Game Design

Starting in the Fall of 2010, we are offering TRUE game design. ENROL NOW - talk to your school counselor!

The systems we are looking into are:

• XNA Framework - Microsoft's game design system for creating games for Windows, Xbox 360 & Zune. It uses Visual C# Express.
• Source Engine - This game engine is one of the most powerful ones out there. It is used in such games as: Counter Strike Source, Half Life 2 and Left 4 Dead 2, etc.
• Unity3d - This is a new engine and is quickly being accepted in the gaming industry. This engine can create games for PC, Mac, the web, Wii, and iPhone. A really nice feature is that you can test the game right in the authoring tool.
• Unreal Engine 3 - This is another awesome 3D engine. Games created with Unreal Engine 3 include: Unreal Tournament 3, Rainbo Six: Vegas, Gears of War, etc.
• Alice - Alice was created by Carnegie Mellon University. This system was created to make it easy for budding Computer Science students to learn programming logic without having to worry about picky coding errors. It can used for story telling, interactive games, etc.
• DragonFireSDK - This is a Windows tool for creating iPhone / iPod Touch games. It uses Visual C++ Express.
• Flash - This is the industry standard for games on the internet.

Students will learn basic programming, graphics and 3D animation while focusing on game creation, general game design concepts, best practices, and general business concepts. Students will develop exciting games using 2D, 3D, and multiplayer concepts.

An emphasis will be placed on articulating credits with Jackson Community College.
Such JCC classes may include:

• CIS 101 Introduction to Computer Systems
• CIS 134 Graphic Imaging (Adobe® PhotoShop®)
• CIS 171 3–D Modeling I
• CIS 172 Lighting and Texturing
• and their new class CIS 272 Computer Gaming Fundamentals.