Over the last few years we have seen the rise of "serious games" to promote understanding of complex social and ecological challenges, and to create passion for solving them. This project-based course provides an introduction to game design principals while applying them to games that teach. Run as a hands-on studio class, students will design and prototype games for social change and civic engagement. We will learn the fundamentals of games design via lecture and extensive reading in order to make effective games to explore issues facing society today. The course culminates in an end-of- quarter open house to showcase our games. Prerequisite: CS147 or equivalent. 247G recommended, but not required.
One of my favorite games is Dark Souls. It has a Loop of encountering an enemy, getting beaten by it and learning its moveset, then beating the enemy and unlocking new weapons and equipment with its souls. This has a parallel arc of learning lore about the world and level design as you progress.