Educational Gaming Commons - Press Start

Professor: Magy Seif El-Nasr, former professor with the College of Information Sciences and Technology and current faculty member of Simon Fraser university

Course: IST 446 Game Design and Development

Gaming technologies used: Unreal Tournament 2004, Warcraft III, Half-Life 2, Torque.

Description: Magy utilized various gaming technologies in her IST course, including authoring environments used for various games, but primarily the Unreal Engine. Students utilized these tools within teams to build their own mini-games, or modifications, to existing parts of the game world. One unique aspect of all three gaming software packages is the inclusion of an editor, which is an authoring environment for that specific game. Student teams used these editors to create small, story-driven games for a class project. Students also used 3D Studio Max, an industry-standard 3D modeling program used to create unique characters for inclusion in the games.

It was apparent that students were extremely excited and engaged with the course content when you have a chance to talk with a team about their development process. This course provided both and introduction to game design and to several of the tools used in the industry.

In her own words:
"I developed the IST 446 course on game design and development. The
course focuses on introducing the game design and development cycle
through a project-based design, where students develop a game from
concept inception to a polished game. In doing so students utilize game
engines, such as Half Life 2, or Unreal Tournament. The use of these
game engines allow students to (1) use industry standard engines, (2)
comply with industry set development pipeline and production process as
encoded by the engine, and (3) use already made content and code to
expedite their development cycle. During the course, students develop
several prototypes of the game which are all critiqued, allowing
students to refine and revise their game design to a final game. By the
end of the course, we usually hold a game fest where they show their
games to faculty and students, some of whom are asked to judge the game. Based on judge's feedback, games are rated. The first place game receive a prize, a plaque, that is usually shared between team members."