Game Design and Development Decal Fall 2025
Welcome back GDD! We hope you all enjoyed the first week of class. We have a lot of important news for this week, so listen up!
Office hours are starting this week! They will be on Monday 5:30-6:30PM and Wednesday 8-9PM. Hop in the voice channel in Discord to get check-offs done or if you need help on anything.
Reminders for Project 1 for both roles:
Programmers: You should be adding
berkeleyGameDevas a collaborator to your Project 1 repository, and keep the project submission as a private repo.Artists: Please be aware that the deadline for Part 1 is BEFORE CLASS and not 11:59! That way, we can get in-class art critiques rolling smoothly~
Tuesday 09/16
Due in class:
All 💻+🎨 Lab 1: Intro to Unity
Assigned:
Programmer 💻 Lab 4: Advanced Scripting (due 9/23)
Artist 🎨 Lab 5: Tilesets (due 9/23)
Thursday 09/18
Due in class:
Programmer 💻 Lab 2: Basic Scripting
Artist 🎨 Lab 3: Pixel Art and Spriting
Project 1, Part 1 due by 11:59PM for programmers, BEFORE CLASS for artists!
Assigned:
Programmer 💻 Lab 6: Colliders and Rigidbodies (due 9/25)
Artist 🎨 Lab 7: Animation (due 9/25)
Project 1, Part 2 due 9/25 at 11:59pm
Schedule
Week 0
- Sept 2
- Lecture Infosession
- LabLab 0: Unity Setup
- Sept 4
- Lecture Infosession
- LabLab 0: Unity Setup
Week 1
- Sept 9
- Lecture Intro to Unity
- LabLab 1: Intro to Unity
- ReadingGame Design Principles
- Sept 11
- Lecture Game Design
- LabProgrammer: Lab 2: Basic Scripting / Artist: Lab 3: Pixel Art and Spriting
- ProjectProject 1
Week 2
- Sept 16
- Lecture Game Art Fundamentals
- LabProgrammer: Lab 4: Advanced Scripting / Artist: Lab 5: Tilesets
- ReadingGraphics vs Aesthetics
- Sept 18
- Lecture Fundamentals of Animation
- LabProgrammer: Lab 6: Colliders and Rigidbodies / Artist: Lab 7: Animation
Week 3
- Sept 23
- Lecture Game Loops
- LabLab 8: Animator and Blend Trees
- Reading13 Principles of Gameplay
- Sept 25
- Lecture Git Tutorial
- LabProgrammer: Lab 9: UI and Layering / Artist: Lab 10: UI Asset Creation
- ProjectProject 2: Game Jam
Week 4
- Sept 30
- Lecture User Interfaces
- LabProgrammer: Lab 11: Coroutines / Artist: Lab 12: Environment Design
- ReadingHow to Pitch your Project
- Oct 2
- Lecture Design Docs and MVPs
Week 5
- Oct 7
- Lecture Pitch Day
- ReadingHow to Write a Good Game Design Document
- Oct 9
- Lecture Project 2 Showcase
- ProjectProject 3: Final
Week 6
- Oct 14
- Lecture Work Day
- Lab Optional: Lab 13: Transitioning, Saving and Building
- Project Milestone 0: Game Design Doc
- ReadingTeam Structures in Game Development
- Oct 16
- Lecture Tutorial + Level Design
- LabOptional: Lab 14: 3D Rigging, Skinning, and Animation
- Project Milestone 1: MVP Playtest
Week 7
- Oct 21
- Lecture Game Feel
- LabOptional: Lab 15: Raycasting
- ReadingTips for Better Playtesting
- Oct 23
- Lecture Work Day
Week 8
- Oct 28
- Lecture Work Day
- LabOptional: Lab 16: Lighting
- ReadingInsightful Playtest Questions
- Oct 30
- Project Work Day
Week 9
- Nov 4
- Lecture Music and SFX
- LabOptional: Lab 16: Lighting
- ReadingInsightful Playtest Questions
- Nov 6
- Project Milestone 2: Alpha Playtest
Week 10
- Nov 13
- Lecture Guest Lecture
Week 11
- Nov 18
- Lecture Work Day
- Reading AI in Gaming
- Nov 20
- Project Milestone 3: Beta Playtest
Week 12
- Nov 25
- Lecture AI Design
- Reading Tutorial Design
Week 13
- Dec 2
- Lecture Building and Publishing
- ReadingGamification
- Dec 4
- Lecture Course Postmortem
- Project Milestone 4: Final Submission
Week 15
- Dec 9
- GDD Showcase