Videogame Design and Programming - Course organization

Course Organization

Videogame Design and Programming

Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi

50 hours of lectures and seminars

about videogame design and development

basic introduction to game programming using Unity,

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)


how good should the project be?

you should aim at competing in the student

showcase of one of game competitions

http://www.igf.com/02ﬁnalists.html

http://www.igf.com/2013ﬁnalistswinners.html#students

you should also try to develop better games

than those developed by the previous students J


course project

structured in five deliverables: concept,

specification storyboard, prototype, beta and final

each deliverable has a strict deadline

overall, the project cannot take

more than four months


Invited Speakers

5

•  Federico Fasce (October 8)

•  Paolo Taje (October 11)

•  Bad Seed Entertainment (October 18)

•  Italian Game Developer Summit (October 25-26)

•  H-farm (November 7)

•  Digital Tales (November 8)

•  Reludo (November 15)

•  Unagames (December)


Workshops

6

•  Develop breakout in 4 hours

•  Brainstorming (November 5)

•  Develop frogger in four hours

•  Develop a basic platformer 4 hours

•  Augmented reality

•  …


Course Timeline

7

Game Concept

Game Design

Specification Document
and Storyboard

Game
Development
Unity

First Prototype
Game
Intelligence
Advanced Game
Development

Demo Prototype

Final Deliverable Demoed at Course Event

Deadlines

8

•  18/10 Game concept is due (everybody must submit one)

•  28/10 Winning concepts announced, team building begins

•  16/12 Prototype presentation

•  17/1 Beta Presentation

•  24/1 Final presentation

•  28/2 Publication on one of the online app stores
or on the course website


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


http://www.polimigamecollective.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfZ4NJG4Jp4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTY494iujdA
http://vimeo.com/6271499
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1p5XiHlGfU


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!

Past year students received coverage from

TV, Radio, Newspapers, Blogs, etc.


Teams Grades


Team Building

20

•  Each team should consist of at most ﬁve people (four is better)

•  Each students attending classes will have to propose a one-page
game concept, describing in simple words the underlying idea

•  Students, instructors, invited speakers will vote for the best game
concepts

•  The

students who proposed the best concepts will build up their
teams


Grading

21

•  The ﬁnal grade is the sum of 5 grades obtained for each
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deliverable (game concept, design document, prototype, beta and
ﬁnal releases)

Game proposal: 3 points assigned by the instructors

Design document: 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: 3 points assigned by voting
(2/3 students + 1/3 guests and instructors)


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 a basic concept for the game

Then, just meet the deadlines!


which development tools?

there are several options and we usually

let students choose whatever they prefer

during the lectures we use Unity

because is free and multiplatform

PC, OSX, IOS, ﬂash, Android

but you are welcome to use whatever you like! such as


Syllabus


Course Bibliography

• 

27

Main texts on game design

Tracy Fullerton. Game Design Workshop,
Second Edition. Morgan Kaufmann 2008.

Jesse Schell. The Art of Game Design
Morgan Kaufmann 2008

Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman.
Rules of Play. MIT Press 2003

§ 
§ 
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• 

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.polimigamecollective.org

http://www.gamasutra.com

Papers, chapters, blogs, videos, software, etc.

§ 
§ 
§ 


Some Indie Games You Should Play

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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/

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28

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-thetitans/

BOH
http://www.bohthegame.com/

Minecraft
http://www.minecraft.net/

Limbo
http://limbogame.org/

Your Homework?

29

•  Install STEAM on your computer
http://store.steampowered.com/

•  STEAM is a digital distribution,

digital rights management,
used to distribute games and related media online,
from small independent developers to larger software houses.

•  Install MAME (mamedev.org) and the Super Nintendo Emulator

•  Then, play, play, play, play …


Some Readings to Start

30

•  Chapter two of the textbook

•  Chapter one of the book “The Design of Everyday Things”

•  http://www.indiegames.com/

•  http://www.indievault.com/

•  http://www.igf.com/


Download Now!

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31

Bad Blood (Windows Phone)
http://www.badbloodgame.net/
http://www.windowsphone.com/it-it/store/app/badblood/cb9abd2b-0c21-461f-b547-7f9260f229a1

Color Rush (Windows Phone)

http://www.windowsphone.com/it-it/store/app/colorush/fe15bd97-1613-45ed-b275-89396df51fe9

Dirty Little Bunnies (iphone)
http://www.dirtylittlebunnies.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dirty-little-bunnies/id519029146?mt=8

Doodle Willy (iphone)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doodle-willy/id536931422?mt=8

Graffiti Heaven (iphone/ipad/android)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/graffiti-heaven/id527866000?mt=8

In Verbis Virtus (Windows)
http://www.indomitusgames.com/

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92931112searchtext=in+verbis+virtus

A Pixel Escape (Xbox Live)
http://apixelescape.com
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/A-Pixel-Escape/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550b43

Coming soon: Xenophonic Magnifico


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