Class Summary, Marking & Schedule

Schedule
Class 1: Introductions & Process
Class 2: Unity recap, advanced asset import, publishing games & game texture
Game 1 due - 25th of September

Class 3 - 27th of September
Class 4 - 4th of October
Class 5 - 11th of October
Game 2 due - 17th of October

Class 6 - 18th of October
No class - 25th of October
Class 7 - 8th of November
Game 3 due - 14th of November

Class 8 - 15th of November
Class 9 - 22nd of November
Class 10 - 29th of November
Class 11 - 6th of November

Game 4 due - 7th of December

Last class - 14th of December from 3 to 5pm in 2-005.

Late submissions due by 3rd of January
Essays due by 5th of January

Marking & Assignments
80% -> 4 Games  over 11 week worth 20% each 
- 8 marks for prototype work
- 8 marks for final submitted game
- 4 marks for presentation on Itch.io

The focus of the class is on getting better at making games and developing our practice. As such there is no 'final project' and instead each of the 5 games we develop are all equally important.

The marks for the prototype go to encouraging students to work on the games consistently and regularly. It's not about the quality of the work so much as how much work has been done so far and marking is generous. 

General rubric (to be used in addition to submission pages):

0%. The student failed to deliver the assignment, or project doesn't work.
40%+. Game submitted which fails to meet the project requirements, has major bugs and/or is very incomplete.
50%+. The game is functional and complete in all of its parts, has beginning, middle and end. Both the execution and the concept are sufficient but not outstanding.
60%+. Good concept and excellent execution. Or, vice versa, excellent idea and good execution.
70%+. Outstanding concept and execution. 

20% -> Research & Reflection 
- 5% Short Presentation
- 15% Development post-mortems & essay

Presentation:
Every two weeks a pre-selected group of students will present some games they've played recently and the techniques and styles they discovered.

Take five games and one/more idea from each (mechanic, aesthetic, narrative, sound, or tool) that inspired/affected the game you are working on currently. These games should be small/indie and new to you that you find via my playlists or via itch.io, rockpapershotgun or similar.

Class A

Wk 11
Ryan Higgins
Ronan Kelly
Brian Monahan
Wk 12
Connor Ryan
Maks Drawowski
Cian Larkin

Jonathan Downes

Class B

Wk 11
Gary O'Reilly
Daniel Porter
Lidiea Sobcenco
Pasin Tipprasert
Wk 12
Ais Sweeney
Stephen Wann
Nicolas Stevenson

Dennis Padraig
Paul Dixon

Essay:
After each game is submitted students will be expected to write a short post-mortem reflecting on the techniques and tools they used, including those taught directly on the course and any the student discovered or researched themselves. Students should pick three things that went right or that they learned and three things that went wrong or can be improved for each of the hour games. (~1400 words, ~350 for each game).

Additionally students will be expected to write a mini analysis of the techniques or tools of a series of games by a specific game creator or studio. (~500 words)

Attendance:
If you come to all 12 classes you'll get a 10% bonus
If you come to 10 or more you'll get a 5% bonus

Essential Reading

Each week I'll include some games to be played and essay/s to be read. In addition throughout the module I expect you to read & refer to the following: 

- Unity 5.x Cookbook, Matt Smith, 2015, Pakt publishing
- Games & Digital Culture/Art news: eg,  Waypoint/Gamasutra
- Game Curators: eg  Free Indie Games/ WarpDoor 

You should find a curator of games and news that you find interesting, particularly outside the mainstream and obvious like Waypoint/Polygon//RPS. Each week I'm going to nominate some of you to tell us about a cool game / thing they played that week. This is part of your notebook & will be marked.

- Pixel Prospector 

This class is just one starting point. Students are encouraged to explore new techniques relevant to the games they make.

You can always contact me at llaura.mcg@gmail.com