Game Design and Development Decal Fall 2026

Week 3 (9/21)

Damn its week 3 already! Congrats on completing your first project, we will be grading those soon :D

And now for some weekly announcements…

Office hours are starting this week! They will be on Wednesday 5:30-6:30PM (for now). Hop in the voice channel in Discord to get check-offs done or if you need help on anything!

Also, Project 2 is slowly approaching (this thursday!!), and the Project 2 group matching form [is now out]! FILL OUT THE PROJECT 2 MATCHING FORM by Thursday 9/24!

Date Due in Class Assigned

Tuesday (9/22) Programmer Lab 4 / Artist Lab 5 All Lab 8, due 09/29 in class.

Thursday (9/24) Programmer Lab 6 / Artist Lab 7 is due in class. Project 1 Part 2 is due at 11:59pm. Programmer Lab 9 / Artist Lab 10, due 10/01 in class. Project 2, due 10/01 at 11:59pm.

Jump to Week: 0, 1

Schedule

Week 0

Sep 01: Lecture Infosession; LabLab 0: Unity Setup
Sep 03: Lecture Infosession; LabLab 0: Unity Setup

Week 1

Sep 08: Lecture Intro to Unity; LabLab 1: Intro to Unity; ReadingGame Design Principles
Sep 10: Lecture Game Design; LabProgrammer: Lab 2: Basic Scripting / Artist: Lab 3: Pixel Art and Spriting; ProjectProject 1

Week 2

Sep 15: Lecture [Game Art Fundamentals]; LabProgrammer: Lab 4: Advanced Scripting / Artist: Lab 5: Tilesets; ReadingGraphics vs Aesthetics
Sep 17: Lecture [Fundamentals of Animation]; LabProgrammer: Lab 6: Colliders and Rigidbodies / Artist: Lab 7: Animation

Week 3

Sep 22: Lecture [Game Loops]; LabProgrammer: Lab 8: Coroutines / Artist: Lab 9: Environment Design; Reading 13 Principles of Gameplay
Sep 24: Lecture [Git Tutorial]; Lab Lab 10: Animator and Blend Trees; Project Project 2: Game Jam

Week 4

Sep 29: Lecture [User Interfaces]; Lab Programmer: Lab 11: UI and Layering / Artist: Lab 12: UI Asset Creation; ReadingHow to Pitch your Project
Oct 01: Lecture [Design Docs and MVPs]

Week 5

Oct 06: Lecture [Pitch Day]; ProjectProject 3: Final
Oct 08: Lecture Project 2 Showcase; Lecture [3D Modeling]; ReadingEffectively Organize with a Game Design Document

Week 6

Oct 13: Lecture [Work Day]; Lab Optional: Lab 13: Transitioning, Saving and Building; Project Milestone 0: Game Design Doc; ReadingTeam Structures in Game Development
Oct 15: Lecture Work Day; Lab Optional: Lab 14: 3D Rigging, Skinning, and Animation

Week 7

Oct 20: Lecture [Tutorial + Level Design]; LabOptional: Lab 15: Raycasting; ReadingTips for Better Playtesting
Oct 22: Lecture Game Feel; Project Milestone 1: MVP Playtest

Week 8

Oct 27: Lecture Music and SFX; LabOptional: Lab 16: Lighting; ReadingInsightful Playtest Questions
Oct 29: Lecture Work Day

Week 9

Nov 03: Lecture Accessibility; Reading Accessible Controllers
Nov 05: Lecture Work Day; Project Milestone 2: Alpha Playtest

Week 10

Nov 10: Lecture [Work Day]
Nov 12: Lecture [Work Day]

Week 11

Nov 17: Lecture [Work Day]; Reading AI in Gaming
Nov 19: Project Milestone 3: Beta Playtest

Week 12

Nov 24: Lecture [Workday]; Reading Tutorial Designs

Thanksgiving!

Week 13

Dec 1: Lecture Building and Publishing; ReadingGamification
Dec 3: Lecture Course Postmortem; Project Milestone 4: Final Submission

Week 14

TBD: GDD Showcase

Date	Due in Class	Assigned
Tuesday (9/22)	Programmer Lab 4 / Artist Lab 5	All Lab 8, due 09/29 in class.
Thursday (9/24)	Programmer Lab 6 / Artist Lab 7 is due in class. Project 1 Part 2 is due at 11:59pm.	Programmer Lab 9 / Artist Lab 10, due 10/01 in class. Project 2, due 10/01 at 11:59pm.