Influenced by my time as a working game designer, I take an iterative approach to course development. At the conclusion of each class, I dedicate time to writing a short post-mortem about what was effective and what wasn’t, considering both student feedback and my own assessment of the course’s success. The next time I teach that class, I incorporate that feedback to improve its design and delivery. I am constantly revising and iterating on each of my classes to meet the evolving needs of students and ensure my curriculum is up to date, referencing new games and research to provide students with the most up-to-date knowledge possible.
I have a wealth of experience designing new classes for both graduate and undergraduate students. I have also worked with colleagues to design and propose a new MFA in Game Design and Interactive Media at the University of Montana. Finally, I am familiar with proposing undergraduate classes that fulfill general education requirements.
Sample Curricula
Courses
*Unless otherwise noted, I developed curriculum for all classes listed below.
Graduate Classes
HCID 500 – Design Perspectives. In this class, students are introduced to the design perspectives encountered most often in human-centered interaction design. We explore the foundations of design practice through reading case studies that offer us different histories, frames of reference, and interpretations of the “best” way to design interactive media. Students learn about co-design, participatory design, action research, deity-based design, user-centered design, and humanity-centered design. In-class design challenges offer grads an opportunity to employ these perspectives. Syllabus available upon request.
MART 578 – Grad Studio: Game Production. This course teaches grad students about project management and production tools for game development. Students learn about methods and tools like Agile, Trello, Notion, and more. To gain practical experience, students work together to create a small game prototype, with each student serving as project manager for a few weeks and leading sprint meetings, writing briefs, and more. Syllabus available upon request.
MART 521 – Game Analysis and Theory. Students learn how to formally analyze games as an artistic medium, developing a methodological toolkit they can employ to conduct games research. This course covers methods and theories from adjacent disciplines like film, media studies, and literature, learning about concepts like immersion and presence, identification, semiotics, remediation, and more. Students leave with an informed vocabulary they can use to talk and write about games academically at a graduate level. Syllabus available upon request.
Undergraduate Classes
GDD 604 – Career Development in Games. This course helps prepare students for finding and applying for jobs in the games industry and related sectors. We discuss how to successfully network in-person and virtually, how to make resumes and cover letters, design a portfolio, and an online social media presence. We also discuss how to negotiate contracts and IP ownership and read NDAs. Finally, students learn how to overcome challenges awaiting them after hire, such as cross-cultural communication, discrimination, and layoffs. Syllabus available upon request.
MART 491 – Game Studio. This class serves as a capstone project / senior project for game design students in their final year. Students are put together into small groups and work together under the supervision of a faculty member to design and develop a game. They follow all steps of the game production process, moving through ideation into preproduction, production, and finally postproduction. They deploy their games on Steam and other platforms of their choice. This course rotates among GDIM faculty; syllabus available upon request.
MART 363 – Level Design. Students learn how to craft evocative, interactive digital spaces. This class draws on architecture, film, theater, aesthetics, storytelling, psychology, and game design to help students craft immersive gameplay experiences. We look at games every week that illustrate class concepts. Students put what they’ve learned into practice by actively building levels throughout the entire semester in Unreal Engine 5, gaining familiarity with the level production process. Syllabus here. See a sample week’s worth of content here.
MART 361 – Serious Games. This seminar course surveys the arenas in which games are used for purposes other than entertainment, such as healthcare, training simulations, educational games, and more. We also explore the role of games in society, examining player communities, accessibility, and the socio-cultural contexts of games. Students are exposed to games research methods and then work in a group to design a serious game, implement an in-game assessment piece, consider play contexts, and more. Syllabus here.
MART 360 – History, Ethics, and Theory of Games. Situated within applied ethics, this class surveys the classic ethical schools of thought including Kantian ethics, utilitarianism, and relativism among others. Additionally, we learn about non-traditional ethical frameworks, like Daoism and the ethics of care, as well as game-specific concepts like abusive game design, the magic circle, and players as moral agents. Students apply these frameworks to ethical issues in the games industry like dark patterns, cheating, copyright, generative AI, unionization, representation, and more. Their midterm project involves working with a partner to prepare a debate on a class topic, and their final paper asks them to use an ethical school of thought to guide their discussion of what they, personally, believe to be the ethical responsibility of a game designer. Syllabus here.
MART 342 – Art & Science of Interactive Games. This course covers fundamental concepts from game studies and game design. Students learn about rules and mechanics, gameplay loops, rewards and feedback, avatars, art & audio, agency, narrative, and more. Throughout the semester, students play games and analyze how they illustrate or challenge class concepts. At the end of the semester, students prepare a design document that asks them to distill what they’ve learned into a game of their own. Syllabus here. See a sample week’s worth of content here.
MART 341 – Intro to Web Design. This class covers both design and usability from a design standpoint, as well as teaching students HTML, CSS, and a little bit of JavaScript. Students learn how to build their own websites from scratch and host them on GitHub. I revised a curriculum that was provided to me; I did not develop this class from scratch. Syllabus available upon request.
IMED 325 – Interactive Design Perspectives. This is the undergraduate version of HCID 500, listed above, but with a stronger focus on games. Syllabus available upon request.
IMED 240 – Introduction to Interactive Media. We survey a broad spectrum of digital media in this class including but not limited to interactive fiction, interactive film & theater, interactive art, websites, social media, AR and VR, and mobile apps. Students learn how to design across a range of platforms and gain familiarity with key concepts related to interactive media, such as affordances and interactivity. I revised a curriculum that was provided to me; I did not develop this class from scratch.
IMED 215 – Intro to Game Studies and Design. This course exposes students to the conceptual foundations of digital games as an interactive media. We draw on a range of disciplines and approaches including media studies, sociology, film, and more. I revised a curriculum that was provided to me; I did not develop this class from scratch.
Ashley Rezvani 