For instructors looking to teach game development or coding, the following resources might provide useful support for students:
Both free and comparatively easy to use, Scratch might be a good place to start with developing games in a composition class. The major drawback of this solution is that the results have a tendency to look pretty amateur.
As discussed by Carbano et al, these two resources can help students develop their own interactive works without too much struggle. The primary difficulty with this solution is that Neverwinter Nights is required for to run the Aurora Toolkit. This makes it less attractive than free alternatives despite the robust options available in the toolkit.
Perhaps the deepest of these options, Gamemaker Studio is the free version of an even fuller development tool. It still takes most of the coding out of game design, but it might be a little harder for students initially.
An excellent and approachable place to start learning to code, Codeacademy offers focused tutorials with interactive areas to test code.
Teaches very basic programming using Ruby language. A very approachable way to learn coding, as the language is primarily in common English.
For instructors looking to teach design, the following pages lay out some basic principles:
Carriker, Megan. “Distinguishing ‘Good’ Game Design from ‘Great’.” The Escapist (2012). Web. 9 Dec. 2012.
A very short article that includes a bullet-pointed list of game design principles. May be a good starting point for understanding what goes into game design decisions.
Allmer, Matt. “The 13 Basic Principles of Gameplay Design.” Gamasutra. 27 Feb. 2009. Web. 9 Dec. 2012.
Based on the 12 principles of Animation by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston, Allmer explains 13 principles (which start on page 2) of good game design. The list includes examples that are helpful for considering different situations in games.