| Section | 2 |
| Meetings | MWF 12:00–2:00 in RB353 |
| Instructor | Dr. Paul Gestwicki |
| Prerequisite | CS215 and CS315 |
This is the first course in a three-course capstone experience for students in the Game Design & Development Concentration. At the end of this first class, you and your teammates will pitch a game to a board of industry professionals. Projects approved by the board will be moved into production next academic year. At the end of production, they will be published for the world to see.
The catalog description for CS390 is as follows.
Explore the pre-production process of videogame development by investigating technical, artistic, feasibility, and methodological aspects. Rapidly prototype videogame ideas in order to discover practicable concepts. Form multidisciplinary teams to build a publicly showcased vertical slice.
The Computer Science Department defines the learning objectives for each of its courses. By the end of CS390, a student will be able to:
Identify and evaluate factors that contribute to the potential business success for videogames, such as choice of tools, platform, genre, and distribution method
Rapidly prototype game software concepts in order to identify good mechanisms for original games
Collaborate across disciplinary backgrounds to develop game concepts into high-fidelity prototypes or vertical slices
Develop and present a videogame production plan
The major practical outcome of this semester is the selection of game concepts to move forward from preproduction into production. To this end, there are three major deliverables that are due at the end of the semester:
We will spend the first week discussing our goals and past experiences, practicing ideation techniques, and reviewing prototyping tools. The following six weeks will be devoted to prototyping—to discovering fun game ideas that could potentially be
TODO: Explain triage grading.
Each meeting is an opportunity to learn together. Satisfactory participation means that you have brought any materials required for the day and that you have engaged in productive studio time.
Full participation means that you refrain from activity that would hinder others’ success. Tardiness, vulgarity, profanity, and eating in front of others are examples of such disruptions.
Final course grades will be determined as a weighted average.
| Grade | Weight |
|---|---|
| Participation | 40% |
| Final deliverables | 40% |
| Assignments | 20% |
Your deliverables grade cannot exceed your participation score during team-based activities.
©2025 Paul Gestwicki. This work is licensed via CC BY-SA 4.0.