INB305 Game Project Design Lecture 1 Unit Outline and P r oject Management

1. INB305 Game Project DesignLecture 1Unit Outline and Project Management Ross Brown

2. Lecture Contents • Unit Preamble • Motivation and Aims • Outcomes • Process • Project Management

3. Game Project Design • “Luck is the residue of design.” - Branch Rickey • “The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.” - Robert Frost

4. INB305 Game Project Design Motivation • Typical IT projects at the QUT School of IT have involved single or small group projects with singular supervisory meetings • Works okay for a standard project • But not well for design style projects • Especially so for Games as they are a socio-technical product

5. Fun • They are a wicked problem revolving around “Fun” • Require more agile methodologies • Difficult problem requires iteration to a solution • With lots of testing at each phase - critiquing

6. Critique Meetings • We cannot organise a complete “daily” agile approach as would happen at a studio • What we can do is turn the supervisor meetings into a critique session with a panel • Facilitating the process of having to justify design decisions each step of the way • Will maximise the feedback loop with the resources we have available

7. Unit Aims and Outcomes Game Studio • Simulates to the Pre-production phase • With a slight twist – you will be aiming for a green light at the end • Pipeline setup for game development • INB380 Games Project will be the Production phase Concept Prototype Pitch Green Light Pre-production INB305 Pre-production (In Parallel) Concept Prototype Pitch Green Light

8. Deliverables - Document • Game Concept Design - Back Story, Character Designs, Concept Art, Conflicts, Levels, Mechanics etc. • Business Plan – marketing plan and break even point • Budget – charge for your team’s time in INB380 • Timeline – your plan for INB380

9. Deliverables - Technical • Investigation of Tool Chain • Review of three engines • Implementation in one engine • Loading and animating content, user interfaces, input devices etc. – only need examples not complete implementations • Prototype gameplay movie • Demonstration of major game play component • 5 mins max.

10. Main Goal • You have to prove to us that you have a viable (that means fun) game design that you can implement fully for the next INB380 Game Project unit, that will sell if released • Just like everybody else has to do in the games industry

11. Uniqueness • Another intention for the unit is to make you think and reach as far as possible in your game designs • Yes, you can have a tank first person shooter, or another middle earth themed story about elves…but it MUST have a unique component • Good ideas implemented well will get better grades

12. Teaching Process • Some Lectures – pointers and tips for the unit • Lecture 1 – Unit Processes – Ross Brown • Lecture 2 – Design Processes – Michael Docherty • Lecture 4 – Design Folio Contents –Peta Wyeth • Lecture 11 – Design Pitch – Michael Docherty

13. Lectures • You should know now how to build a game • Unit is about synthesising all you have learned into one non-trivial project • These lectures are simply to provide instruction on doing well in this unit • Some new ones may be inserted if needed

14. Critique Meeting • Presentations each week on your design at an arranged time and place with the supervision panel • Panels are: • Ross Brown and Michael Docherty • Ruth Christie, Peta Wyeth and Rune Rasmussen • Penny Drennan and Dian Tjondronegoro • 2 groups each supervisor – 4 groups each panel max

15. General Plan for Meetings • One slide on what you have done for the week • Previous week’s slide to show your progress – project delta • Suggest slide format will contain prioritised items on: • Progress, Problems, Questions, Plans

16. Example Delta Slide • Progress • Concept art for 2 characters – Luke to show his work • Background story completed – Obi-wan to list main features • Two games engines downloaded and tested – Darth Vader to present • Problems • Took a while to configure VS for the XYZ Game engine • Worried about evil goblin in level hard to make him evil enough… • Plans • Test importation in the Frog Game Engine • Design two more characters – wizard and samurai • Questions • Does any one know of an importer module for Frog Game Engine? • Comments on the Evil Goblin?

17. A word to the small amount of lazy people… • Most of you will work hard, and engage with the process of developing a great game • Meetings are compulsory - lack of attendance is a probable cause for failing the unit as you have to show you have done the work • Teams will be quizzed as to effort by each member of the team – so no hiding • Sustained effort will bring a better design – we will aim for high standards this semester

18. Meeting Constraints • Time will be of the essence – roughly half hour per team due to supervisor constraints • Please use them wisely • Each team member will be rostered to present the progress report in turn

19. Good Criticism • As supervisors we aim to give you the best feedback possible on the design • Critiquing will be pointed, but will not be personal • Typically it will be around the question “Why?” • Why did you choose this rendering technique? • Why did you choose this style of boss for the level? • Why haven’t you done what you promised last week? • Criticism is around behavior and choices

20. Good Criticism • Praise will be around the same…criticism involves praise for doing something well • Other teams are to comment as well • Remember you are not competing with each other – grades are not rankings within the unit

21. Weekly Delta • The focus here will be on improvement • Taking the ideas you have and creating a high quality game design that is worthy of implementation • You should show weekly improvement www.dorodango.com/about.html

22. Assessment 1:Team AgreementWeek 3 • Help you structure your teamwork processes • Because the success of your team will largely determine your progress in this unit • So be quick to deal with problems

23. Assessment 2: Learning AgreementWeek 5 • Appropriate to parameterise the assessment of your design folio • Weightings and some components of the final folio assessment are negotiated with supervisors • But we will expect certain basic deliverables

24. You will present to the supervisors a folio of design components for the game prototype The folio will contain: Design Document Example Digital Assets Prototype gameplay scenario with roughly 5 minutes of game play Assessment 3: Design FolioWeek 13

25. Assessment 4 : Prototype PitchTBA • 30 minute presentation to supervisors and industry representatives as a concept pitch • To help you with the process of pitching games to companies for future production

26. Some Practical Issues • 2 Gig. IAS download limit has been set aside for you • A subversion repository will be set up once teams are organised – information on using tortoise/subversion will be disseminated • Subversion can be used as a location of about 2 gig of files per team – backed up and available anywhere • Common concept in large team development scenarios…more later

27. Collaborative Tools • Should maintain a Google docs site for your design document • Will enable collaboration on content, and display/referencing at supervisory panels. • See docs.google.com for details – uploads/downloads word and downloads pdf documents

28. Project Management • Arrange weekly team meetings, in addition to the seminars – part of Team Agreement • Make yourselves available to each other!!! • Appoint a leader – to organise group and interface to supervisor • 6 hours every week on this unit each…and then some

29. Project Plan • Part of the output of this project is a timetable for next semester’s implementation • For this semester it will be hard to plan a strict timetable – prototyping is hard to constrain • However, you have milestones at intervals in the semester • Work back from these to make sure you are ready • Be wise and choose achievable goals – need to scope the work right down…and then halve it again • You need to show that you can achieve the goal

30. Milestones • Engine Chosen – check three • Export/Import Tools – make sure they work for next semester • Concept Art – game look and feel finalised • Characters – modelled then loaded into game • Back Story – finalise early on • Conflicts/Gameplay – established and then refined • Bug Testing – game should be bug free at end

31. Milestones • These should be in place at appropriate times in the timeline • They can then be refined each week – waterfall is nice, agile iteration is the reality • Sort out what has to be done and then assign tasks in parallel – work out the critical path • Subversion system will then allow you to refine without stuffing up teamwork timeline

33. Some Misc. Points • Leaders will have to delegate tasks to appropriate personnel – will have to give up some work to be producer • Watch your ego – scope down the work, then divide by half again, and you will probably get a third of that done… • Remember SCRUM – subdivide tasks until they are small enough to estimate for 16 hours work – two days or 2-3 weeks work per person

34. Team Formation • Yes, you can work with people you like – please be polite if refusing people • Teams cannot be greater than 5, and cannot be less than 4 – resourcing issues again • Remember to hand in Team Agreement by week 3 • If you haven’t formed a team – do it here and now!!!