Teaching Games Level Design Using the StarCraft II Editor

Penelope Sweetser

doi:10.5204/jld.v6i2.120

Teaching Games Level Design Using the StarCraft II Editor

Penelope Sweetser

Abstract

Level design is often characterised as “where the rubber hits the road” in game development. It is a core area of games design, alongside design of game rules and narrative. However, there is a lack of literature dedicated to documenting teaching games design, let alone the more specialised topic of level design. Furthermore, there is a lack of formal frameworks for best practice in level design, as professional game developers often rely on intuition and previous experience. As a result, there is little for games design teachers to draw on when presented with the opportunity to teach a level design unit. In this paper, we discuss the design and implementation of a games level design unit in which students use the StarCraft II Galaxy Editor, reflect upon our experiences with respect to student feedback and peer reviews, and outline our plans for improving the unit in years to come.

Keywords

learning; teaching; assessment; educational technologies; feedback; evaluation; reflection; unit design

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/jld.v6i2.120

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