Video Game Design & Development Diploma

Intake: January, April, July and October each year
Program Length: 18 months

Program Description

The video game industry is experiencing unprecedented growth and profitability, fueled by ongoing technological advances that make today’s games an increasingly realistic and immersive experience. The next generation of games will require an even greater number of creative and skilled designers and programmers to keep pace.

The Video Game Design & Development Diploma at the Academy of Design was the first program of its kind in Canada, and continues to be a leader in offering a comprehensive education that is highly regarded in the industry. The program blends creative and technical training to prepare graduates for careers as video game designers, app developers, special effects creators and more. Specific courses explore just about every area of video game design and development, including modeling, programming, audio, storyboarding, production, interfaces, animation, level design, scripting and project management.

Students are exposed to the entire video game creation process from design and programming to marketing and business fundamentals. Training is intense and hands-on, taking place in small-class settings and supported by a collaborative student community and the latest computer equipment and software.

Students also benefit from the close guidance of faculty who are successful working professionals in the field.

Learning Outcomes

After completing the Video Game Design & Development program, graduates will be able to:

• Use mathematical/technical concepts relevant in the industry, such as fractions, trigonometry, linear algebra, calculus, vectors and video game physics
• Speak knowledgeably about the history and theory of video games, mainstream and experimental media and musicology
• Create concept art such as drawings, comic book art and stop motion animation
• Design in the 2D digital graphic environment.
• Interpret object-oriented paradigms and organize objects with the Unified Modeling Language
• Write video game narrative through the classification of story structures
• Understand the Graphical User Interface design and development process as it applies to video games
• Apply data structures and design patterns to the video game development cycle
• Understand the fundamentals of video game audio recording, mixing and editing; creating sound effects for video games and composing and producing original video game music
• Understand software engineer techniques for video game development
• Program for Internet and wireless environments, including mobile applications
• Develop artificial intelligence for video games
• Apply techniques in level and environment design creation
• Understand video game engine components used to organize and create 3D environments and use graphics libraries
• Document the video game design process correctly
• Combine 3D modeling techniques and interactive scripting
• Apply project management scenarios and strategies to the development cycle to increase productivity
• Thoroughly understand the video game industry and execute a career plan to market themselves
• Display a portfolio of their work, including one fully interactive multi-level capstone game project that has been completed under a team-based production environment