Game Design Curriculum
Game design (whether computer or even board games) is a valuable topic to learn even if you never make a real game. If you make any kind of <i>thing</i> that people use, learning a little about how to think like a game designer can help you make things that are more rewarding and pleasant to use.<p>One way to think of videogames is that they are <i>useless software</i>. Imagine a word processor that couldn&#x27;t save or print files. Or a compiler that didn&#x27;t generate executables that ran on any machine but your own. Why would anyone ever use such a pointless thing?<p>Well, games are in many ways exactly that. They don&#x27;t really touch any part of the outside world or produce anything materially useful. They&#x27;re self contained. So why do people sink time into them even though they can&#x27;t get anything tangible in return? It&#x27;s because the process of using the software itself—playing the game—is so <i>intrinsically</i> enjoyable.<p>If you can learn a little bit of that and apply it to software that <i>does</i> do something useful, you can end up with the kind of programs that build devoted fanbases.