Course syllabus

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DAT375 / DIT461 DAT375 / DIT461 Game development project lp2 HT24 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Computer Science and Engineering

Contact details

Discord server

  • You are invited to join the Game Design and Technology Discord server. There is a #game-development-project channel https://discord.gg/8DJ7aMBd63

Zoom Room

A couple of optional sessions will be held on Friday afternoons. These will be in Pauline's Zoom room:  https://chalmers.zoom.us/my/paulinebelfordsmeetingroom

Previous year's projects

Projects from previous years can be found on the idxpo website. Note that the website includes both Interaction Design and Game Development Project projects.

Course purpose

The Game Development Project permits students an opportunity to develop a game of their choice and design. A theme is provided, and students work together in groups to implement and deploy a game that fits into the theme. This course is primarily intended as an opportunity for students to hone the craft of game development - some instruction is provided, but the course is primarily project and supervision based.

Schedule

The course runs in Block B, which is at the following times:

  • Tuesdays 13:15 - 17:00
  • Thursdays 13:15 - 17:00
  • Fridays 13:15 - 15:00

Note that the Friday slot has no associated room booking. The plan is that this will be used for optional lectures and discussions at the beginning of the course, and will then become the default timeslot to be used for Supervision meetings. Student groups should book meeting rooms and schedule a 30 - 45 minute meeting with their supervisor on a weekly basis. However, it may be possible, if your supervisor agrees, to change the timeslot of the supervision meeting. For example, we could do this at some point on the Tuesday or Thursday afternoon on dates when this is a technical support drop-in session rather than a mandatory, structured session such as presentations or playtesting.

Course literature

There is no mandatory literature for the course, though there are non-mandatory texts. It is expected that groups will utilise appropriate literature and articles in the creation of their report. Some recommended texts can be found on the Modules page.

Course timetable

The course timetable is available in the calendar and in the summary below. Where there is a disagreement between TimeEdit and this page, this page is the one you should pay attention to. TimeEdit is a room booking system, not a scheduling system.

Student Representatives and Course Evaluation

These are the (randomly-selected) student representatives for this course:

Chalmers

Miguel Gonçalves miguelgo@chalmers.se

Lukas Jigberg jigberg@chalmers.se

Others TBC

GU

Pia Maria Schröter gusschropi@student.gu.se

Arthur Stolz gusstolar@student.gu.se

Please email Pauline to volunteer as a course rep from Chalmers or from GU.

Voluntary representatives can be added on request. We always seek to get at least a couple of representatives from GU, as it is only Chalmers who sends a list of representatives.

Changes made since the last occasion

  • The course has been decoupled from CIU235 Interaction Design Project. This decision is based both on the growing number of students taking DAT375 / DIT461 Game Development Project, and also the decision of the IxD programme to move CIU235 to a different study period from this year forward.
  • The course does not have an external client this year. That was a CIU235 requirement, and is not a requirement for DAT375/ DIT461. It is less usual for game development projects to be for a single client, and more common for them to be aimed at a target audience.
  • The exhibition this year will be in conjunction with the conference for DAT385 Introduction to Game Research as a showcase of Game Design and Technology projects. It will not be part of the CIU235 Exhibition at Visual Arena as the theme of the projects for the two courses will be different this year.
  • There are additional requirements for the poster this year compared to previous years. The template has been altered to reflect the change in requirements.
  • There is no requirement to create a website for the project this year. These will no longer be hosted on the idxpo site, as this is for the IxD projects. You are however encouraged to upload your games to the itch.io site.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

  • List best practice methodologies for development of computer games and game engines
  • Name standard concepts and terms for describing games, game engines, and game development projects.
  • Apply user evaluation methods in practical projects
  • Apply design & development methods systematically to create and critically compare different possibilities in game development projects
  • Identify needs and requirements of specific intended user groups and stakeholders
  • Motivate design choices in an game development process
  • Conduct an informed analysis of what ethical and societal effects technical solutions can create in a game develop process

 

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

Examination form

This course is project-based, and the assessments are based on the group project. Several components form the basis of the assessment. Note that the Pitch Presentation submission and Conference / Exhibition attendance is mandatory, but does not directly contribute to the final grade (i.e. it is needed to pass the course, but does not otherwise impact on the grade achieved). The assessment consists of the following components:

  • Pitch presentation
    • This is a 15 minute timeslot. The presentation should be around 10 minutes, with time for questions.
  • Mid-project presentation
    • This is a 20 minute timeslot. The presentation should be 10 - 15 minutes, with time for questions.
  • Project
    • The artefact created during the course. This should be a game of some type. For example, it could be a PC game, a mobile phone game, a web-based game, or a VR game. It should be something which can be demonstrated at the exhibition.
  • Report
    • A 5 - 8 page academic report describing the project rationale, development process, results, testing, discussion and evaluation of the project. A template will be provided, but you can make adjustments to the template structure if your supervisor agrees.
  • Poster
    • A research conference style poster describing the project. A template will be provided.
  • Exhibition / Conference
    • The project should be up and running for visitors to the conference/ exhibition to interact with. At least one group member needs to be at your stall at all times, preferably two. All team members should take turns at this task. The poster should be displayed at your stall, in addition to your game demo. The date of this will be during the study week and will be published as soon as we have booked it. This will be in conjunction with the Intro to Game Research course, which requires some coordination.
  • Individual report
    • The individual report is an evaluation of the project and of your individual contribution to the project.

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due