New Simulation and Game Development courses offered by VGCC


VGCC student Dustin Starnes plays “Vanguard Dreamer,” a video game that he helped create himself, in a VGCC computer lab. (VGCC photo)

VGCC student Dustin Starnes plays “Vanguard Dreamer,” a video game that he helped create himself, in a VGCC computer lab. (VGCC photo)

New Simulation and Game Development courses will be offered at Vance-Granville Community College during the fall semester, which begins Aug. 15, after the college’s Board of Trustees added a two-year degree track in the growing information technology career field. VGCC previously only offered first-year courses toward a similar degree, but now the full degree is available.

The new second-year courses on the fall schedule include: Simulation/Game Audio/Video (SGD 164), which teaches students how to produce and edit audio and video for their projects; Mobile Simulation/Game Programming I (SGD 168), which covers programming, performance tuning, animation, sound effects, music and mobile networks; Simulation/Game Level Design (SGD 174), which includes topics such as level design, architecture theory, modeling for 3D engines and texturing methods; and 3D Modeling II (SGD 214), which introduces the tools used to create and animate advanced three-dimensional models.

Only the last course has a prerequisite, 3D Modeling (SGD 114). The others are open to any VGCC student. More new courses will come in the spring semester. All the courses are offered on VGCC’s Main Campus in Vance County. The college has not only specialized simulation software but also hardware such as a 3D printer and 3D scanner. Faculty members are interested in purchasing more such equipment as demand for the training grows.

Dustin Starnes of Henderson is among the Simulation & Game Development (SGD) students who was considering transferring to another college but is now glad that he can complete his studies at VGCC. Starnes made the President’s List for the spring semester, meaning that he had a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Recently, he became one of the first VGCC students to earn a Simulation and Game Development Design Fundamentals certificate, as he continues working toward his degree. Starnes plans to take three more SGD courses in the fall.

“I enrolled in Simulation & Game Development in 2015 because I’m a ‘gamer’ myself, but I didn’t know the first thing about how to make my own video games,” Starnes said. In the spring semester, he made his first original game, as a class project with classmates Johnathan Davis, Zachary Lambertz, Tori Jones and Aron McGee, for a course taught by Yolanda Yoder. “It was a good experience,” Starnes recalled. “Part of my role on the team was to be the art director, so I made the animations. I enjoyed learning to use programs like Adobe Photoshop.”

The five students, working individually while communicating regularly with the other design team members, completed the game, entitled “Vanguard Dreamer,” over a period of almost a month. “I’ve always wanted to create something, see people play it and enjoy it, and see my name in the credits,” Starnes said. He said that the adventure game, which he describes as “pretty hard to beat,” features a hero facing five “bosses” (in video-game terminology, villains who are controlled by the computer, not by the player), each inspired by one of the student designers.

Along with VGCC’s new course offerings comes a new name for the degree: “Information Technology – Simulation & Game Development Track.” Other Information Technology degree tracks are IT Business Support Track, IT Networking & Security Track, and IT Web Design & Support Track.

“We are so excited to add these courses, because this will open up more opportunities for our students to gain skills that are being used in a variety of fields, not only for entertainment but also for other industries, the military, educational institutions, medicine and more,” said VGCC Information Technology program head Faith Harris. She noted that jobs for graduates are available nearby as designers, artists, animators, programmers, testers, quality assurance analysts and administrators.

For more information on the new courses and other VGCC Information Technology offerings, contact Faith Harris at (252) 738-3235 or harrisf@vgcc.edu.