Game Design Major

I got my BS in math education and took a lot of math classes. Combinatorics, statistics, calculus, etc... I thought one of the most useful math classes I took; however, was math history. We learned about where many of the mathematical ideas came from, why they were important, and what the world was like before they were discovered. It opened my eyes so much and has been helpful ever since.

If I was going into a boardgame major, I would like to take a class on the history of and cultural influences on boardgames. For example there is a very big difference between European games and American games, and I would like to see historically where these differences came from and what these differences are.

As far as the business side to boardgames, classes on producing a finished product. That means look at costs of manufacturing 100, 1000, 10000 games. Common packaging sizes, card sizes, things of that nature. How most games are distributed, things of that nature.

Definitely need to include classes on...

Marketing (crafted for the board game market)

Graphic Design (not so in dept as an art major would have but enough for them to be able to express what it is they want from their designers)

Business Law (contracts, liability, copyrights..etc)

Playtesting (which I think is the hardest part for people who want to design games who have never done it before)

I would add Game design theory. There is a lot of book about it. (for ex: "Game design workshop" and the "Art of game design")

Computer software: Knowing how to use for example: Inkscape/illustrator, Gimp/Photoshop and Scribus/Indesign for the graphic design of the game and the rule layout.

Computer project management: Have some idea how managing a computer software development works. Knows about iterations, debugging, etc. They might not need to learn programming logic.

Graphic design theory: The is some theory behind graphic design which talks about the best layout of object, how to chose colors, etc.

Psychology: There is probably a branch of psychology that could be better applied to games which could turn around the studying of experiences and feelings of players.

History of games: Get a general knowledge of what has been done in the past. Highlight innovative design or design revolutions. (Ex: the arrival of collectible card games)

Probability math: Like somebody suggested, I second this Idea.

That is all I can think of so far.

First off, I would definitely recommend probability math. After that, I feel like the classes that helped me the most during college have been computer programming ones, because they taught me the basics of how to run a computer simulation. I'm not sure how useful the mathematical topic "game theory" is, though I suppose there are elements in it that would be useful to know (such as what is a Nash Equilibrium, and why that makes for a particularly dull game). Maybe something in critical analysis of games (which might fall under playtesting)? Otherwise, it depends on the kind of game you're doing. I have a wargame with a deep story, that has benefitted from conversations with friends about history; I have a popcorn-level game about escaping from a spaceship, that has hardly (if at all) used anything I learned in school. (For the record, neither published yet, but *fingers crossed* maybe some day)

The thing I would put as a requirements is some kind of a capstone project, where students are required to design a game from scratch, and do as much with it in a year as the possibly can. Give them an advisor to monitor their progress, and probably find ways to set up playtests (perhaps with the other students). Once they get their game really solid, they are required to market it to board game companies, enter it into game design contests, or even try to self-publish it (although, realistically this might take more than a year). Give them a chance to get away from the theory, and maybe finish their college career with a title already under their belt.

I liked the books Challenges for Game Designers and A Theory of Fun For Game Design. The former is a text book for game design, and the latter is a good philosophical treatise on how games should be evaluated and what responsibilities game designers have as stewards of an emerging art.

Depending on when they start actually designing their game, you might playtesting to start semester 1. It shouldn't take a full semester to create a first draft of the rules, whereas it could realistically take more than a semester to tinker with the game until it works. It depends on when you'll actually have them start (i.e. if they'll spend 3/4 of the first semester discussing ideas, then they might not have time to playtest). And honestly, technical writing is important, but I feel like that's something that is overkill for the first draft rule book, and might be better for later iterations (after they stop scrapping half the rules every game). If anything, seeing what happens when you have an ill-written rule book might be a good learning experience.

And this might be a silly question, but if people are going to go and work for the gaming industry, what skills are people looking for on a resume? The comment I've always heard is they want to see a technical (math/science/engineering) major, and a vast know of the games that are currently out there right now. Does anyone have experience with this?

Out of curiosity, can I ask what school you teach at?

The author of this book, Ian Schreiber, offered free online course in board game design last year. You can find his blog here: http://gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com/

It uses that book as the course text, supplemented by the blog posts in a series of 20 "lectures" if you will.

I agree with most of the suggestions above, but the one i see missing is:

GEOMETRY

You can't make a board game with just squares, that's boring, and it gets way more complicated when you go beyond the friendly right angle.