Game a Week: Teaching Students to Prototype

In this 2018 GDC talk, game developers and professors Douglas Wilson and Bennett Foddy present a close look at the "Game a Week" model of game education and discuss the challenges involved in successfully running such a class.

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[koljak]

Aah, really grateful for the RMIT syllabus still being available online! I've started a "two games a month" thing a while ago, and am beginning to struggle finding worthwhile themes. And there's this whole lovingly crafted list, bundled with relevant precedents to study! Thanks!

[DaveVanVerdegem]

Here are the links for the syllabus at the end of the video:

[Michael_Raymond]

I wish my game design education had even a sliver of this kind of drive. Instead I spent hours of every class with no work or direction from the teacher and eventually just left because it was a waste of my time.

[SCSBairsoft]

I'm just still learning... but this is inspirational!

[Syphorce]

I wonder what was the course load like for these students on top of making a Game a Week. If this was all I had to do, no problem. I couldn't imagine doing this on top of studying calculus and physics.

[CubeDeveloper_Games]

this is extremely insightful, lately I've been able to lower my scope and ambition for my indie games which has been the best decisiom ever to be honest, I used to plan extremely complex and ambitious games with multuple gameplay loops, cool terrain generation and such but I always lost motivation after months of development, and I never managed to finish a single project D:

so yeah, let's keep our ambitions in check because completing a game is the most important thing, keep on developing guys and don't give up on your projects!

[justinbuergi]

I tried making a game a week for a school project. Ended up in the hospital

[mr_art]

"In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take." -Lewis Caroll

"You cannot now believe that you will ever feel better. But this is not true. You are sure to be happy again. Knowing this, truly believing it, will make you less miserable now." -Abraham Lincoln

[DNH]

Amazing talk. I wish I could study this and build prototypes. So interesting.

[dnadhruv]

At 17:30 the prototype made by the professor has sparked my interest quite a bit, but i'm not able to make out how he achieved that effect. Can anyone link to some resources that might help me?

[panko]

Is no one going to mention the fact that one of the students names at 20:32 is "T-Dog eXtreme" ?

[Drecon]

Thank you for this. I got a lot of great things from this for my own prototyping class.

[peterthegamer]

I am Bennit Foddy. And that’s really all we needed to hear no need for introduction Mr. Foddy. You voice alone gives us PTSD😂

[Jayenkai]

Kewl stuff, but don't get hooked, kids.. This stuff can be addictive!

[FelisArmis]

Hello! Thank you for a great talk! There is only general course description in NYU course syllabus. Can I see project themes and prompts like in RMIT syllabus?

[raspberry_picker]

16:53 i like how there's an assassins creed minigame in there

[mr_art]

getting over a gdc talk with bennett foddy =)

[pranavgaur]

Where can I get the link to the curriculum??

[yoyo]

ohh. Im working on a prototype right now

[chriswahl]

I don't think I've ever heard "digital games" in-place of "video games". 🤔