GDD 1 (2018/19)

Game Design and Development 2018

Past Games: itch.io 2017 – itch.io 2018

  • Schedule (tentative)
    • 12.10. – Course Introduction, About Games
    • 23.10. – extra lecture – Meeting Experts – Josh Sawyer – 19:00, i7
    • 09.11. – Game Prototyping, Game Design Document, Send First Game Idea (Abstract max 300 char)
    • 16.11. – no lecture
    • 23.11. – Game Dev Process, Send Design Document
    • (26-30.11. Tutoring Interviews )
    • 30.11. – Game Engines Overview
    • 07.12.- Game Art (Modelling in Blender)
    • 21.12. – Send individual assignments
    • 11.01. – Prototype Discussion, Submit First Prototype
    • 18.01. – AI in Games + Send QA Feedback
    • 24.01. -Global Game Jam start
    • 01.02. – no lecture,
    • 08.03 – Submit Final Games + Finale Presentations
  • Guidelines
    • A: Diversity
    • B: Accessibility
    • C: Humanity
  • QA Strategy
    • Some instructions/tips for your testing sessions. You should test the (1) experience, the usability, and (3) QA (alias bugs).
  1. Game Design (Player Experience)
  • Fun fun fun?
  • Confused/bored/frustrated..?
  • Designgood?
  • Ideaclear?
  • Mechanics?
  • Level too long/short…
  • Do you understand the game?

2. Usability

  • Interface etc intuitive and easy to use?

3. Quality Assurance (Severe Bugs)

  • Bugs, bugs, bugs

Provide a small report (.txt file, or excel sheet) with a list of issues you’ve found:
number + type of issue (number 1-3) + description of issue + severity of this issue (1 EXTREMELY BAD – 3 NICE TO HAVE) + tips for improvement,
which you should send by Fri 26th (11:59 AM) to the group you’ve tested + gdd@iicm.edu

e.g.
#4-1-the game controls are not clear-1-explain the controls in the start screen
#5-3-the game crashed when driving 100 times into the tree-1-fix the bug

Individual Assignment

Details:

Deadline: Dec 14th 23:59.

Group Assignment

2.11. send email with the group names.
9.11.: send email describing ideas (max 300 characters)

23.11.: send in first draft of game design document (living document) -> recommendation: Overleaf (tutoring interviews)
11.1.: submit first prototyxpe (tutoring interviews)
18.1.: send QA feedback
8.3.: final submission

Details Final Submission / Presentation

  • Schedule
    14:00 – 17:00 Game Pitches/Presentations
  • Presentation
    Short “pitch” (max. 4-5 minutes!) – try to “sell” your game/game idea; you can show your video or play the game life (or both if time).
  • Exhibition
    please bring your own equipment for the exhibition. In case you are missing HW contact jpirker in advance.
  • Submission:
    • Join TUGameDev 2019 at itch.io, create your own site for your game and upload/fill in the content of your game : https://itch.io/jam/tugamedev-2019
      Example how your created itch.io page could look like.
    • Submit Printout (printed!) + DVD in a binder
      • Printout containing:
        • Title page: Game title + who worked on this game (+ matr.nr)
        • Your final Game Design Document
      • DVD containing:
        • readme.txt with the following information, that we can feature your games on the website:
          (1) short game description
          (2) all names + matr. nr
          (3) Technologies used
          (4) Credits
          (5) Link to build for feature on website (such as on https://gamelabgraz.com/games/)
        • .tex files from all individual assignments
        • digital Game design document
        • 4-6 screenshots
        • a small video of the gameplay (ca 2-3 minutes)

         

Books Recommendations for this course

This is my personal recommendation for a reading list. And also a list of books I use for the lecture.

*** Jane McGonigal – Reality is Broken One of my favorite books. Jane McGonigal gives some inspirations and ideas of how to use games in different contexts. Reads like a novel and avoids theoretical aspects.
*** Jesse Schell – The Art of Game Design This is the book I am using a lot for my lecture. Very good summary of the most important design aspects from different points of view (technical aspects, player psychology, all different design things).
*** Scott Rogers – Level Up (2nd Edition) Also a very good design on game design. I’ve especially enjoyed the bonus chapters with inspirational lists for environments, game mechanics, and different templates as an inspirational resource for your games.
** Jeremy Gibson – Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development This book gives also a very nice introduction to game design techniques, but in a more practical manner. The main part of this book is a unity and C# tutorial.
** Raph Koster – A Theory of Fun I simply love the style of this book. It has comics and sketches 😉
* Flow – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Wonderful book (THE book) about the flow experience with neat examples from all different fields.
* Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman – Rules of Play Very interesting book on game design with a lot of practical examples. Note: Amazon credit me a small referral amount, should you purchase a book after following these links.