Upper-Division

ARTG 118 Character Creation for Video Games

This is a hands-on studio course, intended to give students an understanding of the techniques used to create characters for use in video games. Through this course, students will understand and develop the skills necessary to take a video game character design through all of the stages necessary to have a finished character for use in 2D or 3D video games. You will learn industry tools and techniques to be an effective game artist. (Formerly, Digital Drawing/Painting for Game Design.)

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to junior and senior art and design: games and playable media majors and proposed majors.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

General Education Code

PR-C

ARTG 120 Game Design Experience

Teaches the concrete skills associated with making a digital game, from start to finish. Activities include establishing a team, concepting, storyboarding, prototyping, producing, and testing a game for release. Students are organized into groups and work together to create and produce a playable game.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to art and design: games and playable media declared majors.

General Education Code

PR-E

ARTG 129 Special Topics in Game Design

Allows students to explore game designs related to their ongoing work within their major in either digital or non-digital formats. Students choose a topic and develop game projects that engage players.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to art and design: games and playable media declared majors.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

ARTG 129A Special Topics in Game Design

Gives students an opportunity to explore game designs related to their ongoing work within the AGPM major, in either digital or analog formats. Students develop projects that engage players on a topic of their choosing.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): ARTG 80G, ARTG 80H, and ARTG 80I. Enrollment is restricted to art and design: games and playable media and computer science: games and playable media majors.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

ARTG 131 3D Game Art Production

Studio course in which students learn the highly technical and fundamental skills in the production of 3D art assets for video games. Covers the essential steps in the 3D art pipeline, starting with basic 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, the creation of texture maps, and finally, game engine implementation. Focuses on developing an understanding of the processes and creative thinking necessary to produce industry-level artwork rather than specific software. Students provided with video lectures and demos, and students can expect to produce weekly assignments to practice basic skills and concepts covered.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): ARTG 10 and one of the following courses ARTG 20 or ARTG 25 or ARTG 30.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

ARTG 132 3D Character Rigging and Animation for Video Games

Gives students an in-depth understanding of the techniques of 3D character rigging and animation for video games. Students understand and develop the skills necessary to be an effective technical artist and animator with a focus on industry standard methods for animating characters to be implemented into a game engine. Course provides students with video and written lectures, video demonstrations, assignments and discussion boards aimed at giving them historical understanding of game animation, the evolution of these techniques, hands-on work to become proficient, as well as the ability to communicate online with other students and the instructor to answer questions and further their knowledge.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): ARTG 10, and one of the following courses: ARTG 20 or ARTG 25 or ARTG 30.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

General Education Code

PR-C

ARTG 134 Spectacular Play: Performance, Ritual, and Making a Scene IRL

What do immersion and interactivity look like outside of virtual worlds? How can we activate social dynamics and public space for the purpose of play? How might we evoke feelings of purpose, or even magic, for players and spectators alike? Students will study and create immersive experiences designed to play out in real life. Drawing inspiration from performance studies, activism, art history, and more, we will transform the everyday into the extraordinary.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to senior Art and Design: Games and Playable Media majors.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

General Education Code

PR-C

ARTG 136 Digital Sculpting for Video Games

In this studio course, students learn the basics of digital sculpting in ZBrush with a focus on 3D character art. Through a mix of in-class demos and periodic assignments, students learn how to produce high-fidelity digital sculpts and their practical application in the 3D game art pipeline.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): ARTG 118. Previous 3D modeling experience is encouraged, but not required.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

ARTG 137 Experimental Tabletop RPG Design

Explores experimental mechanics, dynamics, themes, and aesthetics within the tabletop RPG form. In groups and individually, students will play, run, design, write, workshop, and print/produce experimental tabletop RPGs, as well as conduct usability tests focused on layout, design cohesion, and accessibility.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to art and design: games and playable media declared majors.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

ARTG 138 Feminist Games

Feminist games including intersectional feminist games, transfeminist games and queer feminist games, will be created by students in this course. Students will study the existing history and present of these genres of games, including game mods, personal experience games, narrative games, alternate reality, augmented reality and electronic literature. Students will work individually to create games as art and activism building on critical theories of race, gender, sexuality and algorithms.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

FMST 138

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): Two courses from the following: ARTG 80G, ARTG 80H, or ARTG 80I; or ARTG 20 and ARTG 30.

ARTG 139 Queer and Trans Art and Games

Students study, and make, queer and trans art and games. Course considers how gender and sexuality are systems of rules often assumed in game design, and how those rules can be subverted to create novel and experimental games. By identifying and resisting cisnormativity and heteronormativity, students create original game concepts, using a critical, intersectional approach that understands that race as a constitutive element of both gender and sexuality. Course also studies with queer and trans ecologies understanding gender and race as inseparable from our idea of nature.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

Enrollment is restricted to art and design: games and playable media, and critical race and ethnic studies majors and proposed majors.

Cross Listed Courses

CRES 139

Instructor

Micha Cárdenas

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to art and design: games and playable media, and critical race and ethnic studies majors and proposed majors.

General Education Code

PR-C

ARTG 140 Writing for Interactive Narrative

Discusses a variety of aspects of writing found in videogames and other interactive forms of media. Using a mix of creative writing projects and in class discussions, students will practice and critique existing work as well as their own.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to art and design: games and playable media declared majors.

ARTG 141 Introduction to Virtual Reality

Introduction to Virtual Reality is an introductory course with a combination of theory and practice. Students are exposed to the history of Virtual Reality and hands-on experience in making VR and developing their own VR project. By introducing broad topics around VR, such as immersive spectacle, virtual embodiment, sonic immersiveness, students will gain knowledge about cultural, historical, and practical perspectives of VR. Students will also learn technical skills in developing VR in Unity 3D. 3D modeling experience is not required in this class. This class is an integration of the production of 3D and 360 degree VR experience. Photogrammetry, 360 degree video production and editing, and other expressive media will also be introduced for advancing the development of VR.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

ARTG 142 Black Aesthetics: Interventions in Digital Media

How do we conceptualize a Black Aesthetic in the realm of digital art and media? How do we re/define Black virtuality when, historically, computer graphics has failed to accurately render Blackness? This course looks at the field of digital media from a technological and cultural perspective, understanding the ways in which anti-Blackness has been embedded in our technology, from photography to video games. Concurrently, course examines the history of the Black Aesthetic as an interventionist art movement, and find ways to intervene in the contemporary digital media landscape.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

Enrollment is restricted to sophomore, junior, and senior art and design: games and playable media, and critical race and ethnic studies majors, and Black studies minors.

Cross Listed Courses

CRES 142

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to sophomore, junior, and senior art and design: games and playable media, and critical race and ethnic studies majors, and Black studies minors.

General Education Code

PE-T

ARTG 143 Ecofutures

Students study the fields of ecofeminist art, climate fiction, virtual environmental art, Afrofuturism, Latinx futurism and Indigenous futurism, and create digital art relevant to these fields. The dual global crises of climate change and COVID-19 have forced a reevaluation of the idea of the human through a confrontation with the realities and histories of global colonialism and white supremacy. In response, social movements and artists have created artistic strategies which can envision futures beyond the horizon of the imagination of capitalism.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

THEA 143

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to senior Art and Design: Games and Playable Media majors.

General Education Code

PE-E

ARTG 145 Non-Digital Game Design

Looks specifically at the design of non-digital games. Surveys a variety of game types and designs. Students prototype card or board game, culminating in a final project that engages players on a socially relevant topic.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

ARTG 170 Game Design Studio I

Students create novel, interesting game concepts and outline and polish a game pitch for their yearlong project, starting with concept ideation and storyboarding to prototyping and presenting the game idea. This course is part one of the art and design: games and playable media capstone requirement.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Enrollment restricted to senior art and design: games and playable media majors.

ARTG 170B Design Studio I: Individual Track

Course focuses on individual projects, supported by collaboration within a general working-group. Students create novel, interesting game concepts, and outline and refine game proposals for longer-term projects. Studio projects cover a range of creative practices, including concept ideation and storyboarding, prototyping, and presenting and/or exhibiting the game idea in a more finalized form. Can be taken as a single course or as part one of the art and design: games and playable media capstone requirement. Continuing with the capstone series via ARTG 171 will require team collaboration.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Prerequisites: Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements. Enrollment restricted to senior art and design: games and playable media majors.

ARTG 171 Game Design Studio II

Students craft the core loop of their yearlong game project. Students build the game, examine player feedback, and repeat the process to make the game better. This course places particular emphasis on advanced production techniques for working in teams, as well as software engineering practices for software design, software testing, and build management. This course is part two of the art and design, games and playable media capstone requirement.

Credits

7

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): Enrollment is restricted to senior art and design: games and playable media majors.

ARTG 172 Game Design Studio III

Students scope and polish their final game designs. Students work towards releasing one specific game platform while coordinating across disciplinary boundaries to create and integrate all the necessary code, art, animation, and sound assets for their game. This course is part III of the art and design: games and playable media capstone requirement.

Credits

7

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): ARTG 171 or by instructor permission. Enrollment is restricted to senior art and design: games and playable media majors.

ARTG 176 Game Design Collaborative

Supports students who are collaborating with the ARTG/CMPM 170-series teams on the creation of their capstone game projects. Enrollment is restricted to students who are working with senior game-design project groups, and by permission of the instructor,

Credits

2

Instructor

The Staff ,

Repeatable for credit

Yes

ARTG 180 Personal Narrative in Play

Explores how storytelling techniques can align with game mechanics to examine and provoke questions of identity and personal narrative. Drawing from games that express personal experience through autobiography, to games that question the relationship and separation between player and character, students develop exploratory prototypes in digital and/or nondigital formats around potential mechanics for personal narrative and expression. Course culminates in a final piece of interactive art as well as designing the exhibit and public documentation for this work.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements. Enrollment is restricted to declared majors who have taken one upper-division ARTG course.

ARTG 181 Portfolio

Explores and presents multiple approaches and methods for documenting, describing and demonstrating a creative practice and a collection of creative work. Students will develop artist-centered narratives, curate and design portfolio materials, and investigate tools, media formats, and platforms useful for communicating an individual creative perspective and body of work. Portfolios and other descriptive materials will also be discussed from an interactive and playable framework, with an emphasis on both individual expression as well as viewer/audience experience.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements. Enrollment is restricted to declared majors who have taken one upper-division ARTG course.

ARTG 199 Tutorial

Individual study in areas approved by sponsoring instructors. Tutorial may not be used to satisfy major requirements. Petition required, approved by instructor and department; petitions available on the program website.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Repeatable for credit

Yes

Quarter offered

Fall, Winter, Spring

ARTG 199F Tutorial

Individual study in areas approved by sponsoring instructors. Tutorial may not be used to satisfy major requirements. Petition required, approved by instructor and department; petitions available on the program website.

Credits

2

Instructor

The Staff

Repeatable for credit

Yes

Quarter offered

Fall, Winter, Spring

Cross-listed courses that are managed by another department are listed at the bottom.

Cross-listed Courses

CMPM 179 Game Design Practicum

Provides the opportunity to practice the creation of novel computer games. Students learn a new game-making technology, then create three games using this technology.

Credits

5

Cross Listed Courses

ARTG 179

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): CMPM 120 and CMPM 80K.

General Education Code

PR-C