CSCE/VIST 489: Game Development

Spring 2010


Game Project #2

This project will be the culmination of the work you perform in this class. Unlike project #1, you have no restrictions on your game in terms of 3D/2D or networking or any other technology. However, you should be careful in terms of what you choose as these decisions will have profound consequences for you the rest of the semester. For this project, you should be more ambitious than project #1. This ambition could take several forms in terms of more complex game play, more polished graphics/UI, etc... I will especially try to encourage you to be innovative in your game play. There are hundreds of first-person shooter games available. If you make a first-person shooter game, you are competing against every first-person shooter that has ever been made. They have millions of dollars... you don't. If you create a unique game, you have no competition and people are usually far more forgiving in terms of how polished the game actually is.

There will be five group project presentations for this game where you must present to the class your progress during the last two weeks and the current status of your game. You must also develop a website for your game as well. Similar to project #1, the website should be your showcase for your probject. At a minimum, it should contain screen shots, status updates and a link to download the executable of your game when you're finished.

You may develop your game with whatever tools you have available and whatever language you wish though we suggest looking at using XNA. You may use freely available external libraries as well to develop your game.

This project is a longer project and deadlines are usually very helpful to keep a project on track. Since each of you is developing different games, you will create your own set of milestones along with a grading sheet to evaluate yourself. You will have two sets of milestones: one will be a midterm milestone at 11/4, and the other will be your final milestones for your final presentation. You should list various aspects, both technical and artistic, that you will have done by each date as well as the percent (out of 100%) for each of the items the topic is worth. The tendency groups have is to make milestones vague and require little for the midterm deadline. This defeats the purpose of the milestones and all milestones must be approved by the instructor. Your preliminary list of milestones for the final project is due by 2/19 with the final, approved list of milestones by 2/22. You will have the chance to revise your final milestones after 3/31, but revisions require a justification of why they are taking place.

The final project will be evaluated by a panel (possibly consisting of people from the game industry). Your game itself will be graded based on:

  • Idea/Concept: how innovative the idea of the game was and how well the theme was implemented including how consistent that theme was
  • Aesthetics: the visual aesthetics of the game including color choices, 2D art, animations, 3D geometry/texturing (where applicable) and sound/audio elements. This category also includes placement and function of the UI elements.
  • Technical Difficulty: designed to judge the technical side of the game. Do the algorithms for the game work or are there problems in certain situations? How difficult are the algorithms implemented?
  • Fun & Game play: the various aspects that make the game entertaining and engaging. Is the game fun to play? Does it provide an engaging experience for the player? How complete is the game in terms of both basic interaction as well as game play/goals?

Grading
  • Project Presentations: 6 X 3% each
  • Final Presentation: 7%
  • Game Website: 10%
  • Game: 40%
  • Peer Evaluation: 10%
  • Group-defined Milestones: 15%