Our 2020 Content Vision

Other Courses Talk
#1

See July 2018 Revision Vision

The syllabuses for these courses will be built during 2017/2018 in this live Google Doc, comments welcome.

So guys, we’re starting to form a vision for what we want our course portfolio to look like in the year 2020. We would really appreciate your thoughts. In a nutshell, three tracks with three courses per track as follows…

Dev Track

This is basically the science of game development.

  • Learn to Code by Making Games < Similar to current Unity course.
  • Game Engine Architecture & System Master < Maths, Physics, Audio, Libraries, etc. Possibly in Unreal.
  • The Complete Game Technical Art Programmer < Procedural Generation, Blender Python, Shaders, etc.

Creative Track

This is the creative track, focused on asset creation.

  • The Complete 3D Game Artist < Similar to current Blender course, including Substance Painter
  • The Complete 2D Game Artist < A new course on Gimp, Photoshop
  • The Complete Game Audio Artist < SFX, voiceover, music, etc.

Biz & Design Track

This is everything about getting yourself, and your business knowledge ready to run your own successful studio. This combines business and design for a reason… We believe there’s no room in the world of lean manufacturing for one person to design things, and another to sell it. These functions must be combined so that the customer get promised what’s possible, and delivered what’s promised.

  • Personal Development for Indies < Health, mindset, focus, finishing, shipping, etc
  • The Complete Game Designer < Level design, play tuning, vision setting, QA, etc.
  • The Business of Marketing Indie Games < Crowdfunding, finance, marketing, etc.

Each of these courses would be a complete course, around 60 hours long. We would also provide a way of you assessing where you’re at in each area, to help you navigate the 9 courses.

Please rate this structure from the gut, and let us hear your feedback…

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Who would you prefer finishes this section?
Our 2020 Content Vision - Revision 2
New Courses / Same Subject / Forum Consideration
#2

@Instructors note this post.

#3

I’m not sure where my login is over there right now, but I’m strongly in favor of the setup you’ve described there, I think there’s a good amount of value for people looking to get into this, I’d do the dev section a little differently, but I don’t think my changes would do others a lot of good. I do think that patterns and practices could possibly straddle both dev and biz tracks as code review is sometimes more of a business process than a developer process. In a lot of ways, it’s almost one of those cross-discipline domains because it has to do with the HOW rather than the what or why.

#4

Okay, so I feel really strongly against your “Biz Track”

  • Game Designer course has NOTHING to do with business, if anything Game Design would be its own separate track

In the Dev Track Are you just planning on rehashing your existing courses? So “Learn to Code by Making Games” = Unity? Or are you going to maybe do both engines? I think that would be best imho. You can learn C# and then C++. Then you are truly learning to code in two languages and two engines.

Also in your Dev Track you have Game Engine Arch, I am assuming this is coming from you reading that book a few months back. This would definitely be pretty interesting to see in any engine, of course I would love to see it in Unreal, but I think the name for that course is off somehow. I guess since it’s going over parts of the engine, and diving deep? If so, alright, I get it. And physics in Unreal is definitely something that is needed for a course, Audio/Sound Design would be awesome too, I just don’t know the whole idea behind that course, it seems too small.

Complete Game Tech Art Programmer course… That is pretty interesting. Procedural generation is a big thing nowadays, so I can see that being very valuable, too bad it’s not in a regular programming course though, and you are applying it just to Tech Art. But actually, if you’re talking about Level Procedural Gen…then I think your name is wrong.

Art Track seems fine. Instead of Blender, Maya LT/Modo Indie would be awesome to cover.
2D Game Art!!! I can’t wait for that. Would love to see from A to Z how to do pixel art and animations, proper sprite sheets, etc. Not super excited about Gimp, but Photoshop or the other many Pixel Art tools available (some even free) could be a better way to do it.

Game Audio in Art Track ?? Sorry, but wtf?

I think instead of 3 Tracks, you should have 5

*Game Design
*Game Programming
*Game Art
*Game Audio
*Game Business

obviously you can change the names however you like. But that’s my personal opinion.

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#5

Oh…I forgot a big thing…and I think that it should be covered in the Game Engine Architecture course… Game Math! Before you starting teaching anyone about physics, you have to teach them all about vector math and stuff :wink:

If you need someone for that, I guess my recommendation would be Jorge Rodriguez, you can google him. Sure he has a YT tutorial series and Live Stream going on, but I think an actual structured course would be better imho.

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#6

Great idea about a game math course! I would definetly follow it, to review my knowledge of vectors, matrix, integrals etc. and apply it to games. Of course game engines take care of all this stuff but understanding them would be very useful.

About audio in the art track, it seems reasonable to me, SFX and music are still part of the art of a game, so there’s no need to create a track for it only.

1 Like
#7

Thanks for the detailed reply @VictorBurgos. Here’s my feedback…

I actually disagree, in the lean approach the business of selling your game sits right next to the job of designing it in the circle (Design > Dev > Assets > Sell > Repeat). I strongly advocate talking to your potential players really early. We’re forcing just three roles here, so if we had more than 3 we would separate business out, but if you had to have a 3-man team I think this is a good split.

Re the engine architecture, the idea would be in a few years to create another Unreal course that covers this. Unreal because the code is available, and the C++ gives the flexibility we need to dig that deep.

Agree re “Tech Art” naming, I’ll try and come up with a better name.

Re covering Blender or other packages, ideally we’ll get so good at covering the fundamentals that you can re-apply your knowledge. We’ll just shoot for the most requested free or cheap package at the time.

How about renaming the track “Creative”, I’ll try that.

I’m determined to stick to 3 tracks for simplicity, there aren’t three, there aren’t 2, there aren’t 5… it’s just a choice and really 3 people is typically the minimum team that’s successful.

2 Likes
#8

I like the tracks, and they will help me a LOT as a small indie dev ! :smiley:

I’d like to see as much advanced Unreal contend as possible since that’s my preferred engine:
Character customization, multiplayer, cutscenes, a melee combat system and other difficult things could all be included.

I also like the tracks that cover the stuff besides the game itself, as a beginning dev this is an area in which you can lose focus rather quickly.

I have not found any better courses on unreal C++ than yours, and I’m looking forward to the next couple of years with your contend :smiley:

1 Like
#9

Why, out of interest?

By the way, is this post lagging or crashing your browser tab for anyone else?

#10

yes, it crashes my Chrome.

#11

I like this plan including the biz track. An area I don’t need yet though.

Viewing on mobile and it’s OK.

#12

I love the setup you have here! It reminds me of a college game programming, game design, and game art course rolled into one. As a matter of fact, I would much rather have you, Michael, and Sam as instructor that some of my current ones. I will have to say that I like @VictorBurgos suggestion at the end about the 5 different breakdowns, but I can see where you would add the sound to the Art area… I come from a family of musicians and I was a DJ for years, music is art.

The main question I have for that is how are you guys planning to do it? Will it be courses on places to find royalty free music? Will it be a course on how to create midi music with a keyboard? Or will it be a course on using music loop software? I personally suggest the last. A piece of software like Fruity Loops, or FL Studio as it is called now, is amazing for making your own music. It does cost for the full version, but anyone serious about their own game music will see it as worth it.

Video of FL Studio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cWQbH3llx8&feature=youtu.be

Main Website: http://www.image-line.com/flstudio/

As far as the rest goes… absolutely love it. Always got your back Ben when it comes to the wonderful content you and the team are trying to teach us! Can’t wait!

#13

Thanks Noise. The idea is to spiral around according to your needs. I’ll whip-up a diagram.

1 Like
#14

FL Studio is my go to :wink:

#15

Although thinking about it. My task management skills are pretty dire. If I was able to organise myself I might actually be able to do the things that I actually want to do! Perhaps that should be a starting course!

#16

We’ll aim to provide a self-assessment system that lets you fill-in your “wheel of life” for these 9 areas. Almost exactly unlike this…

… once you have this for each of the 9 courses, you can then craft your own journey through the courses. There’s almost a logical order, something like this…

  1. Personal development L1 (so you can start)
  2. Game design L1 (get the vision)
  3. 2D art (concept images to communicate idea)
  4. Business L1 (sell the early idea)
  5. Learn to code L1 (make the early prototype)
  6. 3D art L1 (simple placeholder assets)
  7. Audio L1 (get the sound in early)
  8. Architecture & systems L1 (customise the engine a little)
  9. Technical art L1 (automate your workflow to save time)

… then ship what you have (at least to friends and family), and move onto Level 2 in the same order and so-on. A level may simply correspond to a section in the course, or multiple sections.

Imagine Hercules. He is great at getting things started, and rubbish as finishing things (personal dev level 1). He knows nothing about game design (level 0), is a business ninja (level 3) but can’t code for **** (level 0). He would buy the courses he’s level 0 at to start with (game design and coding), take them to the end of level 1 until he’s gone round the loop, then repeat, filling-in courses as needed.

We could also provide a membership / support system to help hold you to account, asses progress, match you up with people who have skills you choose not to develop, etc.

That’s the general plan, if you like it we’ve then got to work out how to get from our current portfolio to there over the next 3-4 years.

3 Likes
#17

I like this vision is being shared and that the community can shape it. Very excellent.

I agree with Victor who suggests that design shouldn’t be placed under a track named business. They are indeed quite different. The solution would be to either rename the track to something that covers each, or to split them out. Much of running a successful game business is linked to having a remarkable and business-worthy design, but I think game design is more ubiquitous than having it just pinned to business outcomes. Developers and Artists can usually benefit from game design skills, but not necessarily from business reality skills. Likewise, there are many things a designer will do (level design, tuning and balancing, story, character development, playtesting, sitting and thinking about what would make the player excited, and so on) that is not necessary for a purely busines person to be involved with.

I see 2 buckets of “game design” and “game production” which can either be grouped into the one umbrella (ie. game design and production) or split out into their own track.

If we were to follow the structure of a game team, there tend to be 4 main disciplines:

  • Programmers
  • Artists
  • Game Designers
  • Producers
    Anything in the “biz” bucket usually falls on Producers’ shoulders in larger teams (or a “producer-type person”).
    A one-man Indie will obviously do all roles.
    Teams of around 3 or 4 often have the producer and designer merged into one role as the “everything else” guy.
    Teams of 2 will merge a few things, for example one person might be responsible for programming and gameplay design, the other is responsible for art, user interface design, marketing and business administration.

As for audio, it tends to sit in its own space. Depending upon community demand it may or may not be a course that is offered. If I was to put it anywhere in the 4 categories above (and like I say, it belongs on its own, but if we had to put it somewhere) then I’d put it under design.

2 Likes
#18

I like the sound of that. Will be interested how you can craft the course though with Udemy as that just lends to viewing the videos of each course/section one after the other.

#19

I would advocate thinking of these streams as “tasks and actions” rather than people.
On small Indie teams you are best served having people who can do multiple things, not just art or programming or design or business or audio. The bigger the team, the more people must specialise (ie. to be the best dang rendering programmer or 3D prop artist, or mission designer, etc) but on smaller teams I think we can help people fulfil multiple roles across multiple disciplines. Three streams is a good number, but not necessarily because you need 3 people on a team.

1 Like
#20

See my detailed post with the long numbered list. Basically you take a section or two on Udemy, move onto the next track, and repeat. Follow our examples, then go apply what you learn to your actual game.

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