Home / Academic Programs / WANIC Programs / WANIC Game Design
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:
Attendance to an Info Session is required before applying to WANIC Full Year Programs.
This program is primarily for students entering their Junior or Senior year of high school in the fall, but younger students are accepted with permission.
High School Credits:
Year 1: CTE (2.0), Third Year Math (1.0)
College Credits: DigiPen Credits TBD
Our WANIC instructors are outstanding, highly trained and passionate about their respective fields. Instructors impart their years of knowledge and experience to teach and inspire the next generation of innovators.
See what past students have created in our WANIC classes.
Attendance to a WANIC Program Info Session is required prior to registering on the WANIC website. See dates below.
Zoom links will be emailed out the week of the session.