Game Design Commons^™

Infrared Simulation, Sophia Zhou, Ashton Hoo, Tyler Ricks, Sebastian Fox, Kathy Phu

Undergraduate Research Posters

Infrared image recognition is more difficult than visible-spectrum recognition due to limited high-quality training data. This project addresses that challenge by generating simulated infrared images using temperature-driven rendering in Unreal Engine and other 3D software. These simulations can support applications such as health monitoring, heat detection in mechanical and structural systems, thermal regulation, and engineering process control.

Dungeon Escape, Andrew Begemann

Game Design

This game was developed during a GAM 56800 course taken in the first half of the 2025 school year. The game prototype features a player that moves though a procedurally generating dungeon collecting potions and fending off enemies until finding the key to the portal that lets them leave the dungeon. The whole game development process was followed, from game design document creation to compiling an installer/uploading to itch.io, as an in-depth study. Free assets were used from the unity assets store and chatGPT was used occasionally to supplement coding/scripting needs. The player character was modeled specifically for unity animation …

Aliens Over Earth, Stephen D. Ragsdale

Game Design

Welcome to Aliens Over Earth! In this classic style platformer game, you play as an alien invading Earth for resources necessary to save her planet! You get to fly around in an alien saucer and search for the mysterious blueprint book, while defending against guided missile launchers, and collecting satellite dishes that have the materials the alien requires. But don’t be too careless in your pursuit of saving your planet because there are still Earth’s defenses and they are very capable and will not hesitate to take you down. Although if your ship gets overwhelmed and destroyed by the encroaching …

Sk8er Skull, David Norton

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

Sk8r Skull is a single player video game where players must traverse the environment as a skull on a skateboard, in an effort to defeat the wizard who has stolen the rest of the skull’s body. Players must move, destroy, and grind their way through the level in order to reach the wizard. By traversing the area, players will learn the mechanics of the game, as well as some of the in-game world’s backstory. The production of Sk8r Skull was driven by examining game feel, and the “flow” state.

In The Light, Z Sarkissian

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

In The Light, a first-person adventure mystery video game, seeks to explore the process of grief and its effect on memory through experimental level design and game mechanics. Through atmospheric, experiential storytelling and a soundscape derived from my own home videos, I aim to guide the player through my own personal experience of learning to grieve the truth behind traumatic memories with the goal of supporting those who have been through similar struggles in life. Additionally, I aim to experiment with the idea of games as a space for memorialization; my project attempts to utilize the video game artifact as …

Shifting Perspectives With Procedural Modeling Techniques And Vertex Animated Textures For Real-Time Interactive Morphing, Stephanie Schulze

All Theses

As humans experience reality, they intake external stimuli using sensory receptors to process information, forming a perception. Perceptions are subjective and shape each individual’s reality. Naturally then, by changing one’s perceptions, their experience of reality is altered, for better or worse. To emphasize the idea that perception is malleable and encourage a mindset of questioning alternative ways to look at a situation, an interactive experience in Unreal Engine is developed where a dull cityscape morphs and transforms into a surreal oversized nature scene. Procedural modeling techniques are used to create a variety of morphing assets, while Vertex Animated Textures are …

Options, Matthew C. Mata

Graduate Artistry Projects and Performances

Difficult choices are a part of our everyday lives, and they only get harder as time goes on. Thankfully, we get to choose what those choices are in our lives. What we don't get to choose are the consequences that follow. To share what I mean, six interactive shorts were made so that people could watch and play with the storylines in an effort to show that we are all self-motivated and have agency within us.

Ideation And Iteration For Creatives, Sandee M. Chamberlain

KSU Distinguished Course Repository

This course addresses the development of visual literacy including concepting, initial approaches of creating an encompassing aesthetic, creating timelines for production, and exploring the refining aspects of creative production. Students will devise an advanced creative problem and provide a documented account of their creative journey to present as a process journal at the end of the course.

Building And Using A Character In 3d Space, Shasta Bailey

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The goal of this thesis was to take a character from concept to creation and animation. A variety of skills in 2D and 3D computer graphics were used in order to design and build the character for a 3D space. The character was taken from flat concept to 3D model, and then rigged with a skeleton in the 3D program Maya so that the character could be animated. The focus of the animation is a walk cycle.

Texture Mapping With Mudbox And 3ds Max, Joshua Holland

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to determine the intuitiveness of texture mapping and compressibility of files generated using Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 versus Autodesk Mudbox 2012. This will be used by anyone starting to learn how to texture map and who is comparing programs that have the capability to do so. This will save users time in researching which program is better suited for their needs.

This study investigated how Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 and Autodesk Mudbox 2012 compared in mapping textures to 3D models. A basic computer skills assessment test and an intuitive test was administered to twelve …