WANIC Game Design

Program Description:

What makes games fun, useful, or engaging? How can we design systems to allow users to get the most enjoyment, and the greatest payoff? How do we provide the best value for the player’s investment of time and energy? This program is intended to complement the current Video Game Programming track. It is for creative-minded students who are deeply curious about the behavior and psychology behind games, and who are eager to learn the skills and methods used for designing fun and engaging interactive experiences.

Students will study and apply fundamental engagement theory content along with a diverse range of other topics including computer science, cognitive psychology, economics, communications, and user experience. As a project-based program, students can expect to spend much of their time prototyping, testing, and rapidly developing many different game ideas and collaborating on team projects with students in other DigiPen WANIC tracks. They will explore different game design disciplines including systems design, level design, user experience design, narrative design, and technical design, and learn basic scripting and programming skills to develop game prototypes using a game engine.

In this full-year, 3-period Skill Center class (3 high school credits) students will:

• Identify and apply foundational game design theories and mechanics
• Investigate different game design disciplines including systems design, level design, user experience design, narrative design, and technical design
• Apply essential user experience design (UXD) techniques like wireframing, prototyping, user research, and usability testing
• Learn basic scripting and programming skills to develop game prototypes using a game engine
• Identify industry game design roles and the specific skill sets required by each role, to develop a successful, individual career path
• Collaborate on team projects with students from the other DigiPen WANIC tracks

Course Descriptions

For 2025–2026, students have the option to earn college credit for the following courses:

DES 100 Introduction to Design Process or DES 115 Introduction to Game Design – DES 100 and DES 115 share the same course requirements:

DES 100 Introduction to Design Process  – This course introduces the design process as it applies to interactive experiences. Topics include exploration, research, proposals, prototypes, iteration, and polishing of an interactive experience.

DES 115 Introduction to Game Design – This course introduces game design theory and the process of designing games. Topics include design principles, writing rules, playtesting, game state, randomness, hidden information, and game balance.

GAM 120 Introduction to Digital Production – This course introduces the workflows, methodologies, and best practices for working within a modern digital game development environment. Topics include game editors, components, basic scripting, input processing, importing art and audio, level creation, and source control.

Click to view full 2025-2026 DigiPen Course Catalog.