September 1, 2026 Winter 2026
Prototype by Yuta Tanaka where the player can interact with colorful circles. Eventually, Yuta made a game called Scramble Composer in which the interaction and the aesthetic were further developed.Expressive Design with Videogames is a class where students learn how to use traditional game design philosophies paired with the engine GameMaker to make whatever games they feel like. As many commercial games are only about a narrow group of topics, this class explores not only the design ideas in popular games, but also what can be outside of that limited scope. Game developers do not need a large team or budget in order to make a game. Many of the games made in this class are made within only a week! Most class sessions included a design lecture and discussion, workshops on how to use GameMaker, and show and tell of games that have been worked on in the previous week.
A surreal and glitchy game by Brandon English inspired by the MissingNo. glitch from Pokémon.Lectures included topics like goals and rewards, simulation and representation, art direction vs art style, playtesting, and the benefits of making small games. Each topic fostered lively discussion from the online class as many students would relate the lecture’s topics to experiences that they have had playing games in the past. One of my favorite topics was uncertainty. During this discussion, the teacher, Lawra Clarke, gave the class an exercise of how to customize the odds of dice with different numbers. This was interesting because it showed how randomization can be weighted to give different experiential qualities to games.
A colorful game by Chandler Moses where the player is at a party and can interact with other partygoers. Students of this class came from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some students had little to no programming experience. In this course, Lawra went over all the basics of how to make a 2D game with GameMaker. During the course, topics consisted of how to draw with code, different sorts of 3rd person character movement, non-player character behaviors, tilesets, asset implementation, and much more. Many of these skills were transferable as some students moved to different engines for later projects.
A simulation by Frank Flanagan where the player can create trains and train tracks. The trains and tracks can interact in surprising ways!Many projects would last a week or so in order to keep things fresh and to not be bogged down with overscoped ideas or complexity. Because of this, many of the games made in this class have a personal or idiosyncratic feeling. Projects topics were things like focusing on exploration without any other mechanics, everyday interactions where only the mouse can be used for control, making unique platformer physics, and ways to brainstorm and quickly prototype ideas with a group of people. One week, the class focuses on how to adjust variables to give different feelings of control to a platforming character. For example, how do you make a character feel floaty or like a hulking monster by changing a few variables?
A game by Blue Wallick where a worm slowly eats a leaf.By the end, a wide variety of games, toys, and prototypes were made. Games were made about working out at Planet Fitness without too many people looking at you, typing but the letters are giggly, a train simulation where the trains eat apples, a simulation of a caterpillar eating a leaf, and many more. Some of the games that were made in this class were the first games students had made, and some of the first published online! It was a great experience not only to learn or make games, but to get to know each other as well.
A game by Nica Ross where the player can simulate environmental catastrophe from the perspective of this cat napping.
Screenshots of the class meeting on Zoom, featuring both sections.