A Deeper Understanding of Games

Games are in our DNA. Dice, cards, boards, knights and pawns - they've been with us for centuries, and today games are a powerful force in media and entertainment. To design a great game is to know and understand their roots, their nature, and today's gaming landscape. It means reinventing the way you engage with the games you play. At VFS, you will explore games in a new way, uncovering their inner workings and appreciating them in a new light that will be fundamental to your growth as a game designer.

Game Theory and Mechanics

In Game Design, you will examine games from every angle. You dissect analog games, from their humble beginnings to today's incredibly sophisticated non-digital games. You will also learn how to analyze contemporary video games on a whole new level, exploring their evolution, common elements, genres, and target audiences. From there, you'll learn how to design, document, implement, and tune game mechanics to create the best play experiences possible.

Spotlight: Games Lab

No, being a game designer doesn't mean you spend all day playing games. But we believe that playing, analyzing, and loving games is an absolutely indispensable part of being a game designer. At VFS, you'll have plenty of opportunities for play, even as you shift from a gamer's perspective to that of designer.

Level Design

Level design is about crafting the player's experience. At VFS, you learn to manage a game's flow, decide where you want players to go, make decisions on elements like unit placement and spawn points, and create levels that guide players - but still keep them on their toes. You'll learn key tools like Sketchup and UDK (Unreal Development Kit), how to plan levels, and the nitty-gritty of building deathmatch maps and single-player adventures.

Online, Multiplayer, and Mobile Design

The game industry is known for evolving at a lightning-fast rate, but the growing online and multiplayer marketplaces exist on another level altogether. As your year ramps up, you delve into increasingly advanced topics like these. How do you manage multiplayer balancing? How do you establish an online community? How do you navigate the competitive mobile marketplace and deliver your games to multiple platforms? These are just a few of the important questions you will explore.