Mohawk College has long embraced experiential learning throughout its programs. In the Game - Design program, “learning by doing” is seen not only as an effective way to teach, but as an avenue for students to be creative and to innovate.
Mohawk College Game - Design professor Chris Crowell says that the way people learn when they play games is the way that learning should happen in the classroom.
Hands-on learning has been the main educational method across multiple cultures throughout history, with the shift towards a “classroom-style” of learning only occurring recently.
“All of human history up to that point was this model of listening and doing, and now what we’re trying to do is to get back into that in games,” Chris explains.
Design Week
A key part of Mohawk College’s Game – Design program emphasizes “learning by doing” through Design Week, a five-day event that is a part of the program’s curriculum.
“It's a program-integrated game jam,” Game - Design program coordinator Raphaël Tétreault states.
Game jams are a type of event common in the game design industry. During game jams, game designers build a game from scratch in a short period of time. Each game jam will challenge designers to build a game based on a certain game type, theme or idea. For example, the challenge may be to build a puzzle-based platformer or a game about archeology.
Just like other game jams, every Design Week poses a unique challenge to Game - Design students. Previous Design Weeks saw students creating board games for children at the Hamilton Public Library and building a game for an arcade cabinet belonging to the MSA.
In the most recent Design Week, students were tasked with creating a video game that required an “alternative controller” to play it. What this meant was that students were free to create any type of video game as long as it didn’t require the use of a joystick, keyboard and mouse, or console controller. Students were also in charge of designing and constructing the controller that would be used to play their game.
“That [the challenge] has them thinking about not just what software is running on the computer, it’s having them think about ‘how does the user interface with the game’ and ‘how does the interface influence what the game is’,” Raphaël says.
The participating Game - Design students took the challenge and ran with it. Creativity and innovation were on full display throughout the challenge, with each group creating a game unique from the rest.
Collaboration is key
During Design Week, students discovered just how important collaboration and teamwork are. This was not by coincidence, with Design Week structured to highlight the importance of collaboration in the game design industry for every participating student.
“When we look at our industry, everything is team-based,” Raphaël states.
Nearly every game, ranging from small indie titles to franchises that span multiple games, has a team of game designers working together to create it. For a game of any kind to be successful, each member of the team must be working alongside one another in every aspect of the game’s design.
From background music to character modelling, every team member must communicate and work with each other’s ideas to create a cohesive experience for the players.
Chris says that a lack of “good ideas” is never a problem in the game design industry. Rather, it’s important to be able to meld those ideas together when creating the finished product.
“You have to have a collaborative soul in order to be a good game designer and learn to really appreciate the success of others,” Chris says.
Being able to work collaboratively in a team environment is not just important to creating a successful game, but it is also important to getting hired to create that game in the first place.
“An employer is looking for if you are a good person that can work with other people beyond just having the skills,” Raphaël informs. “If you’re the most skilled person, but no one wants to work with you, there’s no point in hiring that person.”
Addressing industry needs
Mohawk College’s Game - Design program strives to meet the ever-evolving needs of the game industry through both its in-class curriculum and the utilization of hands-on learning opportunities like Design Week.
Design Week is intended to prepare students for working in the game design industry by getting them used to the work environment on a small scale.
“It’s a microcosm of the [game] industry for one week,” Chris states.
Game - Design students recognize this, saying that the experience of Design Week is invaluable towards preparing them for their future careers.
“I do love the aspect that it is a pressure test in a sense, because being prepared for the industry is something that is so valuable,” Game – Design student Budd comments. “That’s exactly what they’re trying to teach us in Game - Design.”
The creative element of Design Week has also been formulated to address the needs of the game design industry just as much as the “time crunch”. People who play games are always looking for something new, whether that’s a new level, game series or an entirely new genre of game. The hope is that through experiences like Design Week, students will learn how to break away from the “norm” and create something new.
“In terms of what the industry’s looking for, some of the things that we’re trying to prepare them for is understanding that there is more to the games industry than just core, AAA games,” Raphaël explains.
This has become abundantly clear in the gaming industry over the past decade, with multiple indie games soaring in popularity levels at and above those of titles from big-name game studios. Many of those same games were even originally conceptualized during game jams, showing just how important events like Design Week are when it comes to fostering creativity and innovation to better the game design industry as a whole.
Creativity and innovation in the world of game design
Not only does creativity and innovation in the game design industry create games that satisfy the hunger of consumers for a new and exciting experience, but it also takes the medium to new heights.
Games are currently in a renaissance, with the video games industry generating revenue far exceeding that of the movie industry and the board games industry seeing steady growth. There has been an industry-wide realization that the scope of what games can do is seemingly limitless, with every game having something unique to offer. By giving students the space to explore the medium and realize just how much they can do within it, they will have the confidence to continue that exploration once they enter the industry. During Design Week, students get a taste of this, which results in wildly creative game ideas.
“Almost never do we get two games that feel even slightly similar,” Raphaël says. “I think that gives you an indication of just how big the universe of games’ potential is.”
When game designers explore the scope of what games can do, they learn how to utilize games in new ways. While games have long been thought of as just a form of entertainment, they’ve been embraced in recent years as a vehicle for learning and training.
“We love to figure out puzzles,” Chris says. “We love to get it right eventually and games allow that more than any other medium.”
Mohawk College’s Game - Design program delivers a curriculum that highlights the importance of creativity and innovation in the world of game design. Through events like Design Week and other experiential learning opportunities integrated throughout the program, Game - Design students are free to explore, innovate and create.
“They’re actually thinking about things like ‘what can we do?’ and ‘what could be innovative about this idea?’,” Raphaël says. “And hopefully, that’s leading to an industry that doesn’t stagnate.”
Getting your start in Game - Design
If you’re interested in taking part in Design Week and want to learn more about the Game - Design program, visit the Game - Design program page.
Posted 12/11/2024
