VDP2016 - Lecture 02 Course organization

Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
Course Organization
Video game Design and Programming

Pier Luca Daniele

50 hours of lectures, seminars and workshops
about videogame design and development
basic introduction to game programming,
some in-depth lecture, the rest is up to you
evaluation based on a team project consisting in the
development of a demo game (20 mins of play)

what type of game?

how good should the project be?
you should aim at competing in the student
showcase of one of game competitions
http://www.igf.com/php-bin/entries2013_student.php
you should also try to develop better games
than those developed by the previous students J

trailers of student games since 2010
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6624CA9C566CEA0A

course project
structured in five deliverables: concept,
design document, prototype, beta and final
each deliverable has a strict deadline
overall, the project cannot take
more than four months

Beta
Game Concept
Design Document
First Prototype
Game Design
Game Design &
Development
Game Design &
Development
Game
Development
Trailer & Final Deliverable Demoed at GGJ Opening

Our goal is to create a unique experience for
students attending classes while doing the project
We asked several people from game big, small,
tiny, companies to be involved in the evaluation
They will be have access to all your deliverable,
they will be involved in the evaluation process
Gives great visibility to your work!

Tuesday is Game Day

guests
(Tuesday @ 11:30)
workshops
(Tuesday @ 14:30)
lectures
(Tuesday @ 8:15)

Lectures – Tuesday 8:15-10:15
• Theory of fun
• Structure of Games
• Formal and Dramatic Elements
• Puzzles
• History of videogames
• Storytelling
• Procedural Content Generation
• Artificial Intelligence in Games
• …
12

Invited Guests – Tuesday @ 11:30 – 13:00 13
Date Guest Room
October 4 Spartaco Albertarelli (Kaleidos) DEIB Conference Room
October 11 Simone Magni (DB Game Academy) Aula Rogers
October 18 Jacopo Dagnino (Forge Reply) Aula Rogers
October 25 VaeVictis Aula Rogers
November 8 Antab Studio DEIB Conference Room
November 15 Milanoir Seminar Room @ DEIB
November 22 Indomitus Games Aula De Donato
November 29 DigitalTales Aula De Donato

Workshops – Tuesday @ 14:30 – 18:30 14
Date Workshop Room
October 4 Idea Generation & Board Game Design E.G.2
October 11 Unity Workshop – Basics E.G.2
October 18
Prototyping for non programmers &
Unity Workshop
E.G.2
October 25 Unity Workshop E.G.2
November 8 Unity Workshop E.G.2
November 15 Sound Design – Dp Studios & Rene’ Giavazzi E.G.2
November 22 Unity Workshop E.G.2
November 29 Virtual Reality with Unity – Fabio Mosca E.G.2

Deadlines & Deliverables 15
Date Deliverable
October 10 @ 23:59 Introduce yourself in the course mailing list
October 10 @ 23:59 Submit the game concepts –Voting starts.
October 17 @ 23:59 Voting ends
October 18 Selected games are announced.Team building begins.
October 24 @ 23:59 Teams must be finalized and submitted.
November 14 @ 23:59 Link to the game design document must be submitted
December 13 @ 9:00-14:00 Prototype presentation event (DEIB Conference room)
January 10 @ 9:00-14:00 Beta presentation event (DEIB Conference room)
January 20 @ 14:00-17:30 Final presentation event @ GGJ16 (L26 Building)
February 13 @ 23:59 Final project submission (source, assets, etc.)

Special Tasks & Deliverables
• Design students will have to propose a new graphic proposal to
reinvent two existing games
• Robotron 2084 (October 10 @ 23:59)
§One full hd (1920x1080) mockup screenshot of gameplay
§All the graphic elements as separate png files.
• Next game to be announced :)
16

Robotron 2084
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9kXKzYorFo

Special Tasks & Deliverables
• Computer science and computer engineering students will have
to submit the complete functioning version of the game which
will be developed during the first two workshops
• Robotron 2048 (October 17 @ 23:59)
§One zip file containing the WebGL distribution of the game
§One zip file containing the source
• Next game to be announced :)
18

Special Event: Hackathon Italia Digitale
November 7 @ 11:00 – November 8 @ 19:00
The hackathon will be focused on newsgaming
Students are required to participate J

mandatory publication!
to get the final grade the demo must be published for free
using one of the course accounts (IOS/Android/Windows)
why?
to have a unique place where people can play with
all the games developed during the course and
to avoid procrastination J

can we sell the game we developed?
yes! you are welcome to sell it and to become rich!
but the first demo (the light/beta version) must
be available for free on the course accounts or website

Jam Jam Jam! 22
Global Game Jam
January 22-22, 2017

teams and grades

Project Selection
• Students attending classes must submit two one-page game
concepts, describing in simple words the underlying idea
• Students, instructors, invited speakers will vote
for the best game concepts
• Concepts will be selected based on
§The number of votes their receive and the number of game
concepts in each category
§Only a fixed number of concepts for each category
• The students who proposed the best concepts become team
leaders and must build up their teams
24

Team Building
• Team should consist of at most four course students
(three is the suggested size)
• At most three programmers, one or two POLIMI
designers
• Feel free to invite additional musicians, writers, artists to
collaborate on your projects
• But only at most three programmers and two designers
can be in team
25

team leaders are not dictators
concepts are an idea to develop
together with the team
team leaders have the duty to keep
the team in focused and well organized

Grades
• The final grade is the sum of 5 grades obtained for each
deliverable (game concept, design document, prototype,
beta and final releases)
• Game proposal: 3 points assigned by the instructors
• Prototype: 6 points assigned by voting
(2/3 students + 1/3 instructors)
• Beta Release: 18 points assigned by voting
(2/3 students + 1/3 instructors)
• Final Release & Trailer: 3 points assigned by voting
(2/3 students + 1/3 guests and instructors)
27

the course paradox

at the end of the course, …
less game design lectures,
the only interesting part
are the programming
workshops
there should be more lectures
on game design …
designer should be in
charge of the creative process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpWAlvWNZj0

http://www.oneworldbirth.net/blog/you-complete-me/

What After the Course?
Next semester, you can enroll in the course
“Online Game Design” taught by Dario Maggiorini and
Laura Ripamonti at the Universita’ di Milano
http://onlinegamedesign.ariel.ctu.unimi.it
Computer Graphics (Gribaudo)
Data Mining and Text Mining (analysis of players’ behavior)
You can also consider doing your thesis with us!
(Car Racing, Starcraft, FPS, etc.)

You can still do the project outside the course
Contact the course coordinator who will
provide some game concepts
Choose one and then, just meet the deadlines!

what development tools?

syllabus

Course Bibliography
• Main texts on game design
§ Jeremy Gibson Bond. Introduction to Game Design,
Prototyping, and Development. Addison-Wesley 2014
§ Jesse Schell. The Art of Game Design (2nd Edition)
Morgan Kaufmann 2015
• Additional Game Design Books
§ Tracy Fullerton. Game Design Workshop,
Third Edition. Morgan Kaufmann 2008.
§ Scott Rogers. Level Up!: The Guide to Great
Video Game Design. John Wiley & Sons Inc 2014.
• Programming textbooks
§ If you use Unity, any book will do as well as
the several tutorials available for free
§ If you use other system, choose the book you prefer J
• Additional material
§ http://www.gamasutra.com
§ Papers, chapters, blogs, videos, software, etc.
37

Some Indie Games You Should Play (1)
• Super Crate Box
http://www.supercratebox.com/
• SpaceChem
http://spacechemthegame.com/
• Super Meat Boy
http://supermeatboy.com/
• Continuity
http://continuitygame.com/playcontinuity
.html
http://continuitygame.com/
• Braid
http://www.braid-game.com/
• Bit Trip Beat
http://www.aksysgames.com/bittripbeat/
• World of Goo
http://www.worldofgoo.com/
• Fotonica
http://www.fotonica-game.com/
38
• Osmos
http://www.hemispheregames.com/osmos/
• vvvvvvv
http://thelettervsixtim.es/
• Canabalt
http://www.adamatomic.com/canabalt/
• Fract
http://fractgame.com/
• Frozen Synapse
http://www.frozensynapse.com/
• Revenge of Titans
http://www.puppygames.net/revenge-of-the-
titans/
• BOH
http://www.bohthegame.com/
• Minecraft
http://www.minecraft.net/
• Limbo
http://limbogame.org/

Some Indie Games You Should Play (2)
• Luftrausers
http://luftrausers.com
• Nidhoggg
www.nidhogggame.com
• Hotline Miami
www.hotlinemiami.com/
• FEZ
http://fezgame.com
• Kentucky Route Zero
http://kentuckyroutezero.com
• Gone Home
www.gonehomegame.com/
• Space Team
www.sleepingbeastgames.com
• Paper Please!
http://papersplea.se
• Device 6
http://simogo.com/work/device-6/
39
• Don’t Starve
http://www.dontstarvegame.com
• The Stanley Parable
http://www.stanleyparable.com
• All the IGF Finalists J
http://www.igf.com/02finalists.html

Some Other Games You Should Play
• Cave Story (free on Steam)
• Dwarf Fortress II (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_Fortress)
• Hitchicker guide's to The Galaxy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-
hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-game-30th-anniversary-edition
• I Wanna Be The Guy
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wanna_Be_the_Guy)
• Quake Live
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_Live)
• TrackMania
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrackMania#TrackMania_Nations)
• Zak McCracken
(https://archive.org/details/msdos_Zak_McKracken_and_the_Alien_Mindbenders_1988)
• Ghost & Goblins: 'nuff said
(https://archive.org/details/msdos_Ghosts_N_Goblins_1987)
40

http://www.mame.net
http://www.emuparadise.me
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games
https://archive.org/details/zx_spectrum_library_games
https://archive.org/details/C64Gamevideoarchive
…

Homework #2
• Introduce yourself to the mailing list by send a photo of you and
telling something about you.
• What games do you love?
• What games did you play recently?
• Design students! J Robotron 2084 proposal! You can change the
characters, the story, etc. The mechanic, what the player does,
must be maintained.
43

http://www.facebook.com/polimigamecollective
https://twitter.com/@POLIMIGC
http://www.youtube.com/PierLucaLanzi
http://www.polimigamecollective.org

VDP2016 - Lecture 02 Course organization

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