Game Art and Design Courses

There are generally four or six sections in the bachelor’s course in game art and design. The first part introduces the foundations of design and game development. The evolution of games, different types of games, related terminology and technology, and the hardware using in gaming. Subjects like drawing and composition, introduction to games and classical animation may be taught. Students usually begin to maintain a portfolio for life drawing, environmental drawing, gesture drawing, still life studies, perspective and composition, and also use software to develop a series of digitally designed images.

The second part of the course may begin to cover the process of storytelling and visualizing. Students may be expected to brainstorm ideas on their own, fabricate a story around it, make the storyboard, and also design characters, backgrounds, props, levels and other aspects of a game. Subjects like character designing, Flash-based game design and game programming might be taught. Preproduction might be done through Adobe Photoshop or Flash. The third section of the course may cover subjects like modeling, texturing and lighting, rigging and animation, effects (FX) for games, and how to infuse sounds into the game. Software like Maya, Sound Forge, MotionBuilder and Gamebryo could be part of the curriculum. In the last module, the design interface of games, play testing and project development could be covered.

Portfolios of the whole course usually need to be submitted, along with a project report. For the two-year diploma course, the first will cover the basic foundation of game design with subjects like game appreciation and history and digital art and game design. The second year delves deeper into the stream and may cover subjects like creating digital characters, 3-D modelling and creating digital environments. Due to the variety of courses, each school may have different requirements, subjects and estimated times to attain the degree.