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# Game Project assignment instructions
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## 1. Create/build/form your game development team
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The first task in order to establish a performing team is to get to know each other. For that, do the first two assignments.
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You should read guidelines presented in TeamBuildingToolkit (found in Optima) in order to understand different stages in team building and to achieve performing stage ASAP. Start designing your game in a group of five (+/- one) persons.
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Every team member has to have at least one specific task (role descriptions saved from http://creativeskillset.org/creative_industries/games/job_roles) and in this course the leader typically participates at least in one of following roles needed in the group:
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* Project Lead (Producer, Project Manager);
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* Game Designer
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* (Head/Lead) Programmer
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* Creative Director / (Lead/Technical) Artist
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In addition, you might consider having the following roles: Animator, Level Editor, Audio Engineer, Quality Assurance Technician (aka Tester), and External Producer. Prepare to change role during the project; you might start, for example, as a game designer and end up to write code for the game.
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The third assignment is to describe yourself so that others get an idea about your skills as a game developer and team member. Then discuss and decide: 1) the name of your team; 2) internal communication (channels, tools, meeting times etc.); and 3) your team goals (based on your personal goals: what do you want to learn, what grade you are aiming at etc.; this should be written in your personal learning report). Other topics for discussion: funding, IPR issues, contracts/agreements.
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More instructions can be found from http://gamecareerguide.com/ and http://creativeskillset.org/creative_industries/games.
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## 2. Create documents
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In this Game programming project course, you will create the following documents:
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***Game project plan:***
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- Name of your project
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- Objectives for the project
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- Contact information list; roles in this project (see list above)
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- Communication plan (this was decided during the phase 1, see above)
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- Phase/task list (features taken from the game design document) => schedule (Gantt chart or similar) and workload estimates
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- Risk management plan (list potential risks, evaluate their severity and probability, plan mitigating actions and actions if risk comes true)
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***Game synopsis document(s) (1-3 pages): list the different ideas from your team and illustrate at least the following in order to decide which game idea would be the best:***
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- Name of your game
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- Game idea, background story, depict its' world (=> synopsis; read instructions)
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- Aim of the game
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- Players actions in game
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In addition, consider illustrating player and game interactions (how they apply to each other); the appearance of game (graphics etc.); user interface (between game and the player); level design; and technical requirements in brief (no details, the idea is to get reader interested / exited about your game idea).
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***Game Design Document***
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Check wiki for instructions!
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In the end you should have:
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* Video of your Paper Prototype
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* Game Design Document (10-40 pages)
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* Game Project Plan
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* Review (test), memos from internal meetings, and other documents during the development phase
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* Presentation (see below; utilize your game project website/github)
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* Final report (lessons learned; post-mortem): what did you learn, what went wrong, what went right => best practices; self-evaluation (process, outcomes); improvement suggestions (for yourselves and for this course); self-evaluation (grade for the project group and, if you want to emphasize the effort of someone or for some other reason to divide the grade, personal grade suggestions; and continuation plan: what shall you do next (new platforms, levels etc.)
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If you want, you can create just one document containing both the project plan and game design. We strongly recommend using wiki (Github) for your game development. You can choose the tools you need in your game development project (e.g. Bugzilla, Testlink etc.) helping to keep your game project related information up-to-date.
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# 3. Production: create your game (prototype)
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You should be aware that normally developing a full-featured game takes time (sometimes several years). In this course, you have only a couple of months to finish your first game. Therefore, try to build a prototype containing only the core features (so called minimum viable product, MVP) first. It is a good practice to illustrate your idea (e.g. by creating UI mock-ups) and get feedback from your friends and actually from anybody who is willing to offer their time to evaluate your game idea.
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# 4. Check that you have done everything
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You can and should use [checklists](https://github.com/JAMK-IT/TTOW0211-221-game-development/blob/master/checklists.md) provided by H. M. Chandler in the Game production handbook.
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# 5. Final presentation & Video Demo
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In final presentation you should show your demo video and have a small presentation after. There's approximately 15-20min per group. Prepare some time for questions!
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Presentation slides (or othe media) should include:
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* Title page with logo and characters
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* “Game overview” page with short game description, title, genre, age range, release date, number of players
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* “Key strengths” page with “what is new”, “why the market needs it,” and three key selling points
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* “Universe” page with core spirit of game universe, scenario, art style, characters
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* “Gameplay” page with player’s actions and control, rules, player objectives, challenge
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* “Game structure” page with game flow, game modes (i.e. multiplayer), length and duration, replay value
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* “Lessons learned” page.
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* “Competitors” page, with an explanation as to why your team and your concept are better
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* Conceptual images
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Also make a demonstrative video about your game on Youtube! It should last 5-10min and show us some gameplay footage.
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