The Signal School · mass media, journalism & screen
Game Design & Interactive Media
Games as designed systems: rules, feedback, and why play holds attention that lectures lose.
The core vocabulary of the discipline — mechanics, dynamics, feedback loops, and choices that feel like they matter.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~20 hours
Unit I — What a Game Is
Rules, goals, and voluntary obstacles · Mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics · The core loop: the thirty seconds you repeat
Unit II — Choice and Consequence
Interesting decisions versus calculations · Risk, reward, and information · Feedback loops: runaway leaders and rubber bands
Unit III — Balance and Feel
Tuning numbers without losing identity · Randomness: input versus output luck · Game feel: the juice that sells the rules
Architecture for play — sightlines, pacing, teaching through layout, and spaces that explain themselves.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~18 hours
Unit I — Reading Space
Sightlines, landmarks, and weenies · Gating, keys, and the critical path · Light and color as direction
Unit II — Teaching Through Layout
Introduce, practice, twist, test · The safe first encounter · Difficulty curves across a level
Unit III — Building and Testing
Blockouts before beauty · Watching players get lost · Iterating without restarting
Story the player co-authors — branch structures, environmental storytelling, and choices with real weight.
Syllabus · 2 units · ~16 hours
Unit I — Structures
Branch, bottleneck, and the illusion of choice · State tracking: the story remembers · Time and pacing when the player controls both
Unit II — Story Beyond Dialogue
Environmental storytelling: the room as narrator · Barks, logs, and found documents · Ludonarrative: when rules and story disagree
Finding the fun cheaply — paper prototypes, honest playtests, and killing your favorite mechanic early.
Syllabus · 2 units · ~12 hours
Unit I — The Cheapest Version
Paper, dice, and index cards as game engines · One question per prototype · Faking systems with a human computer
Unit II — Watching Players
Running a playtest without coaching · What players do versus what they say · Deciding what to change, and changing one thing
Design without a compiler — the mathematics and materials of board and card games, from theme to table.
Syllabus · 2 units · ~14 hours
Unit I — Mechanisms
Worker placement, drafting, engine building · Probability at the table: dice and deck math · Player count and downtime
Unit II — From Kitchen Table to Box
Theme and mechanics: which comes first · The rulebook: the hardest writing in games · Blind testing and publishing paths