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LSU Takes Video Game Design Class to the Next Level

WCET Frontiers

Imagine a college course where your assignments are to play, develop and test original video games.

This is an opportunity Louisiana State University (LSU) has offered since the fall 2007 semester in collaboration with University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) through the resources of the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI).  LONI is a high-speed, fiber optic network that connects computing resources among Louisiana’s major research institutions. LONI links the state to other networks, allowing for more collaboration for research and education at higher speeds than previously possible.

Since LONI’s inception in 2004, Louisiana researchers have sought ways to use the high-speed, fiber optic network for new educational opportunities. This class, which students attend in real time via high-definition video streaming broadcast from Chicago to Baton Rouge, is part of LSU’s efforts to use new technology to expand course offerings. Instead of being limited only to courses offered at their particular university, faculty and students can use networks like LONI to import or export courses from other locations.

Students in the class learn core concepts to develop and design video games, from storyline to character development to coding. The students form competing video game companies and develop an original game as their final project. During the final class, the students have a video game marathon in which a panel of faculty, former game class winners and video game industry professionals from both Baton Rouge and Chicago judge their work on several characteristics, using LONI to see the games in real time at both locations.

In previous semesters, Jason Leigh, a computer science professor at UIC and director of the university’s Electronic Visualization Laboratory, taught the course with support from LSU faculty. This year, Robert Kooima, who previously worked with Leigh at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, came to LSU to do research as part of the Arts, Visualization, Advanced Technologies and Research (AVATAR) initiative in digital media. Kooima took over as the LSU course instructor, and worked directly with Leigh to use networking technology and make the class interactive between the two locations.

“The structure we were able to do this semester really emphasized the collaborative skills that are an integral part of this field,” Kooima said. “To complete their final video game projects, the students had to rely on video conferencing technology more heavily than previous classes, and they had to really assess each other’s strengths and weaknesses to work effectively as a team between two campuses.”

Visit our website for more information on the teams from the spring 2009 video game course, or to see pictures from the teams’ websites.