Game Education Summit North America

In this paper, we propose a problem-based learning approach to teaching game development that focuses on developing critical thinking in game design while enabling students to strengthen their skill-proficiency.  We have seen increased motivation as the students understand the relevance of theory presented in their “seemingly irrelevant and disjointed” university courses.  This paper demonstrates how to effectively integrate a problem-based learning approach to existing university course-based game development curricula.

Canadian universities have recently started adding game development to their curricula. However, these programs essentially add a course or two on game design into their existing computer science or art related degree programs.  This trend is disconcerting as it means that graduates from these programs have only seen a overview of what game development entails making it difficult for them to integrate into the workforce effectively.  But what is it that the game industry workforce desires in graduates?  Is it strength in skills?  Is it knowledge of industry-specific practices?  Is it the ability to complete a project?  Is it the ability to work effectively on a team?  The answer is a resounding yes for all of these questions.  How does one create an academic program that enables students to acquire the necessary practice and skills, develop their critical thinking abilities, have them understand work-flows and production cycles in team settings while maintaining academic credibility and rigour?  This is the question we seek to address in this paper.

In the video game industry, one metric used to effectively categorize potential employees is “How many games have you shipped?” as it indicates value in terms of team-work, communication, working under deadlines, and proficiency.  Our approach to curriculum development uses this metric as the driving force behind the pedagogical approach.  Students must “ship” complete games on time and as part of a group.  During each term, the students work in teams to integrate knowledge learned from their courses and achieve specific requirements for the year-long project (“the game”).  Students are led through group discussions of case-studies (game-analysis) that build on each other and move through the history of game development (i.e. there is an implicit progression of skills-required).  Through analysis and development of these “case-games”, students have opportunities to form critical thinking skills, utilize problem solving techniques, understand how to break problems apart, understand game design/level-design principles while learning software construction techniques.  The developed games in subsequent years’ offerings increase in difficulty and scope requiring different skills to be successful.  At the end of each semester, student projects are evaluated by each course instructor along criteria related to the concepts presented in the respective courses.  To ensure sufficient progress, developmental milestones and checkpoints mimic industry development processes.  

Our approach challenges traditional university curricula by integrating courses at an early stage (first year) and shifting the focus of traditional course-delivery to a problem/work specific environment.  This impacts existing course structure, course flow, student motivation, and engagement in the course/lecture material.  With the introduction of our approach, we have seen improvements in skill-proficiency, student retention, and students who have a deeper understanding of game design and development practices.  This paper details our approach, its impact on student work, and provides a discussion of how this approach to game study is beneficial to the students and industry.