Fall Classes Commence!

MCG welcomes a new round of fall classes in the Digital Arts Studio, with a busy schedule and full roster of creators to boot! For this weeks update, have a look at what we have going on for our Tuesday class; Playable Design.

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Playable Design

In Playable Design, students are learning to develop assets for interactive media. Both video games and board games are on the table, along with a touch of interface design and non-linear storytelling. This week as we acquainted ourselves with using classroom equipment and software, students were tasked with designing a tileable map design as seen in pixel-based adventure games. Here's how it works:

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  Credit: Ayanna Ruff

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  Credit: James Werlig

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  Credit: Ne'veah Millender

1. Students start by blocking out the basic layout of the map. This is done using black and white blocks on a grid canvas.

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2. Next it's time to create the pieces of the map that will replace the black and white blocks. By using a square canvas, students develop decorative pathways, corners, and room designs to populate the scene.

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3. Finally it's time to paste the new pathway into the map file and, VOILA! That's a video game map!