Game Development

Fridays, Spring 2007 -- 10:00-12:00 room 3A14 & 13:00-15:00 GameLab plus
one day of independent group production work

Teachers: T.L. Taylor (tltaylor@itu.dk) (office: 2D18, phone: 7218 5035) & Jesper Juul (jjuul@itu.dk) (office: 2D20, phone 7218 5039)
Teaching assistant: Kasper Skovgaard Kristensen, kaos@itu.dk & Anders Rosendal arosendal@gmail.com

Course Description: The objective of this course is to give you a practical & conceptual introduction to game development as well as the relevant theory behind game technologies. The focus of the course is on the development of a 3D games and working within a formal team context.

After successful completion of the course you should be able to:

• explain phases in game development (from idea to product)
• discuss the various team roles on a development project
• produce a method and schedule for a production
• describe basic game system architecture
• discuss level design
• integrate 3D games engines into your production process
• address the issue of AI, animation, and sound for a game production

The hand-in: The final product for this course is a written project that includes:

• Design document
• Development plan
• Written reflection on the dev process
• The game

The game:

• Must be graphically 3D,
• Created in the Source engine (unless the team can provide - by showing a previous production - evidence they should be allowed to know another engine sufficiently well as not to be an obstacle to their progress).
• Should be of the size and scope of a game entered into the Independent Games Festival.(http://www.igf.com/)
• Should be able to be put on the web and could get feedback on it beyond "this is not playable", and
• Should be playable for at least 20 minutes (can be quick sessions but then repeatability becomes a factor)

Literature: TBA.

Examination: External examiner, 13-point marking scale, B4: Oral examination with written work but without time for preparation at the exam. The hand-in must be submitted by May 23rd at the Exam Office no later than 3 PM. Exams then take place June 15, 18, 19.

Feb 2 – Introduction - Lecturers: TL & Jesper

Lecture

• Go over class content.
• Explain difference between this course and game design.
• Explain what is possible on this course.
• Show some stuff from Indie Game Competition, mod competitions.

Lab exercises

• None, but Nordic Game Jam lecture on Source, AUD 2 18:00-20:00
  

Feb 9 – Development Methodology & Teams - Lecturer: Miguel Sicart

Readings

• "Team Roles and the Pipeline" from Game Level Design (handout)
• "Game Production Overview" from The Game Production Handbook (handout)

Lab exercises

• Introduction to the Game Lab by Kasper Skovgaard Kristensen
• Getting in teams and assigning roles (lead designer, lead programmer, etc and someone on the team taking on project management).
• Team name, member names, email addresses, and roles (making sure to specify who is handling project management) sent to TL before Feb 16.
  

Feb 16 – Content Pipeline - Lecturer: Christian Rask Larsen, Deadline

Readings

• Noel Llopis: "Optimizing the Content Pipeline". Game Developer Magazine, April 2004.

Lab exercises

• Crash course in Source. Lecturer: Palle Ehms.

Production tasks - Jesper's slides on production tasks due next week

1. Make a 1-page game concept document (See Tim Ryan's "Guidelines for a Game Concept".
2. Begin paper prototyping, begin exploration of tool and possibilities for the design
3. Make a development plan for the production (schedule, tasks, etc.)
4. Send concept doc and dev plan as a pdf - with your team name clearly stated - to TL before next Friday. (Note if you have not finalized a team name you need to do so.)

Feb 23 – Project management - Lecturer: Rune Vendler

Readings

• "Scheduling and Budgets" in Game Design and Development (handout)
• Birdwell, Ken. "The Cabal: Valve's Design Process For Creating Half-Life". Gamasutra, December 10, 1999.
• Hamann, Wolfgang. "Goodbye Postmortems, Hello Critical Stage Analysis". Gamasutra, July 27 2003. (registration required)

• Read a few postmortems of games at Gamasutra. How did their schedule work? What can we learn? (registration required)

Production tasks

1. Really get a Gamasutra account if you haven't already.
2. Have Wiki and CVS/SVN in place.
3. All team members try working with the tools they are going to work with.
4. Try out content pipeline: Create 3d model, import into engine.
5. Try out content pipeline: Create sound, import into engine.
6. Try out content pipeline: Make a level, try playing it.Revisit development schedule and concept document: Does it need to be changed?

March 2 – Level Design - Lecturer: Ruddi Oliver Bodholdt Dal, Lead level designer, Deadline

Readings

• "Prototyping and Building Playfields" (handout)
• "Level Design Resource Guide". Gamasutra, 2001.

Production tasks

1. Make a Critical stage analysis.
2. Make a small corner of the game, perhaps a single room with graphics, sound, and gameplay logic. (A "slice".) schedule and concept document: Does it need to be changed?

March 9 – Technology Evaluation and Engine Architecture - Lecturer: Gorm Lai, Deadline

Readings

• 3.6, "Game Architecture". in IGD
• "Technical Review" in GDD

Production tasks

1. A corner of the game should be playable.

March 16 – Physics, Collision Detection - Lecturer: Gorm Lai, Deadline

Readings

• 4.2 and 4.3 in IGD
• "Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence in Games" in GDD

Production tasks

1. Preproduction complete. See checklist "Game Production Overview", page 9.
2. Plan production. Reconsider schedule.
3. Email TL & Jesper an updated plan and design doc

March 23 – Textures & Lighting - Lecturer: Anette Kreutzberg

Readings

• "A Little Light Theory" from Essential CG Lighting Techniques with 3D Max
• selection from "Creating Custom Textures"

Production tasks

1. Work on production.

March 30 – Characters & Animation - Lecturer: Timothy Evison, IO

Readings

• 5.2 in IGD
• "Part I: First Impressions" in Katherine Isbister: Better Game Character: A Psychological Approach. San Fransisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann 2006. p. 1-40.

Production tasks

1. Work on production.

April 6 – Spring holiday

April 13 – AI - Lecturer: Christian Rask Larsen, Deadline

Readings

• Damian Isla, "Handling Complexity in the Halo2 AI"
• Michael Mateas, "Expressive AI". Leonardo: Journal of the International Society for Arts, Sciences, and Technology 34 (2), 2001. 147-153.
• Andrew Stern, "Creating Emotional Relationships With Virtual Characters". In Emotions in Humans and Artifacts, eds. R. Trappl, P. Petta, and S.Payr, MIT Press, April 2003.

Production tasks

1. Work on production.

April 20 – Audio Design and Production - Lecturer: Henriette Mos

Readings

• Complete Guide to Game Audio excerpt, Marks
• The Soundscape excerpt, Schafer
• Audio for Games, Brandon
• optional: Hvad er Lyd (Danish only), Simon

Production tasks

1. Work on production.

April 27 – User Testing (Usability & Play Testing) - Lecturer: TL

Readings

Production tasks

1. Playtest.
2. Apply lessons learned to game

May 4 – Holiday

May 11 – QA Testing - Lecturer: Jacob Buck, IGDA

Readings

• 3.5 in IGD
• "Completing the Game" in GDD

Production tasks

1. QA test your game.

May 18 – Developer/publisher relations, The Pitch - Lecturer: Jacob Buck, IGDA

Readings

• "Marketing the Game" & "Economics of the Game Industry" in GDD
• 7.3 in IGD

Production tasks

1. Polish.
2. Make an informal postmortem.

May 23 before 15:00 – Hand-in due

June 1 – Play Day

June 18 & 19 – Exams