Lights. Color. Motion. These are traditional elements of a video game. But are they enough? When Ashwin Lall, assistant professor of computer science, first created a class on video game design he focused on the algorithms, principles and execution that provide a solid base for these elements — but he realized that just wasn’t enough to create a good video game experience.
His students excelled when it came to the technical and mechanical aspects of game design, but they sometimes missed the mark on the aesthetic and narrative components.
So the next time Lall offered the course, he invited students from Music Professor HyeKyung Lee’s music composition class and English Professor Peter Grandbois’ creative writing class to share their expertise with his students.
Each game-writing team met with creative writing and music composition student consultants as they wrote their story board and developed their final project using Unity software and writing in Java script.
One team had all the angles covered through their double majors, but they were still quite happy to have the help. Paige Vosmik ’16, a computer science and creative writing double major, Trevor Masters ’16, a computer science, pre-med double major, and Taylor Kessler Faulkner ’16, a computer science major with a minor in music performance, worked together to create a game called “Pirating the Odyssey.”
“I went to the video game showcase here two years ago and I couldn’t wait to take the class myself,” said Vosmik, who wants to work as a video game writer. “It’s been great to work in a team on this project.”
“This was a practical application of what we’ve learned in class,” said Masters. “I like this opportunity to demonstrate my skill in a real-life way.”
The team worked with composer Cole Rumora’15 and creative writer Julie Hoagland-Sorensen ’16. Both volunteered to help outside of their own classes — just for the fun of it. “I just really like writing music” said Rumora.
“That those students were willing to step in and give so much time to a project that didn’t affect their grade and for which they weren’t receiving any credit really amazed me,” said Lall.
There is one reward for all of the students involved: seeing their hard work in action. Lall held a video game showcase to present the final work of his class. Team members and friends from across campus came to see, (and play), the results of many long hours of creating and coding. Games are available to play online at personal.denison.edu/~lalla/cs402/games.html.
“The game showcases provide an opportunity for the students to have an audience, which isn’t something you always get in computer science,” said Lall.
This summer Vosmik will put her lessons to good use — she plans on creating video games to add to her portfolio for life after college. “I learned so much in this class: game development, specialized game-writing software and where to find good on-line resources. I’m looking forward to building more games on my own.”