This course is designed to provide an introduction to game and simulation concepts and careers, the impact game and simulation has on society and industry, and basic game/simulation design concepts such as rule design, play mechanics, and media integration.  This course compares and contrasts games and simulations, key development methodologies and tools, careers, and industry-related information. This course also covers strategies, processes, and methods for conceptualizing a game or simulation application; story-boarding techniques; and development tools. 

This course covers fundamental principles of designing a game or a simulation application, in particular Human Computer Interface (HCI) principles, rules and strategies of play, conditional branching, design and development constraints, use of sound and animation, design tools, and implementation issues. The content includes market research, product design documentation, story-boarding, proposal development, and presentation of a project report.  Emphasis is placed on the techniques needed to develop well-documented, structured game or simulation programs. Extensive use is made of evaluating and analyzing existing games or simulations.

This course is focused on students acquiring the appropriate programming skills for rendering a game or simulation product, including program control, conditional branching, memory management, score-keeping, timed event strategies and methodologies, and implementation issues.

In this course we dive into the world of Virtual Reality.  Students will learn how to develop applications for Virtual Reality devices using the Unity engine.  Our labs are stocked with VR headsets from Oculus, one of the pioneering  companies to develop VR headsets for developers.