Qualification

NPA (SCQF Level 5)

Duration

1 year

Starts

04 Jun 2024

Interests

  • Computing

Campus

  • Aberdeen City Campus

Why take this course?

Playing computer games is fun. But it is actually more fun to design your own computer games and let other people play them. With GameMaker, you can create your own computer games quickly without the need to learn a programming language. The joy of playing a game is not related to its complexity as simple games like Space Invaders are a lot of fun to play and a lot easier to create.  GameMaker offers an intuitive and easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface that allows you to create your own games quickly.

While you are doing that you are learning to think logically and develop your “computational thinking skills”, which is gaining recognition as a vital 21st-century competence.

During the award, you will gain a variety of knowledge and skills including the following:

  • What makes a good game
  • How to design a good game
  • What media assets are available and how to capture them
  • How to modify media assets for your game
  • How to develop a computer game
  • How to test a game

What you will experience

You will learn how to make computer games using the GameMaker Studio engine. Whilst doing that the three units that make up this NPA will help you:

Design

Learn an understanding of underlying concepts and fundamental principles involved in computer game planning and design.

Media assets

To identify a range of legitimate methods for acquiring media assets and learn how to plan and produce media assets for use in a game development environment.

Development

To be able to implement the design for your working computer game and evaluate the effectiveness of the final solution produced.