Class
Groups
- Students form a mini game company consisting of 3 or 4
students in a group (depending on class size).
- If someone in a group drops the class then the remaining
students will have to share the load.
- If both members of the group drop the class then the
remaining student will join another group.
- If you have a dispute in your group, try to resolve it
amongst yourselves. You are your own game company so as
"employees" YOU have to deal with these kinds of issues on
your own. A useful "management" tip - if there is a
problem, bring it up early rather than later- before the
problem festers. In the
middle of the semester and at the end of the semester you
will fill out a form to evaluate your other team members.
I will use this to decide how to assign grades to each
person in the team. I will know if you are not pulling
your own weight.
Assignments
ASSIGNMENT 1: Learning
About Unity3D and 3D Modeling:
Go through Unity3D and Blender
tutorials.
CS Students will develop a simple pinball-like game using
Unity3D.
- Minimum
requirements:
- Launch
at least 1 ball.
- Ball
must move using Unity physics.
- Two
paddles to deflect ball.
- At
least some obstacles that deflect the ball.
Art
Students will create 3D models and import them into Unity3D.
- Minimum
requirements:
- Create
a drawn sketch for at least 2 objects you want to
create.
- Create
3D models of at least 2 objects, one object must have an
imbedded animation.
- All
objects
must have textures on them.
- All
objects
must be viewable from within Unity3D.
ASSIGNMENT
2: Brainstorm Presentations
Each group is going to have to give a
presentation consisting of the following information:
- Name of your video game company
- Your company's web site
- Introduction to your team members and their roles in the
company
- 5 minute storyboard presentation of your final gameplay
idea
- Describe the GOALS & RULES of your game.
- All your storyboards must be posted on your web site
ASSIGNMENT
3: One Page Project Management Sheet
Fill out this sheet for your team
ASSIGNMENT 4: Mid-semester Game
Progress Report
Give a 15 minute demonstration and presentation
on the status of your game.
You need to
ensure the day before your presentation that everything is
working perfectly on the system you are going to
demonstrate on. You will NOT be
allowed to install or fiddle with your demo during your
demonstration time. For all presentations make sure
that:
- You end your presentation
on time. I will kick you off if you go over time.
- You have readable slides
with large enough fonts and a readable color scheme.
- Your thoughts are well
organized.
- The
Demo
Works!
ASSIGNMENT 5: FINAL
Demonstration & Documentation
Most of your grade for the class hinges on
this.
Approximately 20 minutes per
group- depending on how many groups are in the class.
- Final presentation and demo
- Describe:
- Game play
- The game engine and tools you used.
- How the AI and the graphical/audio effects
are implemented.
- Especially highlight any capabilities that you
thought were particularly impressive. e.g. a
clever AI scheme, a visual effect, a sound
effect.
- Features of the game that you put in because
you thought it would make the game fun.
- Concepts that you learned from the lectures
that you applied or attempted to apply to your
game. For example:
- From the game programming lecture have you
used a finite state machine for your game?
- From the Game Design lecture on "What Do
Players Expect" what categories have you tried
to incorporate in your game? e.g. Players
expect a consistent world.
- From the Sound and Psychoacoustics lecture,
what characteristics of sound have you tried
to incorporate? e.g. Sounds set a pace to the
game.
- From the Perception lecture, what aspects of
the human perceptual system have you attempted
to take into account? e.g. I have created low
detailed health bars in the corners of the
screen where your peripheral vision does not
have the resolution to resolve the detail
during an intense game experience.
- Tradeoffs that you had to make in the game
and what ultimately led you to the final
decision.
- How would you have approached the development
of the game if you had the chance to do it all
over again.
- How has this experience affected the way you
think about commercial games?
- Completed web site that includes:
- Gameplay design document.
- Screenshots of sketches.
- Screenshots of the actual game screens.
- Screen capture of the game in play. Use a program
like Fraps (www.fraps.com) to do the capture.
- Explanation of all design tradeoffs that you had
to make- ie what you originally envisioned vs what
you accomplished.
- Explanation of the overall software design-
including data structures, finite state machines,
pseudo-code algorithms for the graphics, AI, sound,
main game engine.
- Explanations of how specific visual and audio
effects were achieved.
- Downloadable ZIP file containing an executeable
that runs as a standalone game.
- Downloadable ZIP file containing the source code
and image and music files.
- All the above in 1 giant ZIP file placed at ftp.evl.uic.edu/pub2/INcoming/cs426
- Email me when the giant ZIP file is put there.
- Email FINAL Personnel
Evaluations (note: this form can be filled out
using Acrobat Reader or Preview (on the Mac)).
Late
assignment
turn-in policy
- None. Every class project in the last several years have
said that the number one thing they could have done better
was to manage their schedules. Groups that were able to keep
to their timelines usually got an A. Groups that didn't,
were usually developing code for several days without any
sleep right up to the deadline only to get a B, or worse, a
C in the class. So whatever motivates you to keep on time,
DO IT. This something you will face in the real world (both
industry and academia), and especially in the game industry-
so better get used to it now.
Final
Exams
- None. Final grades will be determined by what you have
been able to achieve through the class and mainly the
quality and quantity of work you are able to demonstrate at
the end of the semester when compared with your peers.
Basically I rank the game groups and give the top 3 groups
As, the next 3 groups Bs, and the last 4 groups Cs or Ds.
This is assuming that all your personnel evaluations
show that everyone is doing their job.
Class
Groups
Company Names
& Web Sites
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Game Concept
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Team 1 -
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Team 2 -
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Team 3 -
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Team 4 -
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Team 5 -
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Team 6 -
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Team 7 -
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Team 8 -
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Team 9 -
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Team 10 -
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