[Note: To access chapter selection, click the fullscreen button or check out the video on the GDC Vault website] Brian Moriarty, the renowned Infocom and LucasArts veteran behind adventure games like Beyond Zork and Loom, believes that coding lies at the very core of good game design. Sure, understanding theory helps, but if you really want to make good games, he argues that you might want to learn a programming language or two. At the GDC Education Summit during this year's Game Developers Conference, Moriarty -- now a professor at Worchester Polytechnic Institute -- outlined how his course teaches students about game design, and it all begins with understanding how games work. Moriarty began his career in the industry as a programmer, and to him, that's what game design is. If you're going to design new gameplay mechanics, for example, you need to know how to put them together, and Moriarty decided that idea would become the basis for his own game design curriculum. "I decided that the fundamental activity for my students ought to be, must be...expressing game ideas in code." Next, Moriarty needed to find a game engine for his students, but unfortunately, the modern game engines on the market were too specialized or two complicated for a fresh-faced game design student, so Moriarty had to create something on his own. In the end, he came up with "Perlenspiel," a simple engine that allows fledgling designers to manipulate squares on a 16x16 grid to make interactive toys, puzzles, and even games. It's a simple tool, but in the end, it helped the students -- and Moriarty -- boil game design down to its most basic principles. To learn more about Moriarty's game design philosophy and his vision for the Perlenspiel engine, simply click the Play button on the above video, courtesy of the GDC Vault.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to all of this free content, the GDC Vault also offers more than 300 additional lecture videos and hundreds of slide collections from GDC 2012 for GDC Vault subscribers. GDC 2012 All Access pass holders already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription Beta via a GDC Vault inquiry form. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available via an online demonstration, and interested parties can send an email to Gillian Crowley. In addition, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault admins. Be sure to keep an eye on GDC Vault for even more free content, as GDC organizers will also archive videos, audio, and slides from upcoming 2012 events like GDC Europe, GDC Online, and GDC China. To stay abreast of all the latest updates to GDC Vault, be sure to check out the news feed on the official GDC website, or subscribe to updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS.