Concepts in Game Development

There are lots of different skills that go into game development. This course is about key technical concepts in game development, and has been developed for people of many different backgrounds and skills. Some programming experience would be nice but is not required.

We start by looking at the central role of game design and common development processes used in the industry. You will see how game software can be broken into parts that work together, and in particular the idea of game engines. We’ll explore the relationship between game design, balance and player experience. Lastly we’ll look at enhancing player experience though the use of AI techniques.

What will I learn?

• Essential game design elements and the role of a game designer
• Key game development stages and principles of agile game development
• How games are like magic and real-time systems
• That programming is made up of simple steps, and how procedure and object oriented programming can help us structure our game code
• How messages and events are key concepts in games at different levels within game architecture
• About graphs and other data structures that help represent game worlds and characters
• How a game design can be described, modelled and implemented as simple game architecture
• About the emergence of game engines and the relationship of games to other data-driven applications, including concurrent and distributed architectures
• How to implement games using iterative step-by-step processes, by selecting, implementing and testing
• That rules are central to games, and that game balance relates to fairness and bias for players
• How physics can be used to create realistic force-based movement, for individual characters and groups
• About AI techniques that can add interesting behaviour to game characters, including decision making, action planning and path planning

This course requires approximately 2 - 4 hours of study per week, but can vary depending on the student. This includes watching videos, and taking quizzes and assessments.

If you pass this course you'll receive a Certificate of Achievement. While this certificate isn't a formal qualification or credit, you can use it to demonstrate your interest in learning about this area to potential employers or educational institutions.

Where could this lead me?

If you're wondering what your future could look like in this area, here are some potential careers you could head towards.

• Games programmer
• Games developer
• Software developer
• Games engineer

MODULE 1: ESSENTIALS OF GAME DESIGN     MODULE 2: MAKING IT HAPPEN     MODULE 3: RULES, MOVEMENT AND INTERACTION     MODULE 4: AI FOR GAMES