Game Design and Development Decal Fall 2026

Week 1 (9/8)

Welcome to GDD! Thank you so much to everyone who applied and congratulations to those who made it in the DeCal! We hope you’re as excited as you are to start game developing :D

We’re going to hit the ground running, so please come to class with your laptop. Hope to see you in class!

Date Due in Class Assigned

Tuesday (9/8) None Lab 1 will be assigned, check-off is due 9/15 in class.

Thursday (9/10) None Programmer Lab 2 / Artist Lab 3 will be assigned, check-off is due 9/17 in class. Project 1 will be assigned, Part 1 is due 9/17 at 11:59pm via this form (to be linked after class)

Jump to Week: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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 [Git Tutorial]; LabProgrammer: Lab 8: Coroutines / Artist: Lab 9: Environment Design; Reading 13 Principles of Gameplay
Sep 24: Lecture [Game Loops]; 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

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 (9/8)	None	Lab 1 will be assigned, check-off is due 9/15 in class.
Thursday (9/10)	None	Programmer Lab 2 / Artist Lab 3 will be assigned, check-off is due 9/17 in class. Project 1 will be assigned, Part 1 is due 9/17 at 11:59pm via this form (to be linked after class)