Advanced Game Prototyping
Graded Course Project Game Information
Using Game Maker, your task is to devise your own game prototype. You can build this game completely from scratch, or start from an existing Game Maker game and mod the heck out of it until it 'becomes' your original game. At the final class meeting, every student will be given a grade sheet to use to evaluate every other student. Then, in random order, you will go up to the instructor's computer and 'demo' your game. In this dog-and-pony show you need to demonstrate what's cool about the game, and maybe even show how you did some of the interesting bits by opening up its guts in Game Maker.
There will be time for building, playtesting and revising your game in class during Weeks 6 through 10, but you will also have to write a Concept Document, Project Plan, and Game Design Document for you work.
These sample Game Maker Course Project games scored well in Game Prototyping. Feel free to download them and try them out. They demonstrate the type of game, graphic, interface, and audio design that can be achieved by students in this class:
The Rift: Matt Rose creates a an Asteroids-style game with fantastic panache. (I bet you can't stop playing it!)
The Works: Ryan Rousseau offers up the most amazing color-matching variant on Missile Command.
Halo Platformer: Andrew Monroy built an awesome platformer with a Halo theme.
Hell's Graveyard: Ben Jaramillo's platformer offers players considerable challenge.
X-mas of Doom: Aaron Goodson presents the complete graphic look and storyline in this introductory level, side-scrolling snowball-thrower.
Super Diet: Jane Lo builds a frenetic platformer with a dietary theme.
Space Puzzle Platoon: Matt Coburn builds a Tetris type game, with some interesting twists.
Aces: Aerial Armageddon: Kevin Klosiewski gives players a screen between levels to spend victory points on upgrades and repairs in this 1945 game super-variant.
Here Comes the Horde: Brian Newland has turned the real-time game engine of Game Maker into a turn-based system with a very clever little strategy game!
Reactor: Asa Trujillo has given a wild Breakout style game with a lot of interesting twists.
þ Inception Documents [up to 6 points for the corpus of the work]: Due in class during Week 6.
þ Pitch Presentation [up to 4 points for your "dog and pony show"]: Based on the above Inception Documents and given live in class during Week 6.
þ Concept Document [up to 5 points]: Due at the beginning of class during Week 7.
þ Project Plans [up to 10 total points]: Due in class each class to be reviewed one-on-one with the instructor, checked for current project progress, adjusted (if necessary), and graded during Weeks 7, 8 and 9.
þ Draft Game Design Document [up to 8 points]: Due at the beginning of class during Week 9.
þ Final Presentation Pitch [up to 5 points for your "dog and pony show"]: Given in class during Week 11.
þ Final Game Design Document [up to 17 points]: Due at the beginning of class during Week 11.
þ Turn in Completed Game [up to 40 points according to the grading rubric]: Due at the beginning of class during Week 11, this is the Gamma version of your project game.
þ A printed or electronic .doc file with your your game's Design Document. Make sure it includes your name, phone number, and email address on a 'cover page,' along with the Game Title. After that cover page, it's all design doc information. Use the lessons that you've learned in this class during Weeks 7 and 8 about creating Design Documents and be sure to use the Case System format that you learned in Game Design class during Week 5 of that course.
Samples: Student Project Game Design Documents by various authors
This .zip file contains some excellent sample Game Design Documents created by students for their final projects. You would do well to emulate them.
þ A Complete Digital Game: this should be emailed to me such that it is time stamped when I receive it in my email box no later than 30 minutes from the end of class or, at worst, you can hand it in during class on a CD-ROM. In addition to your game's in-class evaluation during our final meeting, I may want to examine it further before determining your final grade.
Each game will be evaluated in the following categories for up to 40 points. The maximum number of points earned for each category is listed after that category's title.
Game Concept / Premise [up to 3 points]:
Is this a clever idea for a game?
Will it appeal to a viable market or is the game to broad and unfocused?
While it's okay for a game to be serious or silly, is it too serious or silly?
It is offensive? (That's bad, unless
that's its selling point.)
Intro & Splash Screen [up to 3 points]:
Is there a custom desktop icon for this game (instead of the generic Game Maker 'red ball?')
Is there a custom Game Loading image?
Does the background music begin to play?
Does it provide all of game's required functionality (Start, Help, Load, Scores, and Quit)?
Does the game's splash screen do a good job setting the game's mood visually and aurally?
If the game has a story, does it provide a
compelling prologue exposition?
Ergonomics [up to 4 points]:
Does this game accommodate lazy players?
Does it seem like there are too many clicks or keystrokes required?
Are the controls placed intuitively?
Does it need (and if so, have) a HUD (Heads Up Display) with all of the information relevant to the player in the heat of battle: health meters, lives, ammo, score, time, mini-map, etc.?
Are the colors right for conveying the most information with the fewest words?
Will players need to keep looking up information on help screen in order to really "get" the rules?
Has the designer avoided "player discomfort and irritation" factors such as
these during play?
Ease of Understanding, Rules, and Victory Conditions [up to 6 points]:
Does the game get going quickly and easily?
Do players understand what the Sequence of Events will be from their starting location to their final destination (i.e., does the game help players avoid getting frustrated or lost)?
Do the rules designed into the game seem appropriate for genre, epoch, and its particular unit types?
Are the rules (particularly for the pieces) properly implemented?
Are there too many / few features?
Are the existing features well developed and polished?
Are the goals clear to the player – both
the intermediate goals as well as the game's Victory Conditions?
Art / Graphics & Sound [up to 6 points]:
How does the game look and feel? (Your first impression is very important here!)
Is the game's art attractive and compelling or repulsive and distracting?
Does the game provide clear audio and visual cues and feedback to the player?
Did the designer / artist come up with the right look and sounds for this game to improve its utility and player immersion into the game world?
Is everything clear and harmonious in this game world and contributes to the player's suspension of disbelief?
Fun Factor, Replayability, & Story [up to 10 points]: This is about the game's personality and the execution of the game designer's philosophy in making it.
Is this a game you envision other people having fun playing?
Is this a game that you would have fun playing?
Is the presentation of the game's genre and / or its epoch (i.e., theme or story) compelling? Does it 'draw you in' to the game and spark your emotions (i.e., does it provide dramatic tension, make you laugh, etc.)?
Are there adequate cool decisions and / or opportunities to show off a player skill (i.e., quick reflexes, eye-hand coordination, trivia knowledge, strategic planning, tactical maneuvering, and so forth)?
Is there a sufficient amount of gameplay in it? In other words, is the game simply too short or becomes brain-dead repetitive too quickly?
Does the game seem to have a lot of replay value? Is there something about it that would compel additional playing?
Did the designer cleverly follow the First (K.I.S.S.) and Second (use available techniques) Rules of Game Design to make the game more accessible to players?
Cheese Screen [up to 3 points]:
Does this game sufficiently reward the player for completing it?
If there is a story, does the cheese screen provide a
satisfying
epilogue?
Help Screen [up to 5 points]:
Is this screen laid out in an attractive and functional manner?
Are the basic ingredients all there? These include:
Game Title
Credits
A Compelling Back Story
Intermediate Goals and Ultimate Victory Condition(s)
Game Rules & How to Use the Controls
Your instruction will be grading your Game Design Document as follows:
Design Document [up to 17 points]: The Game Design Document (GDD) for your Course Project Game (approximately 6 to 10 pages, including the Cover Page). This is the 'paper trail' of your creativity.
The Law of Documentation Temporality: Game Design Docs are written to be used on two different occasions - when first read/learned, when contacted again later/referenced. Therefore, rules must be: 1) written to be easily read / learned the first time through and then 2) easily referenced during the heat of battle.
Begin with a 'Cover Page’ (as described in your Advanced Game Prototyping Week 8 Review Sheet)
Then write the Introduction section:
An Executive Summary page (i.e., an alternate version of the game’s Inception Document that is explained in your Game Prototyping Week 9 Review Sheet.
A Version History, Table of Contents, and (if necessary) Glossary page
The game’s Concept Overview and (optionally) a bit of the game’s Story to set the mood.
Then write the Rules section (3+ pages):
A high-level look at the game: it’s Sequence of Events (Game Design and Gameplay Week 4), game control interface diagram, flowchart of screen and level navigation, screen shot of the main play view
Actual game rules in Sequence of Play / Events order using the Case System (Gameplay and Game Design Week 5)
Explain the game rules from its Core Gameplay outward (i.e., the player’s interactions with the game’s environments) by describing the Player Experience (i.e., the game’s functionality) as well as how that rule will be Implemented (the 1945 Tutorial document does this in a nice, succinct way)
Show sample avatars, items, vehicles, and terrain (using illustrations and brief descriptions)
Cover the Setup, Victory Conditions, and Intermediate Goals
Lay out the game’s structure describing the progression of challenges (from Tutorial to Final Boss Monster)
Next is the elaboration of the Story and Plot section (this will probably run about 1 page)
Finally, you may need a Support Page with tables, diagrams and flowcharts that are so big they would disrupt the flow of the document; appendices and credits. This is where you might also add Designer’s Notes (explaining how and why you made things the way they are in the game), Playtesters Notes (how to play the game better), and suggestions for additional modifications, expansions, or sequels to this game.
Judgment questions: What is the page length of the design doc (less is more)? How clear is it? How complete is it? Is it readable and well organized?
