A Multidisciplinary, Multifaceted Approach to Improve the Computer Science based Game Design Education: Methodology and Assessme

In this paper, we introduce a multidisciplinary and multifaceted pedagogical approach to enhance game design education in computer science curriculum and assess its effectiveness using outcomes from Microsoft US and World Imagine Cup competitions in the game design category. We offer team project-based courses that cover multiple disciplines such as computer science, art and animation, game design, production, and business and entrepreneurship. Our students gain fundamental knowledge and skills from the multidisciplinary approach and utilize them to undergo a systematic game development process over two semesters. We also implement a unique grading system that includes ranking duels to promote the competitiveness among students which ultimately improves the quality of every game designed in our courses. We successfully demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach with results from the Microsoft Imagine Cup competitions – dozens of our student teams have been nationally and internat...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2016
• Where: SIGCSE
• Authors: Chang Yun, Hesam Panahi, Zhigang Deng
• Keywords: Education, SIGCSE 2016