IAT 410: Advanced Game Design


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Day Topics Covered Deliverables/Resources

Week 1
9/4

Lecture
Introduction to the Class
Writing a Concept Document
Lab
Review of Game Mechanics through a game play session

Materials: MDA Workshop, URL:

Materials: Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

Week 2
9/11
(Magy out of town)

Lecture
No lecture
Lab
Time for idea inception

DUE: blog URL

Materials: Chapter 6

Week 3
9/18

Lecture
Introduction to Modding and Game Engines
Game Development Process and Pipleline
Lab
Presentation of concept and critique
Voting on Ideas

DUE: Concept Document and Presentation (individual)

Materials: Supplied in lecture

Week 4
9/25
(Magy is out of town, Eric take over lecture)

Lecture
Lecture by Michael Capps President, Epic Games (Video Tapped) on Next Generation Game Developers
Lab
Tools: 2D game Engine: Game Maker

Class Assignment: Game in GameMaker (individual)

Week 5
10/2

Lecture
Paper Prototyping and play testing
Lab
Tools: 2D game engines: Torque 2D

Materials: Chapter 7

Class Assignment: Game in Torque 2D (individual)

Week 6
10/9

Lecture
3D Game Engines, a deeper look at the pipeline

Lab
Tools: 2D game engines: XNA and Torque X

Class Assignment: Game in XNA (individual)

Week 7
10/16

Lecture
Lecture by Cooleen McCreary (video tapped) on Living the Dream being in the Game Industry

Lab
Tools: Torque 3D

DUE: Paper Prototype of the Game AND playtesting report (you will need to reserve time in the lab and get some people scheduled to play your game. You need at least 3 play sessions, i.e. 3 people playing your game)

 

Week 8
10/23

Lecture
Paper prototypes presentation

Lab
Tools: 3D game engine

Materials: Supplied in Lecture

DUE: Paper prototype Critiques (in blog, individual) DUE on 10/30

Class Assignment: Game in Torque 3D

Week 9
10/30

Lecture
Paper prototypes presentation
Lab
Time to work on Prototype 1

DUE: Paper prototype Critiques (in blog, individual) DUE on 11/6

Week 10
11/6

Lecture
Paper prototypes presentation
Lab
Time to work on Playtesting the prototype

 DUE: Paper prototype Critiques (in blog, individual) DUE on 11/13

Week 11
11/13

Lecture
Paper Prototypes presentation

Lab
Refining prototype

Week 12
11/20

Lecture
Ludology vs Narratology debate
Lab
Polishing

Materials:
The article that started it all
Extra:

DUE: Prototype 1 AND playtesting report ( you will need to reserve time in the lab and get some people scheduled to play your game. You need at least 5 play sessions, i.e. 5 people playing your game)

Week 13
11/27

Work on Polishing Games

No Dues

Week 14
12/4

Work on Polishing your game

DUE: (1) playable Game (not final, but close to final),
(2) 5-page document on the game, description of the game mechanics and concept, you can use MDA as your framework for decribing your game, and
(3) What you learned through the process of creating the game and working with the engine, i.e. reflection on the process. (4) Avi non-playable movie of the game (5) (not required) Permission to use the movie and screenshots in future 410 classes and website

Week 15
12/12

5:00-6:00 Talk led by Brad Paras, SIAT Alum who is now working at EA as a grame designer.
Game Fest 6:00-8:20p (LOCATION 3300)

Collect data on the game during game fest session
DUE: (1) 1-page document on game what you found out during the game fest session,
(2) Final Version of the Game,
(3) Team evaluation forms (4) Avi non-playable movie of the game