Game Design & Development

Game Design and Development is a field that combines interactive, visual storytelling with complex game mechanics. Certificate recipients will learn entry-level skills in ideation, storyboarding, game design, playtesting, and computer programming with industry-standard game engines. Students will learn project management and collaboration skills. Students will develop a portfolio and participate in a shared incubator course with all Design/Media Arts students.

All courses in this certificate require literacy and proficiency in writing and math. Projects require written, oral, and visual presentations as well as the application of basic math principles and skills.

A Certificate of Achievement is awarded upon completion of all required courses with a grade of C or better.

Effective:  Academic Year 2019-20

The program is expected to produce 20–25 certificates per year after it is fully established.

This new certificate of achievement stems from my work with the LA HI TECH grant, the HSI STEM Grant, Santa Monica College, and USC's Chris Swain, who created the hybrid Computer Science / Art program at USC.

Game Design and Development is not only a popular and growing field of great importance to our local area, it is also a program that teaches essential transferrable skills. Games are a hook and a motivator to encourage success in other fields like Computer Science and programming. We provide this certificate with the hope that it encourages students to successfully compete the wide array of high tech course offerings at PCC.

Course	Title	Units	Year/Semester (Y1 or S1)
DMA 004	History of Digital Games	3.0	S1
DMA 012	Digital Art: Painting & Drawing	3.0	S1
DMA 090	Game Design I	3.0	S1
DMA 072 -OR- DMA 070	2D Animation -OR Motion Graphics	3.0	S2
DMA 080A -OR- DMA 080B	3D Modeling & Sculpting -OR 3D Animation & Simulations	3.0	S2
DMA 092	Game Design II: Game Engines	3.0	S2
DMA 032 -OR- DMA 034	Interaction Design -OR- User Experience Design (UX)	3.0	S3
DMA 098	Design/Media Arts Incubator	3.0	S3

This curriculum is meant to stack with our other certificates and provide basic competencies that will allow students in our program to achieve a livable wage in the Game Design & Development field. There are no hidden prerequisites. The curriculum ends with an "incubator" course (DMA 98) which all of our upper-level certificates feed into. This is a shared course that fosters teamwork and the effective use of the diverse array of skills students learn in the Design/Media Art department.

No other similar programs exist at PCC.

College Program Control Number Title TOP Code Program Award Glendale 10412 Digital Character Design 061440 S Glendale 21304 Digital Character Design 061440 C Golden West 16713 Video Game Development 061420 C Golden West 19324 Video Game Development 061420 A Rio Hondo 35766 Entertainment Art-Digital Characters 061400 C

We anticipate around 500 enrollments in this program. This is calculated by taking the 11 courses, multiplying that by 24 and then multiplying by 2 for Fall and Spring. This does not count Winter and Summer enrollments.