. SUPER MEAT BOY

10. BRAID

11. BRAID – THE REAL GAME
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132147/the_art_of_braid_creating_a_.php

12. MEAT BOY – THE REAL GAME

13. THE UNFINISHED SWAN

14. SPACETEAM

15. JOHANN SEBASTIAN JOUST

16. PAPA SANGRE

18. WHY NO MINECRAFT?

19. SHAME ON YOU IF YOU DON’T KNOW IT :)

20. SERIOUS GAMES – CONVEY MESSAGES
Darfur is Dying Budget Hero

21. GAMES WITH A PURPOSE – SOLVE A PROBLEM
The ESP Game FoldIt

22. WHAT IS THIS COURSE ABOUT
• This is course is highly experimental. It will be a crash course about game design
and (video) game development for hobbysts. We will try to cover as much as
possible but the only thing that fuels your skills will be your effort and your passion
to discover more and more. Highly experimental means that you will actually have
to DO STUFF to learn something.
• Besides some lessons, the course WILL BE TECHNICAL.
This means that I will NOT teach the basics of programming, that takes entire
university courses to be accomplished.
• This does not mean that you will not be able to reach your goal: you will learn how
to refine ideas and mechanics for boardgames that could be turned even by non-
programmers to real videogames with just a bit of effort and the right tools.
• Every week on the website the seminars will be listed with one of three different
difficulty level:
• EASY: Open to everyone, no technical skills required
• MEDIUM: Open to everyone, requiring a Notebook, the required tools installed and a
bit of patience in order to accomplish something
• NIGHTMARE: for programmers only.

23. WHAT IS THIS COURSE ABOUT
• Introduction to Game Design 11/06 - EASY
• Rapid videogame prototyping with Construct 2 18/06 – MEDIUM
• Javascript Game Programming with ImpactJS 25/06 – NIGHTMARE
• Game Jam Crash Course + Game Jam Session 02/07 – EASY/MEDIUM
• Game Jam Session 09/07 – EASY/MEDIUM
• What went wrong? Traditional Game Design: Conceptualization, Formal and
Dramatic Elements, The Game Design Document 16/07 – EASY
• Introduction to Unity3D: Basic Concepts 23/07 – NIGHTMARE
• Game Jam Session 30/07 – EASY/MEDIUM
• See you back again in September :)

24. CREATE TOGETHER
Card Hunter, Blue Manchu Pty Ltd, TBR

25. PROJECT VOLPHANTE

27. Let’s get this sorted out right now. We are Italians, so we could have
written all the slides in our language, it would have been easier and it
would have taken less time. So why have we chosen English?
Because as a game designer you will NEED to be able to Speak, Read
AND Write in English at a pretty good level. English is the main
language in the game developer community and Internet in general and
most (if not all) the good books about game design are written in
English.
So, lesson one. If you can’t understand all this stuff you are not ready to
be a good Game Designer.
You should have listened to that pesky English teacher at High School!
Why are all the slides in
English?!

28. GREAT OPPORTUNITY UNTIL 15/06/2015!

29. OTHER USEFUL SOURCES AND GAMES
http://www.gamesradar.com/amazing-indie-games-youve-never-played-indie-devs-
you-love/

30. OTHER GAMES TO PLAY
Super Crate Box
http://www.supercratebox.com/
SpaceChem
http://spacechemthegame.com/
Continuity
http://continuitygame.com/playcontinuity.html
http://continuitygame.com/
Bit Trip Beat
http://www.aksysgames.com/bittripbeat/
World of Goo
http://www.worldofgoo.com/
Fotonica
http://www.fotonica-game.com/
Osmos
http://www.hemispheregames.com/osmos/
vvvvvvv
http://thelettervsixtim.es/
Canabalt
http://www.adamatomic.com/canabalt/
Fract
http://fractgame.com/
Frozen Synapse http://www.frozensynapse.com/
Revenge of Titans
http://www.puppygames.net/revenge-of-thetitans/

31. THE SPONSOR