L3 Game Project

Introduction

This page will guide you through the development process of the game you have already designed earlier in the year.

The development process will take around 12 weeks, which sounds like a long time but it really isn't. In order to manage your time, you'll need to pick up a whole new skill set called "Agile Development"

Agile Development is something used comprehensively in the software industry. Put simply, it breaks down development into three "Sprints" of development, each one contains:

Planning
Development and testing
User Testing and Feedback
Reflection that informs the next sprint planning

This helps you as the developer to get user feedback and adjust your project as you go to ensure you deliver a better product, on time.

Your Development Log

Open up your Development Log Document on Schoology

This document will be your only document for this entire project.

It will contain a record of all your planning, development, testing and feedback for your game and will be assessed against AS91907 Processes and AS91903 Media Outcome for 10 credits.

Yes, 10 credits for managing a project to develop a game. Easy huh?

The following Web page support your development process.

Task #1: Understand Agile Project Management

Together, Agile and Kanban help game designers make games that are fun, flexible, and easy to manage. They're like the power-ups that make game development smoother and more exciting!

There are a fair few new terms to understand like Agile, Backlog, Kanban, Feedback Loops, Roadblocks, Roles and Tasks and software tools like Trello to help you.

Watch the video and understand how to better manage your project.

Task #2: Understand Team Roles

Read the following team roles. Choose who is going to do what in your team and work to your strengths.

The ideal team number is THREE

More is not better as more time is wasted coordinating and less time is available actually developing. Most often, one team member is project manager AND another role. Discuss with your teacher and discuss with your team and make a decision. Then make sure you understand your responsibilities for the rest of this project.

Project Manager

The project manager is NOT the boss of everyone! They should be a good communicator and team member (as well as doing another role within the team). The role of the project manager is to:

Create and manage the project “board” (Trello)
Coordinate and help document the teams planning for the project and for each sprint
Facilitate the “Stand-ups” as you sit down ready to start work for the day to help keep team on track and communicating
Facilitate and document testing (at milestones, google forms etc.)
Run the sprint retrospective (discussion after sprint testing and feedback gained)
Coordinate tasks within team
Communicate with the team
Try to resolve problems regarding project progress and roadblocks WITH the team.
Keep a personal development log
Testing and Trialling

Programmer

This team member should be an expert in programming. The programmer deals with giving the game its behaviour. They will often be working with “developer art” or placeholder graphics to create the game’s code so it behaves the way it should. Their main role is to:

Manage their tasks in the overall project board
Break down tasks into achievable steps
Plan/Code/Test each step.
Coordinate with the level designers and artists to ensure you are on the right track
Keep a personal development log
Participate in the stand-ups, sprint reviews and project planning meetings
Testing and Trialling

Level Designer

This team member should be an expert in the game engine. This job is harder than it seems and needs an organised person who can coordinate well with their team and integrate the components as they become available as well as adding polish to the game.

Their main role is to:

Manage the “master” project and its versions including the collaboration.
Manage their tasks in the overall project board
Integrate tested art and code assets into the main project for further testing
Create the game levels (eg. terrain, or blocking out the level before the art assets are complete)
Create level lighting in line with the project goals
Create particle systems
Create/Edit materials for the models in-game.
Integrate audio into the game
Create UI elements (menu/hud etc)
Keep a personal development log
Participate in the stand-ups, sprint reviews and project planning meetings
Testing and Trialling

Artist

This team member should be an expert in game art tools like Piskel, Inkscape or Blender.

Artists define the “look” of the game and usually have a real attention to detail.

Their main role is to:

Manage their tasks in the overall project board
Create art assets for the game (characters/props/static background etc)
Create animations (if required)
Keep a personal development log
Testing and Trialling
Participate in the stand-ups, sprint reviews and project planning meetings

Task #3: Planning

As a group, begin planning your Project Backlog in Trello. The backlog should contain all the tasks that you think your game will need. And remember, you are using Agile so this can change and adapt as you begin development.

Make sure your Trello board’s visibility is public so that your teacher can see it. And make sure all members of your team are added to the board.

Now that you understand team roles and project managment add detailed tasks for each of the things you need in the most basic version of your game. Allocate those tasks to individual members of the team and ensure that the tasks are “bite sized” enough that they can be done in 1-3 lessons. Anything more and the task needs to be broken down further.

Add your Trello Board link to your development log and get it checked off by your teacher before beginning development.

Task#4: Begin Iterative Development

Using your Development as a guide, you will begin development and project management of your game. This will be three sprints of 4 weeks approximately, details and dates will be decided by your teacher.

You must record your progress at regular intervals in your Development Log. Each Sprint includes:

Sprint Goals
Screenshots and descriptions of each task YOU complete. As this is a group exercise, this helps your teacher assess your contribution to the overall project.
A delivered and publicly testable game (usually on https://itch.io/ )
The results of testing and feedback
A reflection on the project progress and feedback to help inform the next sprint.

It is your responsibility to manage your project and meet ALL project milestones as decided by your teacher. The project should iteratively improve over the course of the project. Don't worry- no-one is ever happy with their game at the end of sprint1!

As a general rule.

Sprint #1 focuses on functionality and uses a lot of placeholder graphics. By the end of the sprint you MUST be able to play your game and get feedback on gameplay. Good projects have basic functionality by the time they are here.
Sprint #2 is about polish. You should be replacing the placeholder graphics with proper sprites or models and adding more levels, menus and audio.
Sprint #3 is about adding “Juice”- Refining the levels based on feedback, adding audio, particle systems, lighting, UI and refining the existing content.

Task #5: Project Complete, time to reflect

At the end of your project, you will need to complete a Final Reflection outlining your contribution to the project with specific example.

This is your chance to impress your teacher.

You will also need to reflect on your project management process. This allows you to discuss how the planning, testing, trialling and feedback helped you to make your game. Finally, you must describe how your game addresses some of the relevant implications that you discussed earlier in the development process.

All these reflections are required for the assessment before you submit your development log.

Well done and hopefully you are proud of what you made!

Take one last look over your development log to ensure every question is answered and it's as good as it can be.

Then submit your development for marking.

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