Students

COMP3150 – Games Project A

2022 – Session 1, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

Download as PDF
Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor
Mitchell McEwan
mitchell.mcewan@mq.edu.au
Contact via email
by appointment
Lecturer
Cameron Edmond
cameron.edmond@mq.edu.au
Contact via email
by appointment
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
130cp at 1000 level or above including (COMP2150 or COMP260 or COMP2160)
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

Students will work in groups to create a video game using a commercial-level game engine. This will enable them to apply their previously acquired skills in video game design and development to a substantial project. Teams will be expected to develop their own concept for the game and validate it through the production of a vertical slice. This will require creative design, the production of supporting documentation, quality control, and other associated skills and concepts. Teams will be expected to produce a compelling game proposal and meet regular agreed milestones as well as producing game documentation and conducting playtesting to evaluate their game prototype.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Apply agile development processes (prototyping and playtesting) to complete concept and pre-production phases of a video game design and development project.
  • ULO2: Establish a self-managing team and practise shared accountability to deliver on agreed milestones.
  • ULO3: Communicate the target experience and core mechanics of a game design to a variety of audiences in both oral and written form.
  • ULO4: Design the core mechanics of a game in order to achieve a desired player experience.
  • ULO5: Independently reflect on and research game design and development roadblocks in order to overcome early production challenges with creative solutions.
  • ULO6: Conduct user research to evaluate game prototypes and find areas for improvement.
  • ULO7: Evaluate your own performance through self-reflection.

General Assessment Information

Peer Assessment

The group-work component of the assessment (Project Plan & Design Document, Milestones, Playtesting Plan & Document) will be marked in common for all group members, but individual marks will be modulated based on peer assessment feedback regarding contributions and performance.

All work submitted should be readable and presented in a professional format to industry standards.

Policy on Late Assessment

No extensions will be granted except in cases of special consideration (see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/special-consideration). Students who have not submitted any work for an assessment item prior to the deadline will be awarded a mark of 0 for that item (except for special consideration cases). Plan to submit early. As you are working in a team and are expected to perform risk management, sickness or other misadventure affecting individual members needs to be planned for and managed.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Elevator Pitch 6% No 5pm on 27/2/22
Pitch 5% No 5pm on 6/3/22
Project Plan 5% No 5pm on 20/3/22
Milestones 24% No Weeks 5-14
Playtesting plan 5% No 5pm on 24/4/22
Final game 15% No 5pm on 5/6/22
Design Document 15% No 5pm on 12/6/22
Playtesting report 10% No 5pm on 12/6/22
Post-mortem 15% No 5pm on 19/6/22

Elevator Pitch

Assessment Type 1: Presentation
Indicative Time on Task 2: 4 hours
Due: 5pm on 27/2/22
Weighting: 6%

 

A pitch for a novel game idea to the class in a 2 minute oral presentation.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Communicate the target experience and core mechanics of a game design to a variety of audiences in both oral and written form.

Pitch

Assessment Type 1: Presentation
Indicative Time on Task 2: 7 hours
Due: 5pm on 6/3/22
Weighting: 5%

 

A group presentation pitching a game idea to an audience of industry professionals for feedback & criticism.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Communicate the target experience and core mechanics of a game design to a variety of audiences in both oral and written form.
  • Design the core mechanics of a game in order to achieve a desired player experience.
  • Independently reflect on and research game design and development roadblocks in order to overcome early production challenges with creative solutions.
  • Conduct user research to evaluate game prototypes and find areas for improvement.

Project Plan

Assessment Type 1: Report
Indicative Time on Task 2: 7 hours
Due: 5pm on 20/3/22
Weighting: 5%

 

A written project plan that iterates on your pitch, incorporating feedback from industry, and also including details of how you plan to work together as a group to achieve your vision.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply agile development processes (prototyping and playtesting) to complete concept and pre-production phases of a video game design and development project.
  • Establish a self-managing team and practise shared accountability to deliver on agreed milestones.
  • Communicate the target experience and core mechanics of a game design to a variety of audiences in both oral and written form.
  • Design the core mechanics of a game in order to achieve a desired player experience.
  • Independently reflect on and research game design and development roadblocks in order to overcome early production challenges with creative solutions.

Milestones

Assessment Type 1: Project
Indicative Time on Task 2: 40 hours
Due: Weeks 5-14
Weighting: 24%

 

A series of milestone reports describing allocation of tasks to individual team members and reporting on your progress both as individuals and as a team.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply agile development processes (prototyping and playtesting) to complete concept and pre-production phases of a video game design and development project.
  • Establish a self-managing team and practise shared accountability to deliver on agreed milestones.

Playtesting plan

Assessment Type 1: Qualitative analysis task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 10 hours
Due: 5pm on 24/4/22
Weighting: 5%

 

A report describing your plans for the playtests you intend to conduct on your game.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Conduct user research to evaluate game prototypes and find areas for improvement.

Final game

Assessment Type 1: Creative work
Indicative Time on Task 2: 0 hours
Due: 5pm on 5/6/22
Weighting: 15%

 

Final game prototype demonstrated to industry representatives.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Design the core mechanics of a game in order to achieve a desired player experience.
  • Independently reflect on and research game design and development roadblocks in order to overcome early production challenges with creative solutions.

Design Document

Assessment Type 1: Design Task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 10 hours
Due: 5pm on 12/6/22
Weighting: 15%

 

A report thoroughly describing of the final game mechanics of the game, justified in terms of the effect they are intended to achieve.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Communicate the target experience and core mechanics of a game design to a variety of audiences in both oral and written form.
  • Design the core mechanics of a game in order to achieve a desired player experience.
  • Independently reflect on and research game design and development roadblocks in order to overcome early production challenges with creative solutions.

Playtesting report

Assessment Type 1: Qualitative analysis task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 10 hours
Due: 5pm on 12/6/22
Weighting: 10%

 

A report describing the outcomes of the playtesting process and how the results influenced the design.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Conduct user research to evaluate game prototypes and find areas for improvement.

Post-mortem

Assessment Type 1: Reflective Writing
Indicative Time on Task 2: 10 hours
Due: 5pm on 19/6/22
Weighting: 15%

 

A reflective report describing what went well and what went badly in both the final game design and in the process of working as a team.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply agile development processes (prototyping and playtesting) to complete concept and pre-production phases of a video game design and development project.
  • Establish a self-managing team and practise shared accountability to deliver on agreed milestones.
  • Evaluate your own performance through self-reflection.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

Classes

Classes will largely focus on a mix of presentations/pitches, Scrum-style consultations with the lecturers, milestone demonstrations and playtesting. The class schedule will be published on iLearn. 

Required and Recommended Texts

There is no prescribed text for this unit. However we recommend:

  • Agile Game Development with Scrum, by Clinton Keith. Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (June 2, 2010) ISBN-13: 978-0321618528
  • The Game Production Toolbox, by H. M. Chandler, CRC Press, ISBN-13: 978-1-138-34170-8

Unit Website

Please login to iLearn at http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/

Technologies Used and Required

The technologies used will depend on the needs of your project. You will have access to the games lab computers and the software on them, which will feature the Unity game development engine and other creative tools. See iLearn for the version of Unity used on the lab computers. Extra required software may be added to these computers if a good case can be made for it.

Although dependent on the needs and scope of your group's project, there will likely be a need for the use of personal computing devices and software to support game development (for example, when the lab is not open/available). Sourcing and compatibility with the provided lab resources will be students' responsibility.

Unit Schedule

Week Class Topic
1 Unit Intro and Agile Project Management for Game Development
2 Elevator Pitches
3 Full Game Pitches
4 Milestone 1 Demonstrations (A Groups)
5 Milestone 1 Demonstrations (B Groups)
6 Milestone 2 Demonstrations (A Groups)
7 Milestone 2 Demonstrations (B Groups)
  Mid Semester Break (Milestone 3 Development & Playtesting)
8 No Class (Milestone 3 Development & Playtesting)
9 Milestone 4 Demo's & Playtesting (A Groups)
10 Milestone 4 Demo's & Playtesting (B Groups)
11 Milestone 5 Demo's & Playtesting (A Groups)
12 Milestone 5 Demo's & Playtesting (B Groups)
13 Group Demonstrations of Games

 

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via AskMQ, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Changes from Previous Offering

No major changes from previous offerings.

Unit information based on version 2022.04 of the Handbook