Instructor: Michael Mateas
Email: michaelm at cs.ucsc.edu
Office: E2 373
Office hours: By appointment
Lecture: TTh 2:00-3:45 in Cowell College 131
First of a three course capstone sequence for the Computer Game Design program. Students work in teams to develop a comprehensive game design for a substantial computer game, including detailed storyline, level design, artistic approach, implementation technologies, art asset pipeline. Emphasis is placed on creating novel artistic game design concepts. Includes design reviews, and formal presentations. Companion lectures cover advanced topics in game design, game programming, and software project management.
Project milestones: 60%
Design assignments: 30%
Reading quizes: 10%
Readings will consist of research papers and book excerpts. Additional course materials are available here.
This will be updated as we move along.
Readings:
Chapter 2, "Stages of the Design Process" from Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings, Game Design and Development: Fundamentals of Game Design.
Finish Lecture 1
Look at indie games:
Readings:
Chapter 3, "Game Concepts" from Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings, Game Design and Development: Fundamentals of Game Design.
Chapter 6, "Conceptualization" from Tracy Fullerton, Christopher Swain and Steven Hoffman, Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping and Playtesting Games.
Games:
Narbacular Drop (became Portal)
Readings:
Chapter 7: "Prototyping" from Tracy Fullerton, Christopher Swain and Steven Hoffman, Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping and Playtesting Games.
"How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days: Tips and Tricks from 4 Grad Students Who Made Over 50 Games in 1 Semester", Kyle Gabler, Kyle Gray, Matt Kucic, and Shalin Shodhan, Gamasutra.
Continue discussion of rapid prototyping, working through a concrete example in class.
Readings:
Chapter 10: "Core Mechanics" from Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings, Game Design and Development: Fundamentals of Game Design.
Based on the original and callback presentations, Michael and Jim will make a final selection of three projects to move forward for the rest of the year, and will assign project team members.
Michael out of town for a conference.
Readings:
Chapter 14: "The Design Document" from Tracy Fullerton, Christopher Swain and Steven Hoffman, Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping and Playtesting Games.
Each team will present their schedule for completing their physical prototypes, computational prototypes, and design documents by the end of the quarter. This includes a detailed description of the open design problems that should be addressed, what prototypes will be created, and the responsibilities of the team members. I, and members of other teams, will provide feedback to each team.
Drafts of the design document are due to me by the end of the day.
Each team will present a physical prototype of their game.
Drafts of design document are due to me by the end of the day.
Practice final design presentation.