New Computer Gaming class to be offered at my school

[Metabasalt1]

Shorah fellow writers:
My high school in Virginia will be offering a new game development class next school year. The response from the students has been wonderful, and over 150 students have signed up for the class. At this point the curriculum of the class is flexible. I have been asked to show students uru, but the class could include any topics in game development or internet web design. I will not be the main teacher for the class as the principal told me they are looking for someone with professional experience in game design. If you have such experience or know someone who does that would like to share their skills with the next generation of writers, can you please contact me.
Thank you.
Metabasalt

[greendragoon]

I only wish I had something like this when I was in school. My high school only had one aging computer programming class and when I tried to sign up for it, it was canceled due to lack of interest. Good luck with your new class.

[Trylon]

At the school (more like a college) where I work, we have a whole program named "Game Design".

[Metabasalt1]

Trylon: What is the program like at your school on game design? What is in the curriculum, and how is it taught? I have looked over the textbook for our course that has been selected, and it is very basic. The book talks about designing arcade games for the '70's! Sprites, 2d graphics, and their idea of multiplayer is split screen! With 150 students, we will have students with different abilities, some with no programming experience, some with very little, and some who can design multiplayer network games. I would like to see some discussion of physics engines, 3d graphics, sounds, and multiplayer network play.
Metabasalt

[Chacal]

Split screen? Wow. A little quaint.
I designed a 2-player game in 1985 for the Commodore 64, that played over phone lines.

[Trylon]

Though it's in the same building, it's handled by a different department from where I work (I'm in the engineering department [electronics]), so I don't really know the ins and outs of the program.
I do know it's a full 4 year program, so they have a bit more time to handle the different abilities of students

If I can find the time, I'll ask around for some more info.

(Your book sounds way outdated btw )

Trylon: What is the program like at your school on game design? What is in the curriculum, and how is it taught? I have looked over the textbook for our course that has been selected, and it is very basic. The book talks about designing arcade games for the '70's! Sprites, 2d graphics, and their idea of multiplayer is split screen! With 150 students, we will have students with different abilities, some with no programming experience, some with very little, and some who can design multiplayer network games. I would like to see some discussion of physics engines, 3d graphics, sounds, and multiplayer network play.
Metabasalt

[Metabasalt1]

For our novices and beginners, Alice or this design-your-own-arcade game book may be appropriate. For the more advanced students, they will obviously want a more modern approach to game design especially if they plan to take college courses in the subject later.

Please Keep your comments and ideas coming. It will make our class so much better in the Fall.

This post is also intended to be a help wanted ad. If you know someone with professional programming/game development experience who would be willing to relocate to Virginia to teach the class as a full time job let me know.
Thanks.
Metabasalt

[greendragoon]

I suppose the question to be asked is, 2D or 3D?

If your looking into 2D game design, and especially games for the web, Flash may be worth a look. Flash is an animation package combined with a programming language so you don't need to know to much to get started, but can do more and more as you learn more.

Now, for 3D, if memory serves, Blender has a game engine in it, doesn't it? Now I have never used it and have no idea how good it is, but the fact that Blender is free makes it an attractive offering. This opens the kids up to working on projects at home.

Anyway, I'm by no means an expert game programmer so take my advice with a grain of salt. There are other programmers here with far more experience and better advice.

[Metabasalt1]

As I said in the original post, the curriculum in the class is very flexible, and I hope would reflect the interests of the teacher and students. It may involve internet webdesign using HTML and Dreamweaver. I also have used and like the animation and 2d gaming of Flash. Then there is the Game Development Kit using C++ which gets into 3d graphics. And of course, Uru with 3d graphics, physics engine, and avatars. With 5 sections and 150 students maybe in the future we could offer separate classes(one in flash, another in GDK, and of course several sections of Uru 101!) so students could pick whichever interests them.

[Christian Walther]

If we're talking about software - I know of one person who uses Pipmak for a course.

Given that Pipmak itself is a work in progress, it may or may not be suitable for your purposes. (She uses it for audio, which is more complete than, say, animation.)