GSND 6460: Generative Game Design (Spring 2025)

Assignments

There are two main types of work assigned outside of class: weekly sketches and design reflections. The instructions for each iteration will broadly stay the same:

The assignments will vary from week to week in terms of the technique to be demonstrated in each weekly sketch and the game to play and reflect on in the design reflections. This information, along with the deadline for each assignment, is given in the table below.

Assignment	Topic/Game	Due Date	Notes

Weekly Sketch #1	Directed Randomness	Fri Jan 24
Weekly Sketch #2	[Your choice]	Fri Jan 31	You may submit by Friday, Feb 7 without penalty
Design Reflection #1	How to Host a Dungeon	Wed Feb 5	Due before class, 11:45am
Weekly Sketch #3	Recombination	Fri Feb 7
Design Reflection #2	Epitaph	Fri Feb 7
Weekly Sketch #4	Grammars	Fri Feb 14
Design Reflection #3	Slay the Spire	Fri Feb 21
Weekly Sketch #5	Cellular Automata	Fri Feb 21
Design Reflection #4	Spelunky	Fri Feb 28
Weekly Sketch #6	Recursive Subdivision	Fri Feb 28

Project

In addition, students will be asked to complete a half-semester team project (with weekly deadlines for prototype iterations and playtesting writeups).

Project Brief

Due Friday, March 14: Team Information Form
Due Friday, March 21: Project proposal
Due Wednesday, April 16: Project presentations
Due Friday, April 18: Final prototypes
Due Wednesday, April 23: Project writeup/final report

Midterm and Final Reflections

Finally, students are required, in lieu of a midterm and final exam, to submit a midterm and final reflection on their progress. The reflection questions will be posted.

Grade calculation

(To be added; see syllabus for overview)