I am the teaching assistant for
Comp 160 (Introduction to Game Programming) at Rice University in Houston, Texas. You can view the class schedule on the linked website. The Monday labs are taught using C#/XNA GS (at the moment, most labs that haven't occurred yet this semester have no link because we are in the process of updating them from XNA 2.0 to XNA 3.0), while the Tuesday/Thursday classes are taught with
Mathematica. The schedule progression may be useful to you, despite being only a single semester.
The general progression of the class is:
1) Learn mathematical concepts in
Mathematica -> Implement the concepts in XNA
2) Create an arcade game (similar in complexity to
Gradius,
Galaxian,
Robotron 2084, etc.)
3) Design a more complex game, and create a pitch sheet (textual equivalent of an
Elevator Pitch) and demo of basic game functionality
The students who continue in the spring semester and take Comp 460 (Advanced Game Programming) will use the game designs from the end of Comp 160 as the basis for a single semester-long project creating a game. Rather than a single-person project like the Comp 160 arcade game, the Comp 460 project is with a small team, usually 3-4 people (including an art student, since the class is crosslisted with Arts 460).
The project presentations in both Comp 160 and Comp 460 are presented to a panel of judges which includes people from
Pi Studios, a local game company. While I doubt you could get any of the Pi guys to come see you in Arizona, if you're able to get someone from the game industry to come to your class for a guest lecture or to help judge final projects or something, I'm sure the students would be psyched. :)
