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A proposal is a technical document that outlines what you are planning on making. It should include all the details about the outcome and it should fall out of the discussion in your inquiry or at Year 11 in between others in class and includes the details about the digital outcome.
The proposal should be a short document that is no longer than 2-3 pages and clearly outlines what digital outcome you are going to create.
Before you start with a project it can be useful to ask the question: Who needs what and why?
This can sometimes be called a "Product Concept Statement"
Context
Context
The context is the background information. It's the situation that forms the setting for your idea. You should be able to copy and paste the context from your inquiry and depending on where your inquiry lead, you may need to adjust. Remember this can be a story, a sentence, a paragraph, a statement.
Context Examples
Context Examples
"I love gaming."
"Since I was little I have always loved drawing and would really like to take my drawings further."
Problem and/or Issue
Problem and/or Issue
What problem/issue have you identified through your research. Use the below bullet points to help you write it:
Describe the problem/issue, giving the basic facts about it.
Explain what has gone wrong.
Specify the causes or the origin of the problem
Describe the significance of the problem/issue (short term & long term)
Give the appropriate data and state the sources.
Specify who is involved and in what capacity.
Discuss who initiated action on the problem, or what caused you to look at this.
Problem/Issue Examples
Problem/Issue Examples
"the market is flooded with games so how do I make my game successful."
"I don't have the skill level yet and will need to factor learning the skills in."
"Mental health is a huge area."
Scope (what)
Scope (what)
The scope is the work performed to be able to deliver the outcome with its specified features and functions. The scope involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs and deadlines.
It should keep you (and the team) on task. A scope statement is the document listing these boundaries, and articulates project details, provides a project roadmap, helps focus you (and your team members), and prevents projects from expanding.
The better a project has been “scoped” at the beginning, the better you can manage change as well as complete the project effectively.
Scope Examples
Scope Examples
The goal is to create a game that would teach numeracy in a fun and challenging way. Visually and functionally the game should look and perform as described in the specifications and designs. The design for the game is to be completed by [date]. I need to have my game functioning as intended to get tested and feedback by [date] allowing time to refine and improve the outcome. In terms of cost it is just my time and how long it takes me to make. The Deadline for the game to be completed is xxxxxxx.
Scope
Scope
Identify your resources, skills and strengths and try to keep your idea within those bounds.
Minimum Viable Product
Minimum Viable Product
How to take a good idea and distil it down to the one or two key things that make it "fun".
Purpose (why)
Purpose (why)
What is the reason you are proposing to create this digital outcome? There needs to be a reason why your end users/target audience needs your outcome.
Purpose Examples
Purpose Examples
Based on my research there is a gap in the market with fun games that teach this topic.
High school students need my game to teach them the importance of not getting distracted on their phones and prevent injuries.
People with movement deficiencies like the elderly or those with physical disabilities need my trash robot to take their rubbish to the curbside when they can not.
End User / Target Audience (who)
End User / Target Audience (who)
Who is going to use or benefit from the digital outcome? Who are you aiming at developing your product for? Try to aim it at someone in a group you have access to and be specific, don't say “everyone”. When you are developing a target group for your product it can be very useful to pick a group that you have ready access to that you can engage with during the development process.
End User/Target Audience Examples
End User/Target Audience Examples
The game would be aimed at year 7 and 8 students who come to the school for extra tuition.
Requirements
Requirements
What must the outcome contain to be considered successful. What are the goals in broad terms. There should be at least 5 key requirement.
For example for a horror game use bullets points like:
Must be a scary First Person Shooter game
Must be easy to control
Must have simple game mechanics
Must have AI enemies who attack the player
Specifications
Specifications
This is a list of technical and measurable things that the game “will have” or “will be” in order to achieve the requirements. Note that there should be several specifications for every requirement.
Eg. for a game with a requirement of being scary, specs might include:
The game will have dark lighting
The game will have creepy ambient sounds including distant screaming
The game will be single player only
The game will be set in a mental asylum
The game will have zombies
There should be at least one of two specifications explaining how each requirement will be met so there will be more specifications that are requirements. Some specifications may be valid for multiple requirements. In this example "The game will have zombies" may be valid for "Must be a scary First Person Shooter game" and "Must have AI enemies who attack the player"
Resources
Resources
What do you have access to in order make your product:
Who is part of your team?
What skills do they have?
How much time do you have to make it?
(number of periods of class a week + number of hours at home a week) x the number of weeks till it is due = Total hours of the project per person.
To get total hours per team multiply again by the number of team members.
What software are you going to use?
What hardware do you have access to?
These resources could be things that you have access to at home, school, local libraries, club facilities, or anywhere else.
This helps you to judge if a game is in scope, is it do-able with the given resources.
Congratulations you have written your First version of the Proposal!
Congratulations you have written your First version of the Proposal!
You need to get feedback and show iterative versions showing the feedback implemented in it. At least two other versions. Version 2 and Final Proposal.
Further Considerations
Further Considerations
Red flags
Red flags
During your proposal you should start to identify possible risks to your project and start to address them.
For example:
If you have no idea how to make/do something you need to find some resources and check that it is realistic. Additionally you could give yourself an hour and see how much you can actually do.
Humanoid figures are hard. If they are in your project you need to factor in a considerable amount of time working on these or design the game so you don't need to.
You are NOT going to make a multiplayer game- no matter how much you want to. It's your first game! Keep your idea in scope or you will be setting yourself up to fail.
Resources
Resources
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