Assignments
| Assignment | Topic | Weight | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Game Jam Assignment -- Basic Level & Character Design | 5% | Fri Jan 13 (or Sat Jan 14, if attending the game jam) |
| A2 | Game Jam Assignment -- Advanced Game Elements | 5% | Fri Jan 20 (or Sat Jan 14, if attending the game jam) |
In response to the growing culture of game jams in the game design community, there will be two game jam assignments taking place from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, January 14th and Saturday January 21st. During that time, you will create a basic game with another person (design in the morning, implementation in the afternoon), and showcase your game to the instructor at the end of the jam.
Participation in the jam is highly encouraged. However, if it's impossible to attend, you may also create a game on your own and submit the result to the TAs for the course by emailing it to 404ta@cs.utoronto.ca, along with complete instructions on how to run your game. Assignments submitted that way are due before 8:59:59am on Friday morning.
A note from Dave (past year's TA) about assignment submissions:
Make sure to include your entire project folder in your submission - a zip file containing it all is fine. Also, you should include a "ReadMe" text file that specifies which file contains the code necessary to start your game running. What we're essentially looking for the very beginnings of a complete, fully playable game - you should, in some sense, be able to "play" it; control some aspect of it with the keyboard or mouse, even if it is simple. There doesn't need to be a story, or an objective for the player to complete (though that would be nice), but it should be working towards something that you think a user would actually enjoy playing. You needn't go overboard with fancy textures or character models, but there should be some evidence of effort.
Note that while these two assignments are primarily skill-building exercises, you must submit an actual game in the end. Put some thought into the making something that the TAs can enjoy, not just something they can interact with. Also, recreating the tutorial levels is not sufficient to get full credit for the assignment.
If you cannot make it to the game jam sessions
People who participate in the game jam sessions enjoy a great advantage over those who don't, if only because they provide an opportunity to meet potential group members in both the UofT and OCADU classes. They also teach you how to make a quick, playable game prototype, and then iterate on that prototype to make a full game. It's also the best way to learn how to use a game design tool, with classmates and TAs present to help answer questions.
Also, the second game jam coincides with a game hackathon that is run by a local game company. If you enter this game jam event, whatever you make can also be submitted as your second assignment.
However, if you aren't able to attend these game jam sessions (part-time job, family reasons, religious reasons, etc), then you can create a game on your own, and submit it to the TAs for marking, as was done in the past. Here are the details you'll need in order to submit assignments this way.
Assignment 1
For this assignment, you must pick a 3D game development tool, and create a basic level with sprites, objects and a heads-up display (HUD). Suggested development tools are Unity, Unreal, XNA, Irrlicht, or Android/iOS, to name a few.
Some documentation to get you started:
- The page of Unity tutorials.
- A video tutorial on XNA on the Creator's Club site.
Note: if you participate in the game jam, you do not have to create this on your own and hand it in through the TA's email account. However, if you were unable to participate in the game jam, make sure that you've uploaded your completed level to DropBox or some other file sharing utility, and sent the TAs a link to your uploaded game.
Assignment 2
For this assignment, you must enhance the skills that you used for Assignment 1, by implementing enhanced interactions between the character and the environment. At a minimal level, this includes the following:
- connected levels,
- the ability for the character to move around and interact with the objects and other elements of the environment,
- some appropriate character animation to reflect the character's movement,
- a splash screen to start the level,
- some update to the heads-up display during these interactions.
This assignment focuses on enhancing the skills your learned in Assignment 1. You must produce a short but high-quality game, that illustrates how your skills are at the same level as the game jam participants.