Video games, unlike movies or music, require a knowledge of programming languages. Video games are brought to life from scratch with programming languages like C++, the industry standard in programming languages. As a student of video game design, you'll be well-trained in all aspects of programming languages used to create video games. This will entail separate classes to teach you about programming graphics, game menus and interfaces, artificial intelligence, physics engines, and you'll most likely cap off the course by programming your very own unique, 2-D game.
A significant amount of your education will be focused on designing consoles. You'll learn about the hardware and software that allows consoles like the Xbox 360 to produce high-definition graphics, stereo sound and real-time online multiplayer environments. In these classes, you'll be taught the nuts and bolts of console functionality, from how to rate power supplies to different kinds of memory units and HD video output jacks. There's a much higher focus on hardware than software in these classes as console design is primarily a hardware issue.
However, you'll also learn how to program a console to autoplay inputted disks, differentiate between video, audio and interactive media, how to display real-time menu options and how to send and receive signals to player controllers.
As a digital graphic design student, you'll learn how to create lifelike, three-dimensional objects in programs like Direct X, the industry standard software. These classes are about the most basic element of video games: what players can see. You'll be taught how to create "models," three-dimensional blank creations. You'll then be taught to add textures and color palettes to these creations, working with concept artists to create fully realized 3-D video game characters, vehicles, etc.
You'll also learn how to animate these creations using real-time manipulation software and how to fine-tune the minute details of each of your creations to maximize their believability and realism.
Classes about being a concept artists will begin with basic artistry concepts: sketching, modeling, painting, color manipulation and basic tool usage. From there, you'll progress to more advanced art forms, like 3-D clay sculptures and joint ventures with graphic designers to create 3-D computer models. You'll learn everything from simply drawing out an artistic concept to fully realizing it in cutting-edge, three-dimensional graphics, complete with animations and possibly sound effects.
Since a programmer can't create a character from nothing, concept artists physically draw the game's characters, places and objects as reference material for the programmers. Along with an artistic director, a concept artist is responsible for the game's look, feel and memorable visual elements.
Each game must have a sound board, a lexicon of audio tied to specific elements of the game. In the video game industry, you're responsible for finding, creating or capturing the sound of every tiny aspect of the game, from a character's foot sliding over gravel to the sound of every weapon, vehicle, creature, machine, wind and the many other sounds crucial to establishing a believable environment for your players.
Your classes will begin with extensive study of the recording equipment itself. Input and output levels, gain, equalization, limiters, decibel pads and phantom power supplies are just some of the many aspects of the sound effect recording studio. Once you've mastered the basics of recording, you'll begin trying to capture sound effects for existing targets. You'll be tasked to provide sound effects for things like a laser beam, a spaceship, a boat creaking on the water or a rock tumbling down a hill. Eventually, you'll progress to creating sound effects for things that don't exist, and as such have no sound effects to capture.