Learning Outcomes for Game Design

Through Champlain’s Game Design major, you will learn all the skills you need to be a top candidate in this competitive industry.

By the time you complete the academic and portfolio requirements for your Game Design degree, you’ll have gained the following skills and proficiencies:

Creative Thinking and Aesthetic Appreciation

• Generate innovative ideas and go beyond the obvious and predefined
• Recognize the underlying principles guiding the relevant visual, audio, interactive, and narrative aesthetics of a particular genre of work, design movement, or designer
• Differentiate what is aesthetically successful or unsuccessful
• Identify and apply foundational theories and approaches that inform contemporary creative work
• Synthesize trends, theories, and movements in the development of new ideas

Critical Thinking and Critique

• Deconstruct and analyze your own work and the work of others to evaluate the technical and aesthetic quality
• Explain and justify the elements of your own presented argument, creative work, or process
• Listen to, evaluate, and respond critically to the ideas of others
• Solve problems utilizing resources to find the best solutions to development challenges
• Rapidly iterate (critically re-examine) each design to arrive at the optimal outcome

Individual Practice

• Manage time effectively, stay on task, and make accurate time estimates
• Identify steps, develop, and manage a successful professional workflow
• Select correct tools or processes in order to produce deliverables that meet project expectations and professional standards
• Develop and implement successful strategies for organization of the design and delivery of the product

Written, Oral, and Group Communication

• Convey ideas, information, and intentions effectively and in a manner that is appropriate to the topic, situation, and audience during presentation and critique
• Listen effectively in order to interpret accurately and critically the oral and nonverbal messages produced by others, and to display regard for other speakers’ points of view and be constructive in the critique of work.
• Research, organize, evaluate, and document gathered information for presentational purpose
• Write effectively in a style that is well organized, easy to follow, and supported by sufficient and appropriate evidence
• Identify various audience segments and show evidence of being able to adapt to those audiences
• Express oneself clearly and appropriately during small group and team collaborations

Quantitative Literacy

• Identify and communicate rules of number, pattern manipulation, and associated terminology for game design and production tools and processes
• Effectively apply computational, arithmetic, geometric, and algebraic skills to solve problems
• Estimate time, number, and solutions to determine outcomes and evaluate alternatives
• Utilize computer program theories and languages to create game behavior and control the game environment

Use of Technology

• Select the correct technological tool for the task
• Identify and anticipate new technology and rapidly adapt to the changing technological landscape
• Appreciate the role technology plays in the creative process, collaboration, and individual practice
• Develop a professional degree of technical proficiency using computer hardware and software appropriate to the game development industry

Emotional Intelligence: Personal, Social, and Global Awareness

• Articulate, analyze, and evaluate the meanings in your work, that each design contains social contexts, and in some cases ethical choices
• Appreciate the impact of intellectual property, plagiarism, and copyright laws on their professional work
• Take full responsibility for their creative work and its reception before a global audience
• Listen empathetically and convey empathy for others
• Allow others to express alternative viewpoints
• Effectively assert yourself
• Regardless of the task, you will act in a professional manner and displays a responsibility to the team and an investment in the collaboration

Leadership, Professionalism, and Career Preparation

• As leaders in this field, students foster healthy working relationships within the team
• Demonstrate leadership, collaboration, and team building skills
• Develop and present a professional portfolio
• Identify industry expectations and apply those professional standards to your own work
• Identify industry game design roles and the specific skill sets required by each role, in order to develop a successful, individual career path
• Overcome personal egocentricities, prejudices, and ownership issues in order to produce the best work possible of the team and maintain a healthy collaborative environment