This basically couldn't be more self-directed. Come up with a fun gameplay idea, mechanic, or style and create a game prototype for us. If your idea would work best for a long game, make it more of a vertical slice.
We don't want to impose a ton of rules on you. We want to see what you come up with. The standard restrictions apply, however:
Hopefully that doesn't feel too restrictive. If you're really uncertain about your idea, you are welcome to run your logline by us.
Get your burndown chart here: Project 2 Burndown Chart Template
The grade breakdown for this project is:
Component | Percent | Description | Due |
---|---|---|---|
Research and Analysis | 20% |
We expect you to do a bit of research in order to discover similar games with related mechanics, to explain the differences in the mechanics of these games to us, and to explain the ramifications of these differences. We want to know how the player experience changes as a result of their design choices, what the advantages of one design decision over another might be, and perhaps how you might have chosen to alter the design of the game you're implementing as a result of your survey. In what ways is your concept new and original? Which earlier games might you draw inspiration from, and which aspects of these games are you seeking to improve or build upon? You are required to investigate at least 2 other games and to write something at least on the order of 2 pages. Don't pick multiple games from the same developers or the same franchise. Note that this is not a book review assignment. Simple Wikipedia-esque description should be minimal. Get to the meat of analyzing and contrasting their design decisions. Also note that your game choices for comparison must be reasonably similar for your comparisons to be useful to you. Two games simply having power-ups isn't enough, but two games having similar movement styles but handling the camera slightly differently would be right on the money. Focus on the subtler differences with respect to the mechanics you're interested in, rather than large but irrelevant feature changes. Here's an example research and analysis doc for a reimplementation of Level 1-1 of Super Mario Bros.. |
February 8 |
Gold Spike | 20% |
Are you showing progress? Does it look like you are on the right track? Does it look like you've already tried several things by this point? Did you answer the toughest question about your project? Deliverables:
|
February 8 |
Justification Document and Burndown Chart | 20% |
The justification document is a short (roughly 1 page) write-up of your project that should discuss the following elements:
|
February 15 |
Final Build | 40% |
Does your second presented iteration show that you responded to feedback from the Gold Spike presentation? Did you refine your ideas and come up with something better? Did you find something interesting? The game you make doesn't have to be fun, but it should be interesting, and I want you to show that you explored new territory in your design. Deliverables:
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February 15 |
This happens. In fact, in industry it actually happens a lot more than you'd think. In grading this, we're much more interested in whether you really tried to make something new and interesting than whether you made something "good". A lot of what we're looking at is how much you tested and refined. If you just started with one idea and made that without refining it at all, that's not really what we're looking for. We're looking to see what you did to try to make it interesting, and that's why the justification document and the burndown chart are such a large percentage of the project grade. Even if you're not particularly proud of your final prototype, you can still absolutely be proud of the process you went through and the ideas you generated.
We're really looking forward to seeing what everyone has on Monday.
Thanks,
–EECS 494 Staff