MTAT.03.263 Computer game development and design
- Lectures: Monday at 16:15, Liivi 2 room 207
- Practice sessions: Friday at 12:15, Ülikooli 17 room 219
- Questions:
- Jaanus Jaggo (jjaggo@ut.ee)
- Margus Luik (mar6@ut.ee)
- Raimond Tunnel (jee7@ut.ee)
- Mailing list: aine.ati.arvutigraafika@lists.ut.ee
- CGLearn: cglearn.codelight.eu
The course will teach the main principals of game design and provide hands on experience of indie game development. You will learn how to design and evaluate game concepts, write design documents and set up a feasible project plan. You will experience how much time game development takes and learn to set their goals accordingly.
By the end of the course, you have finished one smaller and one bigger computer game. You have also experienced the whole development lifecycle and know the main principals of good game design.
For well-balanced teams, all attending students should have either programming or art skills.
Grading
To successfully complete the course you will need to:
- Attend the lectures and read the material in CGLearn.
Lectures will teach you general game design concepts and give you tips to make a good and well-balanced game. Lectures often contain analysis exercises and discussion. Total of 10 points (10% of your grade) will be granted for taking part of the lectures. The CGLearn environment cglearn.codelight.eu should have enough material and examples for you to understand the concepts more clearly and thoroughly at home. - Solve tasks.
There will be a number of game development and design tasks in CGLearn. Those tasks are mostly related to your projects and sometimes require watching an additional design talk. Practice sessions are there to help you with development tasks and give your team personal help for your project. Solving the tasks will grant you 40 points (40% of grade). All tasks have a one-week deadline and they have to be submitted before 12.00 (midday), failing to do so will result in 0 points for that homework. - Complete 2 game projects.
You will have an opportunity to develop 2 small-scale computer game projects in teams of 2-3 (up to 4 in exceptional cases) people. Successful completion will give you 50 points (50% of grade). You will only lose points by missing deadlines. - Bonus points. You can earn additional points to count towards your overall grade:
- Game jam bonus. Participate in the Ludum Dare 37 game jam in December. (10 points)
- Presentation bonus. Read a game development article and give 1h 30m presentation about it (10 points)
The final score is obtained as the sum of all points. Point score is then mapped to the F-A scale in the traditional manner (91+ = A, 81-90 = B, etc)