Event box

Level-up League: Game Design Club

Level-up League: Game Design Club

Join OU Libraries’ Level-Up Club to make your very own video game and compete to win exciting prizes! 

The Level-Up Club is a community group dedicated to learning more about software development by making video games collaboratively. The club offers weekly gatherings (online and in-person), curated online tutorials, and mentors available to provide guidance for development and team issues. Both multi-person teams and solo developers are welcome. For Fall 2021, the Libraries’ will offer weekly sessions and a semester-long game development competition.

Don’t let your lack of skills or knowledge dissuade you from joining the fun. Join our weekly gatherings to talk through development challenges with your peers or get coding advice from a member of the Wise counsel of Wisdom -- a peer and professional mentor group ready to advise on development or personnel issues. The Libraries’ team of student and professional advisors will ensure that anyone who has the interest, time, and energy can find work they are capable of completing to contribute to the development of a video game.

Effort Equals Output
Video game making is extremely complex. Successfully fulfilling a role on a full-stack game development team requires tremendous effort and learning. On top of that, teamwork in this realm often means personally only understanding a small sliver of the whole game while still pouring hours and hours into developing just that one piece. 

Work for all hands
The OU Libraries’ Level-Up Club is a community of video game making enthusiasts who meet once a week to build games in a collaborative environment while still competing for prizes. Don’t let your lack of skills or knowledge dissuade you from joining the fun. The Libraries’ team of student and professional advisors will ensure that anyone who has the interest, time, and energy can find work they are capable of completing to contribute to the development of a video game. 

To do this, the work required is divided into tasks for four distinct roles: Coders, Asset Designers, Storytellers, and Game Designers. 

Storytellers bring the why to the table. Why is the sprite throwing penguins and why do they seem to like it so much? Games without meaning like Flappy Bird are fine and even quite successful, however, a little story can breathe life into an interactive piece of software. For this reason, almost all decisions require consulting storytellers who keep the “why” answered even as it continually evolves. 

Game designers have to work closely with storytellers to couch narratives inside of game logic. Game designers decide how the game works. They take input from the storytellers like 

Learning Objectives

Coders
Contrary to popular belief, it takes way more than a coder to make a videogame. They may glue the pieces together in a game engine, but that generally follows the creativity and design of a game developer (it is really hard to code and see the big picture of a project; you want spotters!)

Asset Designers
Artists, keen-eyes, and tinkerers unite! With our modern tech anyone from the Rembrandt to the finger painter can contribute to the asset design of a video game. Asset design consists of 3D/2D imagery, sounds, and any other sensory information presented to the player.

Storytellers
Narratives are the most typical mode for documenting human experience and learning from others. The Storytellers breathe life into the various game elements by providing a "why" for our "what"

Game Designers
When I click this what happens? If I punch that goblin in the face, does it poop 5 or 10 coins? Game designers get to ask and answer ALL of these questions.

Registration is recommended. 

Zoom link: Sign in with your OU Zoom account or use password 54514092


 

Date:
Wednesday, October 27, 2021 Show more dates
Time:
3:30pm - 4:30pm
Location:
LL118 Community Room
Campus:
Bizzell Memorial Library
Categories:
OU Libraries Event
Registration has closed.