Unit Guide

General Information

Unit convenor and teaching staff	Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor Malcolm Ryan malcolm.ryan@mq.edu.au Contact via email by appointment Lecturer Mitchell McEwan mitchell.mcewan@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, however 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

Students enrolled in session based units with written assessments will have the following late penalty applied. Please see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/assessments for more information.

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7^th day (including weekends). After the 7^th day, a grade of '0' will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical concerns.

For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, students need to submit an application for Special Consideration.

Assessments where Late Submissions will be accepted

In this unit, late submissions will be accepted as follows:

Milestones – YES, Standard Late Penalty applies
Elevator Pitch - NO, unless Special Consideration is granted
Pitch - NO, unless Special Consideration is granted
Project Plan – YES, Standard Late Penalty applies
Playtesting Plan – YES, Standard Late Penalty applies
Final Report – YES, Standard Late Penalty applies
Final Game – YES, Standard Late Penalty applies
Playtesting Report – YES, Standard Late Penalty applies
Postmortem – YES, Standard Late Penalty applies

Assessment Tasks

Name	Weighting	Hurdle	Due
Milestones	24%	No	Weeks 5-14
Playtesting report	10%	No	Jun 10
Pitch	5%	No	Mar 4
Project Plan	5%	No	Mar 18
Design Document	15%	No	Jun 10
Vertical Slice	15%	No	Jun 3
Playtesting plan	5%	No	Apr 22
Post-mortem	15%	No	Jun 17
Elevator Pitch	6%	No	Feb 25

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.