Hello, I've just finished my first draft on a Game Development book, that I plan on using in college classes I teach.  At the moment, I'm working on a syllabus/teachers guide to act as a companion book.

While I've been writting up the course plans, I'm realizing a few chapters will need to change.  

So far, This is the general flow of a session:

Quiz on homework ( which is usually pre-reading a chapter and thinking about a particular question and how it applies to the world around them.)

Open Discussion on key a key topic of the session, 

Breaking down the key topic into a few other smaller parts, 

 - Explaining an over view of them, and starting a class discussion on each.

 - Usually breaking into teams to discuss opinions on the topics, and how it relates to their individual projects.

Working on the portion of their final project that relates to today (Game design is one segment of the book, so the final project on that is to hand in a complete game design, and each session focuses on a key part of it.)

*********2 questions?????????

1) Are there any changes or additions you might suggest for the typical flow (some sessions break out of this, it depends on the need of the session)

2) If anyone is interested in helping me co-author the Course Guide, please contact me.  This is the first time I'm creating a full syllabus/course guide for teachers new to the book.  

*********Background************

I've been teaching game development classes at various colleges, businesses and also my own school for almost a decade.  During that time, I have not found a book that covers similar material, or provides as much coverage as I do.  Over time, I had written short supporting books (10-30 pages) for the classes.  A few months ago, I decided to turn them into an actual book.  I've finished the book, which is broken into 5 key segments totaling around 300 pages:

1) Game Design - Focuses on designing a game that can be built by an indie group, with a design document people will actually read and use.  

2) Team Management - Managing a freelance/indie team is tough, considering people are seldom paid, and you have to keep them interested.  It discusses roles, and role-tasks, and identifying weak areas.  It also talks about keeping the work fun, team engaged, and working in segments that can be easily done.

3a) C# Console Programming - to introduce C#, a common programming language, it will work with the console for decisions, variables, comments, etc...

3b) C# UI Programming - to introduce event based programming and the use of Ui Objects, such as lists, buttons and forms.

3c) C# OOP - to introduce more complex topics of Programming, and the most flexible/useful portions.

4) Making a Game - The students develop a complete game, with enemies, bosses, levels, points, plot, AI, Physics, Menus, etc...  (The game is available for download online) This teaches how to use XNA as the foundation to a game engine in C#, and also teaches about Architecture and Design Patterns.  It is presented using the Agile methodology as a foundation.

5) Release - talks about testing, Alpha/Beta and Release, Supporting it, Marketing the game, and also finding investors and how to work with them.

The second (much smaller) book, is to give the teacher additional things to focus on, and help them facilitate discussion on the materials.  Ultimately, the students teach them selves a great deal on this, and the teacher will help guide it.

Tags: Book, C#, Games, Programming

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