Introduction to Game Development

This course focuses on the development of 2D games. Students explore the design of such childhood titles as Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon in a quest to understand how video games themselves are implemented. Via lectures and hands-on projects, the course explores principles of 2D graphics, animation, sound, and collision detection using Lua, a dynamic scripting language, and LÖVE, a lightweight 2D game development framework. By course's end, students have programmed several of their own games and gained a thorough understanding of the basics of game design and development.