Course Syllabus

 

EAE 3710: Traditional Game Development

Fall Semester 2018

 

Section 003: Wednesday, 6:00pm – 9:20pm, Marriott Library room 1160

 

Instructor:                            Matt Anderson       

Email:                                    matthewladdanderson@gmail.com

Office Hours:                        By appointment       

 

UNITY HUMBLE BUNDLE

ATTENDANCE GOTD FORM

DISCORD CHANNEL

 

Required Materials

1. Bond, Jeremy Gibson. Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development: From Concept to Playable Game with Unity and C#, 2nd ed. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2017.
2. Koster, Raph. Postmortems: Selected Essays, Vol 1. Altered Tuning Press, 2018.

 

Course Description

This course will explore the fundamentals of game development through lectures, discussion, student-led presentations alongside tutorials, activities, and game development. We will be exploring commercially available games through a critical lens with a focus on theory informing production.

 

Course Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Pitch an original game idea
• Leverage traditional game design techniques
• Create a vertical slice of a 3D videogame in a small team utilizing agile development methods
• Present on videogame related materials and videogame development
• Write and present a postmortem

 

Teaching and Learning Methods

The creation of games, like many art forms, can be a chaotic process that is guided by genre conventions, communities of practice, and traditions. This class combines knowledge transference and active learning, meaning there will be moments of teaching and moments of doing. Both require student engagement to be successful.

 

Students are in charge of their educations and are active partners in learning while in this course. The course will pair two practices: learning about games and making games. Both will have descending instructor and increased student performative aspects as the course unfolds. In practice this means there will be instructor lectures and tutorials in the beginning, discussion in the middle, and student led presentations at the end. On one hand we will be reading, debating, and writing, while on the other we will be building. We will be using both at the same time to critically develop games and to be production oriented in our critiques.

 

University Policies

1. The Americans with Disabilities Act. The University of Utah seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services, and activities for people with disabilities. If you will need accommodations in this class, reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the Center for Disability Services, 162 Olpin Union Building, (801) 581-5020. CDS will work with you and the instructor to make arrangements for accommodations. All written information in this course can be made available in an alternative format with prior notification to the Center for Disability Services.

 

1. Addressing Sexual Misconduct. Title IX makes it clear that violence and harassment based on sex and gender (which Includes sexual orientation and gender identity/expression) is a civil rights offense subject to the same kinds of accountability and the same kinds of support applied to offenses against other protected categories such as race, national origin, color, religion, age, status as a person with a disability, veteran’s status or genetic information.  If you or someone you know has been harassed or assaulted, you are encouraged to report it to the Title IX Coordinator in the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, 135 Park Building, 801-581-8365, or the Office of the Dean of Students, 270 Union Building, 801-581-7066.  For support and confidential consultation, contact the Center for Student Wellness, 426 SSB, 801-581-7776.  To report to the police, contact the Department of Public Safety, 801-585-2677(COPS).

 

1. The Student Code is spelled out in the Student Handbook. Students have specific rights in the classroom as detailed in Article III of the code. The code also specifies proscribed conduct (Article XI) that involves cheating on tests, plagiarism, and/or collusion, as well as fraud, theft, etc. Students should read the Code carefully to become aware of these issues. Students will receive sanctions for violating one or more of these proscriptions. The faculty will enforce the code. Students have the right to appeal such action to the Student Behavior Committee: http://regulations.utah.edu/academics/6-400.php

 

1. I do not offer content accommodations. If you find any of the content of this offensive you may opt not to participate. If you choose not to participate in a section of the class that is worth points, you will not receive them. That being said, I am always approachable and willing to discuss this. However, acknowledging that participating in a classroom means participating with multiple cultures I cannot and do not attempt to utilize content that will not conflict with the values of every or some students:  http://regulations.utah.edu/academics/6-100.php
   
   

 

Course Policies

Attendance & Punctuality: You should come to class. The instructor reserves the right to adjust the final grade of the course in any way they see fit due to your attendance. Active learning requires your presence.

 

Participation: Participation is required. Education is about more than knowledge transference. Socialization (learning the cultural norms and mores of a community, in this case game developers), soft skills (teamwork, verbal and textual communication, and presentation skills), and production oriented hard skills are all major components of this course.

 

Food & Drink: Yes. Feel free to consume food and drink in class in a manner you and your peers find respectful. While it is difficult to know or manage the diets of all students, we ask that you avoid eating or bringing to class the most dangerous of allergens. Please no peanuts, shellfish, or bees in the class.

 

Electronic Devices in Class: Yes. Feel free to use electronic devices in class in a manner you and your peers find respectful.

 

By participating in this course you will not make any sort of audio or visual recording (moving or still) in this class without instructor consent. From shyness to being in the witness protection program there is a variety of needs to respect one another's’ privacy.

 

Canvas: This course will utilize Canvas, all course related materials will be there unless the instructor informs you otherwise.
 
I may send additional urgent updates regarding class-cancellations, etc. While these announcements will be naturally forwarded to your email inbox I HIGHLY recommend you regularly check the canvas class page.
 
Don't assume everything you will need to know to do well in the class will be covered in an announcement.

Assignments

Assignments in this class will be split between personal assignments (to be completed individually) and group assignments (to be completed by you and your assigned team). Make sure to keep track of which assignments are individual vs. group assignments, if in doubt clarify with your team, TA or instructor.

 

For group assignments it is usually only necessary that one team member upload the assignment submission. However, everyone on the team will be held accountable for missing or late group assignments. Group assignments do not give you permission to abdicate your responsibility as a team member. I reserve the right to adjust the individual team members’ grades on group assignments to reflect the level of their contribution.

 

Evaluation
35% - Individual Homework Assignments
25% - Game Production Milestones
25% - Final Game & Publishing Materials
15% - Attendance & Class Activities

 

Grading Policy (Evaluation Methods & Criteria)

Grades will be based on: Teamwork, Organization, Work Quality, Communication, Creativity & Professionalism. 

 

The A range is for excellent performance and superior achievement.
The B range denotes good performance and substantial achievement.
The C range indicates standard or average performance and achievement.
The D range is for substandard performance and marginal achievement.

An E is given for unsatisfactory performance and achievement.

 

I grade on a standard system: A = 94-100; A- = 90-93, B+ = 87-89, B = 84-86, B- = 80-83.

 

Late assignments will receive -10% per day up to a maximum of -50%.

 

Course Schedule

The course will be split into 4 modules, each designed to take you through the game development process. Each module will build on the last, growing your understanding of game design, production techniques and creative problem solving. By the end of the class you will (hopefully) have a polished and fun game demo that can serve you well as a portfolio piece as you go forward into future classes, studio internships, or launching a career in game development!

 

 

Module I: Individual Prototypes

Week 1: Introduction to the course and discussion about the traditional methods of game development. Introduction to the Unity game engine.

Week 2: The building blocks of gameplay: Game mechanics, feedback loops, and patterns. Demonstration of the art content pipeline, & follow along to create a simple game prototype.

Week 3: Discussion of game genres, conventions & scope for the class projects. Introduction to the Apple Picker prototype & class work session.

 

Module II: Group Prototype

Week 4: Use of prototypes in the industry. Art style production tips and tricks. Team formation & discussions of game designs & features.

Week 5: Developing game challenges and heuristics. In class paper prototyping activity. Work sessions & prototype progress reviews.

Week 6: Class work session. Prototype gameplay & art style materials. In-class feedback & discussion.

 

Module III: Vertical Slice

Week 7: Overview of the vertical slice development practice & uses in the industry. Production planning class activity. Git Hub version control & team collaboration.

Week 8: Fall Break – No Classes

Week 9: Review of game architecture & design patterns. Progress review check-ins.

Week 10: Approaches to level design for different game genres. The level design process & in-engine implementation techniques. Class work session.

Week 11: Vertical slice work session & class playtest session.

 

Module IV: Published Demo

Week 12: Overview of the published demo, uses and objectives. Production planning class activity.

Week 13: Controlling the difficulty curve & creating flow. Exploring the role of storytelling in games. Progress review check-ins.

Week 14: Game polishing tips and in-engine techniques. Particles effects and sound implementation demonstration. Thanksgiving break.

Week 15: Wrap-kits & post mortems overview. Progress review check-ins.

Week 16: Final class playtest & post mortem presentations.

 

Finals Week: Final Game build, no classes or tests.

 

Note: This syllabus is meant to serve as an outline and guide for our course. Please note that I may modify it with reasonable notice to you. I may also modify the Course Schedule to accommodate the needs of our class. Any changes will be announced in class and posted on Canvas under Announcements.