Game Art & Design Roadmap

The Game Art & Design Pathway is a three-year program (18 units total). Each unit ends with a project, and every 3rd unit includes a larger checkpoint project. Students begin with an individual game concept, build assets and mechanics around it, and finish with a team-produced vertical slice capstone.

Standards Alignment

This pathway aligns with the California Arts, Media, and Entertainment (AME) Career Technical Education Industry Skills Framework (2024):

• Anchor Skills (1.0–12.0):
  Communication, technology use, critical thinking, collaboration, creative process, and career planning.

• Cross-Cutting Skills (13.0–16.0):
  Business/marketing, legal responsibility, content creation, and project management.

• Pathway Skills (17.0–20.0):
  From the Design, Visual, and Media Arts Pathway, Animation, Visual Effects, and Games focus area:

  • Skill building: art and design principles, modeling, rigging, animation, visual effects.
  • Process & practice: production pipelines, industry-standard software, teamwork.
  • Career exploration: roles such as game designer, animator, technical artist.
  • Advanced technology: real-time rendering, motion capture, scripting, IP protection.

Year 1 – Foundations

Unit 1: Computer Literacy & Career Exploration Unit 2: Graphic Design Fundamentals Unit 3: Concept Art Basics Unit 4: Intro to Blender Unit 5: Animation Basics Unit 6: Character Design

Year 2 – Character Production & Unreal Pipeline

Unit 1: Character Modeling I Unit 2: Character Modeling II Unit 3: Character Rigging & Preparation Unit 4: Unreal Engine Basics Unit 5: Environment Design in Unreal Unit 6: Blueprint Scripting Basics

Year 3 – Capstone Production

Unit 1: Narrative Design & Game Design Document Unit 2: Team Pitch & Pre-Production Unit 3: Prototyping & Outlining Learning Objectives Unit 4: Vertical Slice Build (Alpha) Unit 5: Vertical Slice Build (Beta + Marketing) Unit 6: Final Vertical Slice & Showcase