Associate of Applied Arts in 3D Computer AnimationI am co-teaching with Ben Ellinger. Ben is teaching the programming part, I am teaching team techniques drawn from the Core protocols & theatre. Ben & I are a booted team, so teaching together is bootstrapping us at several levels. This summer class is preparation for the big 9-month game class that starts in the fall.
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production Animation
Bachelor of Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering
Master of Science in Computer Science
Shared vision: Wind transforming into heaven: Become the quality without a name
Ben's alignment: Passion
Rachel's alignment: Love
Class goal: Using the Core protocols, XNA, & C#, build a great game.
Focus: Focus on *one* aspect that you optimize for greatness.
Structure: Every week, 1) a technical lecture, 2) protocol work, and 3) versioning & perfecting the games. The final week, present games to an audience. Three guest lecturers on special topics.
Collaboration: Students can work on teams or alone; or on multiple teams.
UPDATE: A week later we added Chris Peters as a third co-instructor.
Chris's alignment: Love
4 comments:
I wouldn't call digipen "up-and-coming", but I suppose it could be thought of as such. I'm curious if you and Ben will be 'booted' as instructors for regular game 300 classes?
Well, Ben and I are definitely a booted team, no matter what we are creating -- a DigiPen class, a game, or a group at Microsoft.
We are teaching GAT 400 as a prototype for the junior year game 300 class. Teaching a summer class lets us practice teaching together, see what results we get, and how best to merge the protocols with game creation. In protocol terms, it gives us 11 weeks to perfection-game our work, and improve it.
That said, this experiment is a little odd because the GAT 400 folks often work in teams of 1. The protocols are powerful for teams of 1 -- "A team is either 1 person or many people," says Jim McCarthy -- but they are incendiary for teams of 2 or more. The more nodes (brains) available in the network, the more powerful & swift the ongoing bootstrapping becomes.
Our current plan regarding co-teaching the regular game classes is, "Yes, unless either 1) the current experiment's results indicate otherwise, 2) we get a better idea, or 3) there is something we want more."
I appreciate your writing. Keep it coming.
I'm a high school student and I'm waiting anxiously for any courses on XNA either through my school or during some after school/ weekend program. Any idea if there are any courses available for my age group?
Thanks,
Gareth
Cool, Gareth.
Email me -- don't post it here -- at realrachel@aol.com & let me know 1) what town & state you live in, and 2) what year of school you will be in Septemver, and I will ask around.
Have you heard of DigiPen's "Project Fun," the 2-week game-making summer camps we run for middle-school & high-school students? Check out the DigiPen website for more info on that -- www.digipen.edu.
Also, if there is a local community college, university, youth center, or software company, ask them as well. There might well be something offered in your area I don't know about.
Feel free to contact me offline, via email, if you have other questions.
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