Semester(s) Offered: Fall
Credits: 2
Course Call Number: GAMES-UT 245, GAMES-GT 245
Prerequisite(s): None
The humble spreadsheet is easy to overlook, but it’s ubiquitous in game design. They’re surprisingly versatile and an invaluable tool for any game designer’s toolkit. This hands-on practicum for game designers and digital artists will explore spreadsheet software as a creative tool. We’ll explore typical uses, look at professional examples from within games, and some novel applications we’ll invent ourselves. You’ll learn to use spreadsheets as a prototyping environment, as a database, as a procedural text generator, as a map-making tool, for gameplay analysis, for systems balancing, and more. The class will culminate in applying your new expertise to make a game that runs on and is playable within a spreadsheet itself.