Demystified: Game design & art course at DSK Supinfogame

Game Art

Overview
With a desire to create attractive visuals that allow players to be completely submerged in another universe, the game artist relies on production constraints that he has identified.

The game art course taught at DSK Supinfogame simulates professional production chains through tangible projects and partnerships with companies that are a part of gaming industry. From traditional graphic arts that meet the requirements of a previously thought out game design, the game artist must master the main lines of graphic design production and adapt his know-how to management and project development.

Your future job

2D/ 3D Computer Graphics Designer, Animator, Character Designer, Artistic Director

Course structure

• Traditional graphics Anatomy, graphical research, character design, bibles

• History of art Study of work of Arts

• General culture History of societies, myths, literature

• Film analysis Vocabulary, intentions, composition, edition

• History of gaming Creation process, support, media, etc.

• Ergonomics and design of interfaces

• 2D Graphics Applications and specific tools Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash

• 3D Graphics Controlling the production with software such as 3DS max, Zbrush, Unity, UDK.

• Special effects Assembly, animation, direction

• Prototyping Intentions and validation of concepts, tests.

• Game Design Initiation

• Level Design Initiation

Game Art- It encompasses the artistic management of the projects, the production of digital images for the game universe, character, animation, interface design and execution.  It defines creation of attractive visuals that allow players to be completely submerged in the actual universe of the game. In simple words, game art as a field deals with visual representation of the game, may be in 2D or 3D format.

Role of Game Artists:-

1. Create all graphical resources needed in a game like:-

2. Animations

3. Objects

4. Textures

5. Characters

6. Heads Up Display (HUD) or Status Bar is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface

2. Graphical design of everything that will be displayed in the game

So what is expected out of anyone who wants to pursue a career in game art?

First and foremost thing that an individual is required to do is to start analyzing games. I am sure you have tried your hands on many games and definitely you have developed your own observations about them. Analyze your favorite games in terms of:-

What is the genre of the game? Action game or an action adventure game or a shooting game or a role playing game or a Shooter game or a sport related game or a hybrid of genres like a COD which is an action cum role playing game.

Which platform has the game been made for? PC/Console/Mobile/Online

How with each level, the difficulty has been enhanced and how new props and power ups have been added with each passing level.

What are your likes and dislikes about the game

Start doing a lot of research about Game history and game genres, you will get much better idea about how the characters and objects and textures varies with every genre.

Secondly, an individual should be good at sketching/drawing, if he/she wants to make a career as game artist. An individual should have some traditional and digital art as a part of his portfolio. He/she should be good at sketching characters, landscapes, portraits, etc. If a candidate has some digital works made in photoshop/coral draw/in design etc, it will serve as an added advantage. Passion about photography or movie editing tools is also relevant to people wanting to be a game artist. In addition to all this, if a candidate has laid his/her hands in 2D/3D animation, then it should be produced, but it is not compulsory for any student applying for first year of foundation course.

If a candidate has prepared any game concept, he/she should also produce the same.

Thirdly start keeping informations about the gaming industry and its latest happenings. Since you are aiming to be a game artist, you should know how the industry is shaping up. It is also imperative for the candidate to have knowledge about international movies, animation movies, books, etc.

Lastly, start compiling all your creative works together. This will formulate your portfolio which is absolutely a must for candidate to get admission in any renowned institute across the world.

Game Design

Overview
Game design is the art of designing a game system.

In order to create a game that will arouse passion and interest, designers must master a wide range of tools and techniques . Therefore, game designers are sometimes called engineers, sometimes mathematicians and at other times storytellers. However they need to be excellent communicators within their teams. Game designers need to thoroughly understand the essence of past games so that they can have a clear vision for those to come tomorrow. They are responsible for the players' entertainment. They must ensure that players face amazing and exclusive challenges.

Your future job
Producer, Associate Producer Lead game designer, Game designer, Lead level designer, Level designer.

Roles of a game designer:–

• Create Rules

• Create Universe

• Create Stories

• Create objectives (every level)

• Create Procedures- Keyboard setups / usage of click buttons in the mouse/ joysticks

• Create Resources- Props, ad-ons, power ups, etc

• Create Conflicts- enhance level by level

• Create Characters- Attributes and appearance

• Create Challenges- increasing the level of difficulty with every level

So what is expected out of anyone who wants to pursue a career in game design?

First and foremost thing that an individual is required to do is to start analyzing games. I am sure you have tried your hands on many games and definitely you have developed your own observations about them. Analyze your favorite games in terms of:-

What is the genre of the game? Action game or an action adventure game or a shooting game or a role playing game or a Shooter game or a sport related game or a hybrid of genres like a COD which is an action cum role playing game.

Which platform has the game been made for? PC/Console/Mobile/Online

How with each level, the difficulty has been enhanced and how new props and power ups have been added with each passing level.

What are your likes and dislikes about the game

Start doing a lot of research about Game history and game genres, you will get much better idea about it.

Secondly, with the help of your analysis start creating concepts of your own game/s. Just note that writing concept is not writing an essay. You can prepare hard copy of this concepts. You can also create digital format of it but for that you are required to have knowledge about game engines like CRY, UNITY, etc. It is not compulsory to have knowledge about these engines specially if you are going for foundation level courses. But in your query I found that you have already been exposed to HTML and Microsoft Audio Visual, so I thought that you may be interested in laying your hands on these engines.

Thirdly start keeping informations about the gaming industry and its latest happenings. Since you are aiming to be a game designer, you should know how the industry is shaping up.

Lastly, start compiling all your creative works together. This will formulate your portfolio which is absolutely a must for candidate to get admission in any renowned institute across the world.

Game Programming

Overview
Management and game programming is an advanced level course which has been designed for students who aspire to learn programming for video games. Students with degree level education and an adequate amount of knowledge regarding technical fundamentals are eligible to apply for the course. Game programming requires specific elements that make the gaming experience fluid and enjoyable for the players.

The course teaches about the game play itself along with the Artificial Intelligence, the programming of tools, databases and programming onto social networks. It trains the students and develops their management and project management skills and gives them a basic knowledge about game and level design. Programming includes the artistic management of the projects, the production of digital images for display and universe, character design and development, animation and interface design.

Your future job

Engine Programmer, Game play Programmer, Tools Programmer, Network and Online Programmer, Middle Ware Programmer

Role of a game programmer

• Create or adapt the game engine as designed.

  • In order to have the rules to play out as designed

• Code gameplay as designed

  • In order to have the fun the designers want

• Code animation engines, including the game interface

  • To get the game artists stuff on the screen!

• Code the fancy tools.

  • To let level designers pretend they are programmers

Research and Development of technical solutions specific to a problem or to an idea by using prototyping (digital format through encoding and decoding)

Game engines include Unity, Unreal, CRY, etc

Software for animation include adobe illustrator, Zbrush, 3DS Max, Adobe tools.

So what is expected out of anyone who wants to pursue a career in game programming?

First and foremost thing that an individual is required to do is to start analyzing games. I am sure you have tried your hands on many games and definitely you have developed your own observations about them. Analyze your favorite games in terms of:-

What is the genre of the game? Action game or an action adventure game or a shooting game or a role playing game or a Shooter game or a sport related game or a hybrid of genres like a COD which is an action cum role playing game.

Which platform has the game been made for? PC/Console/Mobile/Online

How with each level, the difficulty has been enhanced and how new props and power ups have been added with each passing level.

What are your likes and dislikes about the game

Start doing a lot of research about Game history and game genres, you will get much better idea about how different coding languages have been used for different game engines; how different the coding is of a 3D game in compare to that of a 2D game, how the coding changes with the change in the platform like mobile/console/pc/online.

Secondly an individual should be extremely good at understanding and implementing computer languages like C++, C#, Java,  XNA, HTML, etc. A computer graduate is what is required for this particular course, but it is to be considered that he/she is not a hardware engineer as such. A hardware engineer hardly possesses knowledge about computer languages. An applicant should have good logic and technical skill and should also be good in mathematics (calculus, linear algebra, vector & matrices)

Thirdly start keeping informations about the gaming industry and its latest happenings. Since you are aiming to be a game artist, you should know how the industry is shaping up.

Lastly, start compiling all your creative works together. This will formulate your portfolio which is absolutely a must for candidate to get admission in any renowned institute across the world.

Eligibility:-

For Video Game Design and Art

Foundation Level

• 10 + 2 with proven creative abilities. A finished portfolio is recommended

• Proficiency in English, both written and spoken

• You can be from any stream of education (Science/arts/commerce/humanities, etc)

• Ready to relocate to Pune

For Video Game programming

Advanced Level

• Degree/Diploma/Engineering in game design/animation/programming relevant work experience with a relevant finished portfolio

• Proficiency in English, both written and spoken

• Ready to relocate to Pune

Alumni List

• The entrance exam is a combination of two rounds:-

  • First round is an evaluation of study proficiency- 120MCQs in 60 minutes

  • Second round is an evaluation of creativity, passion & knowledge- Studio test

• The first round is an online entrance test and can be attempted from anywhere

• The second round is conducted only at campus in Pune

• Studio test at the campus consists of:-
  a) Descriptive test         b) Drawing test          c) Personal Interview with Portfolio review

Kindly note: There is no drawing test for Video Game Design and programming course

To apply for the entrance exam, kindly register online @ www.dsksic.com

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