Game World Design (Spring 2025)

Abstract

This course teaches the conceptual foundation and practical implementation of game worlds.

Description

Game World Design is the design of a cohesive game world rooted in narrative design, world building, and character logic.

Students gain the ability to design game worlds from a narrative standpoint in order to create rich experiences for players. Game World Design focuses on the prototyping of game worlds. It will comprise three major dimensions: Conceptual world design, prototype asset development, and presentation of concepts and results.

In the conceptual section, the course will focus on general considerations of worldness and world building, basic narrative considerations, and character logic. The prototype asset development section will focus on implementing these conceptual reflections. This includes the development of a visual pitch for a digital game and implementing a prototype of the game world concept, including assets, in a game engine of your choice. In general, this will include the production of a vertical slice of a gameworld. The presentation component consists in presentation and feedback on intermediate and final results of this design process to prepare for in-team as well as customer communication of projects under development.

Formal prerequisites

This is course offers an introduction to world design and prototyping for games. It is very practical in nature and will require active participation in a semester-long group project. Knowledge about game development tools is essential. Before the course, participants should therefore familiarize themselves with software tools of their own choice, depending on which roles they want to take in the game development process of the course: a game engine, 2D and/or 3D graphics software, project management software, interactive narrative tools, audio software and middleware etc. 

Intended learning outcomes

After the course, the student should be able to:

• Analyse digital games regarding their audio-visual and narrative design as well as their technology, to use them as references and apply the same analytical strategies to their own prototypes.
• Design an audio-visually and narratively coherent game world by applying relevant material to e.g.worldbuilding, art direction, narrative design.
• Use relevant material on planning, collaboration, and communication to inform and support your creative and technical decisions, and reflect on them critically.
• Document the creative process (from ideation to implementation) adequately (using e.g. mood boards, sketches, storyboards etc.) and reflect on it critically.
• Collaboratively develop a playable prototype representative of a game world by applying relevant material to level design and narrative.

Ordinary exam

Exam type:
D: Submission of written work with following oral, External (7-point scale)
Exam variation:
D2G: Submission for groups with following oral exam supplemented by the submission. Shared responsibility for the report.