A new course in computer game design brings together artists, programmers, musicians, and writers who hone their individual expertise, gain cross-disciplinary skills, learn to work in diverse teams, produce an actual product, and have some fun while they're at it.

It's a Wednesday afternoon in mid-May and a standing-room-only crowd has gathered in the two computer labs on the third floor of Upson Hall, spilling out into the hallway. The open house visitors, mostly college students with a handful of school-aged kids and their parents added to the mix, have been drawn to the labs to test their skills against the creations of a collection of undergrads who have toiled all semester to create the computer games that are running on all of the PCs.

Chris Bandlow, a sophomore computer science major, leans over to explain the finer points and to offer a few strategic pointers to a fellow student playing Red Gear, a robot fighting game he helped to design. Leaving the player to navigate his robot through a series of obstacles on the screen while avoiding another robot in hot pursuit, Bandlow explains that developing the game in a nascent course at Cornell went way beyond just playing around.

"The class is fun, but it was a lot more work than I thought it would be," he says. "It was the first group project for me and most of the other students, so in that respect it was a good learning experience. We got to work on something that people can use and enjoy."

The Game Design Initiative at Cornell (GDIAC) is the brainchild of David Schwartz. He explains that the initiative is based on the model of other academic endeavors in that the components include instruction, research,and community service.

So how does a person with a PhD in civil engineering from SUNY Buffalo become a game design instructor? Schwartz explains that as a grad student he published two books on introductory computer skills, which led to teaching intro computer courses at Cornell. The game course was a natural outgrowth: tapping into student interests to motivate their learning. "There was so much interest in games among CS students that it made sense to pursue this," he says.

It was while serving as an adviser for the computer science student organization that Schwartz first conceived of a game class. Observing the club's game night — students in the lab playing com- mercial computer games — some faculty members expressed concern about the violent content and inappropriate treatment of ethnic groups and women portrayed in some of the games.

"The department wanted an educational aspect to the game nights," Schwartz recalls. "So students were asked to write research papers on violence in games and the positive and negative effects of playing them." Club members balked at the requirement and game night was cancelled.

But Schwartz's teaching instincts were sufficiently stimulated, and he decided that perhaps the best way to introduce an academic component was to have students create their own games. He approached the students, suggested a game design group, and found that they were interested, but that they, understandably, wanted academic credit for the work.

"I thought it would be fun to create a Cornell game class, and I spent a year looking into what it would take to offer undergraduate credit for it," says Schwartz. "There is a significant demand for game design in schools, companies, and the computer industry, and I thought we could do more than just offer a basic instruction course."

During the summer of 2002, Schwartz connected with Rama Hoetzlein ’01, a software engineer and an experienced game developer who graduated with a dual major in computer science and art. Hoetzlein suggested teaching an interdisciplinary course and introduced the technology (GameX) needed to make the collaborations with music, art, and CS possible.

Starting from scratch, the two men put their heads together and organized the first interdisciplinary computer game design course under the CS 490 research category. "Rama was able to offer his experience, and he also brought in art students," says Schwartz of his co-instructor. "We saw that students could produce some decent games during the first offering in fall 2002."

Hoetzlein cites the interdisciplinary nature of the course as a significant benefit for students, who get to work on tangible projects that they don't always have in other coursework."Tying in art and music with CS was critical," he says. "I believed that the connections could be made, but being able to provide an official course offering has exceeded our expectations."

Building on that initial success, the introductory course (part one)was offered again in the spring. But rather than focusing on instruction for the first half of the semester and spending the second half in actual game design, a second section was formed comprising students who had already completed part one. They would spend the entire semester designing games. Those interested in game research also were included in part two.

The interdisciplinary nature of the project inspired collaborations with faculty members across campus: Todd McGrain, an associate professor in the art department; David Borden, direc-tor of Cornell's Digital Music Program; and most recently, Xiaowen Chen, a visiting associate professor also in the art department. And music and art students join their peers on the Engineering Quad in game design teams.

Digital media have established a following among today's artists, notes Chen, particularly animation and game design. "I fully support interdisciplinary study, and this is a great way for art students to gain exposure to the field of engineering. It would be great if the course could be cross-listed in art and engineering, or if we could make game design an art class."

In fall 2003, Hoetzlein became the outreach coordinator for GDIAC and Mohan Rajagopalan, who holds master's degrees from Cornell in both mathematics and computer science, became the new co-instructor. Equally promising was a cash infusion from the General Electric Fund, which enabled Schwartz to pay Rajagopalan for his time. Full financial support for spring 2004 was provided by software giant Microsoft.

"We have learned from our experience,and from our mistakes, and the course is now much more organized. Research has become an integral part of the game design initiative, with graduate engineering students participating, and a community service component has been added, through participation by the Learning Web organization in Ithaca, which provides educational and occupational opportunities for youth in need of guidance.

"We place one or two of the younger people with each of the student groups, each of which has a community liaison, in part one," Schwartz says. "The kids don't learn how to program, but they can sit in on lectures, and in the groups they can help with character names, storylines, artwork, or music. It depends upon their interests."

To those who question the value of "playing games" for Ivy League students, Schwartz points out that the courses present a number of relevant challenges. For engineering students it's all about creating software. "Students can approach this from the programming angle and learn about artificial intelligence, networking, user interfaces, collision detection, and the engineering process using the C++programming language," he says.

For upper-level students, the courses offer an opportunity to apply what has been learned in algorithm courses, for example. "At one level, students learn how to design a very large software package, which is valuable skill," says Schwartz. "They learn how to design a product in a team setting, working with non-programmers."

Then there is the more abstract theory component, with a focus on the qualities that make a compelling game, the various types of games, and the social and artistic impacts of the finished products.

Rajagopalan explains that through-out the semester, instruction in a variety of topics, such as technical aspects, design issues, and production schedules, gives students a sense of the big picture in game design.

"Even if you don't believe that games are worthwhile, this is a unique opportunity because it brings students of different backgrounds and abilities together in the same room — artists, engineers, and musicians," he says. "The students want to make computer games, but don't always know what is involved."

Schwartz concurs, saying, "We want to give students a multi-disciplinary experience, letting them work with people in different fields, and we can do that because game design merges these different areas of study."

As might be expected, given the time constraints and the background knowledge of the students involved, the finished products are relatively simple. Most are arcade-oriented digital amusements, lacking the sophistication of 3D video game software designed for Play-station or Game Cube consoles. And players who check out the games available for download on the initiative's Web site  will see that there is nothing close to the murder and mayhem provided in consumer video games such as the wildly popular "Grand Theft Auto."

Instead, there are role-playing games featuring Japanese ninjas and samurai, fighting robots, spaceships, and curious characters who are warm and fuzzy or fat and funny. There is even a version of Chinese checkers and a text-only virtual-world design game in which players create their own environments, adding components such as lights, objects, and doors to a room and placing the characters within.

Students enjoy the course, says Hoetzlein, in large part because they are collaborating with students in other areas to create something unique and because they are gaining exposure to fields outside of computer science.

If anything, student enthusiasm runs a bit too high. "They always bite off more than they can chew and the projects are typically scaled back as the students learn their own limits," says Schwartz. "But that's good for them; they have to create their own homework and control their own projects instead of being told the details of what is expected."

The end result, says Rajagopalan, is that some groups do a more polished project than others. "You have to keep in mind that commercial games are developed by large teams that may take years to complete their projects. Our philosophy is to teach basic design principles and let the students do their own thing."

"This is the coolest thing that I've done at Cornell," says Colin Campbell, a CS major in the arts and sciences college who took both parts of the course. "I wasn't sure what to expect when I got into this, but I did learn how to create a game."

Campbell appreciated the free rein given to participants, and noted that learning C++programming, organizing software, and serving as project leader were among the valuable skills he acquired.

His first project was the spaceship game "Rampant Rampage." For part two of the course he served as lead designer and programmer for "Guys!," an innovative puzzle game in which both fat and skinny characters build a pathway using blocks with the goal of reaching an exit without falling and disappearing from the screen.

"We had art students on our team who don't know programming, but can create backgrounds," says Campbell. "I realized that it requires broad range of talents to make a compelling computer game."

Zach Shalla, a freshman CS major whose team created the "Blade of Honor " turn-based game featuring characters from feudal Japan, offers a similar take. "During the course we heard lectures on music,art,and artificial intelligence — things I did not usually think about when playing computer games."

The characters in Blade can hide, kill with a weapon, use Zen power to heal, and have stealth and ambush capabilities. But they have to follow the rules: a monk cannot attack or be attacked, for example, and the Samurai cannot launch a sneak attack from behind. Players who demonstrate more honor gain more functionality. Teamwork is a critical component.

As the group leader, Shalla says, his biggest challenge was getting everyone on the same page when the project started. "We had three programmers, an artist, a musician, and a high school student from the Learning Web program. It took a while to get organized, but I'm very pleased with the finished product," he says.

Schwartz's enthusiasm and thoughtful development of the courses have won over the decision-makers in the computer science department, who may have also been swayed by the number of students signing up for the game design courses. Part one will be a recognized course, emerging from the broad CS 490 undergraduate research label to be listed as CIS 290 (a preliminary version) in the summer and as CIS 300 in the fall.

The course listing describes both the technical aspects — software engineering, artificial intelligence, game physics, computer graphics, and networking — as well as the aesthetic and cultural ones — art and modeling, sound and music, history of games, genre analysis,  the role of violence, gender issues in games, game balance, and careers in the industry. The goal is to attract a mix of students who are computer scientists, artists, musicians, and writers. Each group has to meet specific prerequisites for taking the course, and their classroom contributions and evaluations will be based on their major.

"The CS department has been very supportive," says Schwartz. "We had to prove the academic merit of a game design course. The case we have made is that people love playing games — it's part of our nature — and we should be studying this."

Jay Wrolstad is a freelance writer in Ithaca.