2027 Course Applications
Historically the game design courses were extremely competitive to get into. During COVID, we were having to turn away 2 out of every 3 students that were interested in the course. This required us to introduce applications for the course.
In recent years, as computer science enrollments have decreased, it has gotten a lot easier to get into the course. We are now at the point where every student who is flexible with their schedule can get a spot in the course. Flexibility is the key; we only have so many spots in the 12:20 sections for either course and those sections still fill up.
With that said, we still require students to fill out an application because that is how we guarantee that the teams are balanced. The application is a place for you to tell me about your skills so that I can find a team that complements you. Even with generative AI, you are not going to get very far on a team of all programmers and no designers.
When applying for the course, understand that that the workload for the game design courses is quite significant. In both the introductory and advanced courses, you are expected to commit an average of 10 hours a week (outside of class) towards your game. If you are unable to commit to this because of a heavy workload, then you should consider applying in a later semester.
Application Process
The applications are available online via the links below for each course. As they are Google forms, you must have a Google account to fill them out. Applications are restricted to currently enrolled Cornell students.
The courses 3152 and 4152 require separate applications (for graduating seniors applying to both). On the other hand, 5152 does not require a different application than the one for 4152. There is also one application for each course, regardless of whether you wish to take the CS or INFO offerings. The difference between these courses (how they are assessed, and the restrictions on the student roles) will be explained upon admission to the course, allowing each student to make the choice at that time.
The deadline for all applications is December 21, 2026. While we will accept applications after that date, priority will be given to students who apply by the deadline. Admission decisions will be made by the end of the second week of January. Students should expect to receive news about the status of their applicationat that time.
Graduating Seniors
If you are a graduating senior who is not remaining to complete an MEng or MPS degree, then you will have lower priority than first year students for the introductory course CS/INFO 3152. However, we are often able to move graduating seniors to the advanced course (CS/INFO 4152) and group them with a more experienced team. Furthermore, the advanced course also satisfies the Technical Writing Requirement. Therefore, we encourage all graduating seniors to apply for both courses if it fits their schedule. As long as you satisfy one of the prerequisites other than CS/INFO 3152, you will be admitted.
Graduate Students
Graduate students (including MEng students in a technical field, as well as MPS students in Information Science) are only permitted to take CS/INFO 5152. They are not permitted to take the 4000-level version of the advanced class, and they are not allowed to take the introductory course at all. Graduate students are exempt from all course pre-requisites, though they are expected to demonstrate competency in relevant skills through their application.
External Members
Occasionally, teams like to add an additional person who is not a full-time member of the team. Typically, this is a person who is working on asset creation, such as a back-up artist or a composer. This person cannot join the course full time because either the credit load and time commitment is too high (in the case of a back-up artist) or because of unsatisfied prerequisites (e.g. a composer with insufficient programming or UX design experience). Such students are permitted to join a team as an external member.
External members receive either CS 4998 or INFO 4998 credit for the course. Credit hours are negotiable, but the standard expectation is 2.5 hours of work per week for each credit hour assigned. External members are not required to attend classes, but we recommend that they do attend critique sessions whenever possible. If you would like to be considered for this option, please note this in the application.
CS/INFO 3152
CS/INFO 3152: Introduction to Game Development is the introductory course in game design and development. This is a 5 credit course. It is 4-credits in either CS or INFO (depending on your choice of course), plus one additional credit in ENGRC 3152: Communication for Game Development. All students must enroll in both classes, regardless of whether or not you need to meet the Technical Writing Requirement. The time commitment of the course remains the same. The course still meets 5 days a week. The only difference is that you will receive one more credit for your additional hard work this semester.
This course takes a maximum of 12 game design teams. At a maximum of 8 students per team, this means that the class is capped at 96 students. The typical breakdown of a team is four programmers, two artist/character designers, one UX designer, and either a composer or extra programmer.
Because students enrolling in this class are new to GDIAC, the application is a bit involved. You might be intimidated by a lot of questions that you cannot answer. Do not worry; no one is going to be able to do everything. The purpose of the application is to get enough information to ensure that we have as diverse a class as possible.
CS/INFO 4152
CS/INFO 4152: Advanced Topics in Game Development is the follow-up course. It is intended for students who have taken CS/INFO 3152, though it is open to graduating seniors who statisfy some other pre-requisite of the course. This is a 4 credit course. It is 3-credits in either CS or INFO (depending on your choice of course), plus one additional credit in ENGRC 4152: Communication for Advanced Game Development. All students must enroll in both classes, even though most of you have already satisfied the Technical Writing Requirement. As with CS/INFO 3152, this extra hour is a primarily time for creating and receiving feedback for the design documents.
This course takes a maximum of 9 game design teams. At a maximum of 8 students per team, this means that the class is capped at 72 students. The typical breakdown is the same as 3152. That is, four programmers, two artist/character designers, one UX designer, and either a composer or extra programmer.
All interested students must apply to CS/INFO 4152, even those that previously took CS/INFO 3152. However, the application for students that took the introductory course is quite short; we mainly need to know the type of game you want to work on and your choice of team members.
CS/INFO 5152
CS/INFO 5152: Advanced Topics in Game Development is the graduate-level version of CS/INFO 4152. You should only sign up for this version if you are a graduate student, or need this course for early admission to an MEng or MPS program in the Bowers College of Computing. Students in CS/INFO 5152 will be given extra assessments and activities to demonstrate their mastery of the subject material, beyond what is assigned in CS/INFO 4152.
The application process for this course is identical to CS/INFO 4152. Indeed, if you are admitted to the class, you will be put on a team with those students. However, course enrollment is different. While CS/INFO 5152 is also a 4 credit course, all four credits are in either CS or INFO (depending on your choice of course). There is no 5000-level ENGRC course for graduate students. However, assessment is different for graduate students representing the increased number of credits. In particularly, graduate students are expected to take a larger role on their team.
Generative AI Policy
The use of generative AI in game development is extremely controversial. We find that there are some students that are really excited to use these tools and others that want us to forbid them. For this reason, people are often interested in knowing our generative AI policy before they apply.
Because we want to empower students to use the best tools they have available, our courses do allow generative AI. However, we follow Steam’s policy for disclosure. Any player-facing content, be it pre-generated or live-generated, must be disclosed in all materials you create for your game. However, efficiency tools such as agentic coding do not need to be disclosed. You may use them as you wish (though we find that they are not always as easy-to-use as students think they are).
With that said, we know that there are students who do not even like using generative AI for coding. And ultimately your team must agree on how much generative AI you are all willing to use in development. So one of the things that the application will ask you is your tolerance for generative AI. We want to make sure you are on a team with like-minded students so that you can produce your best work.
