0 or 3 credits
Spring 2026 Lecture Upper Division
This course introduces students to the advanced concepts, technologies, skills that enable the creation of sophisticated video games, simulations, and game systems. Students are taught using student-led, active-learning pedagogy in which students co-develop and present lectures, demonstrations, and assignments for their peers, with the facilitation of the course instructor. A thorough understanding of how game engines work is therefore a requisite element of the game development process and lever for research in most domains involving interactive simulations and games. As game engine development, research, and application is a large and complex topic, the course material is distributed across two semesters. In addition to the continuation of technical topics this course also emphasizes the experiential, conceptual, and aesthetic dimensions of game development, prioritizing implementation completeness with creative, aesthetically-pleasing implementations that are informed by current research. As research in this field continues to rapidly iterate, the latest findings are incorporated into each new offering of the course, refreshing its content as the technology evolves in its implementation and theoretical underpinnings. Production of original research focused upon an aspect of game development or game engine design is required. Permission of instructor required.
Learning Outcomes1Interpret, describe, and present the theory and implementation of an advanced game development topic via student-led in-class lecture.
2Present to a classroom the theory and implementation within a scientific paper or set of papers that relate to an aspect of game development and lead a subsequent discussion surrounding said implementation.
3Extract practicable production/development information from papers, books, vendor documentation and ad hoc sources to solve open-ended technical problems.
4Create (or extend from the previous course) a technically sound video game prototype within a team-based production environment.
5Generate and test a research hypotheses related to games, game technology, or game development processes.
Restrictions
made by Purdue students.