Game On

Ever since the earliest computers were built in the 1940s, people have been creating games to play on computers. In 1958, one of the first true video games — called "Tennis for Two" — was created using an oscilloscope (which is a scientific device with a screen that's normally used to view electrical signals). Special paddle inputs were built to play the game.

VIDEO: Tennis for Two - one of the original video games

Up until the 1970s, computers were expensive, large-scale machines used primarily by governments, universities, and large corporations — so very few people were actually able to play these early computer games.

Then in the 1970s, the development of microprocessor chips allowed computers to become much smaller, less expensive, and easier to manufacture. As a result, coin-operated video arcade games (such as Pong, etc.) were introduced into amusement arcades, restaurants, and other public places — quickly becoming a popular form of entertainment.

Soon after, the first personal computers (such as the Apple II, etc.) and gaming consoles (such as the Atari 2600, etc.) became available to consumers, finally bringing video games into people's homes.

Today, about 2.5 billion people across the world play video games — whether they play casual games or consider themselves serious gamers.

• What is it about video games that people like so much?

• What makes certain video games appeal to some people but not to others?

• How can you use a player-centered design process to create a game that people would want to play?

In this project, students will collaborate in small teams to research, design, develop, and evaluate their own technology solution to an authentic challenge. Teams will follow a user-centered design approach which focuses on understanding the goals, needs, expectations, and experiences of the people that will use their technology solution. Evaluation and testing of ideas and prototypes should be integrated throughout the design and development process.

This project has been designed to follow the research-based “Gold Standard” model of Project Based Learning (PBL) developed by the Buck Institute of Education.

This project is intended to be completed throughout a semester-long high school CS course. Here are the estimated times required to complete each project phase:

Assignment Templates

Some of the project assignments include links to Google Drive templates (such as: document, spreadsheet, drawing, etc.). These templates are shared as "View Only." Students must create a copy of the template in order to modify it. (Students should not request edit access, as the file is a master template for all students.)

This project reflects authentic principles and practices currently used in the technology industry. At a high level, this project emphasizes:

• Design Thinking

• Computational Thinking

• Project Management Skills

• 21st Century Success Skills, especially the 4Cs: Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration

It is recommended that each student also complete one or more research reports in parallel to this project. These research reports should be shared with the class (and beyond). These research reports should focus on topics in computing, such as:

• Trends and Innovations in Computing

• Privacy and Ethics in Computing

• Degrees and Careers in Computing

Just as people like different types of books or movies, people like different types of video games. If you're going to design a video game, you'll need to know more about what motivates people to play certain games.

You'll start by taking a survey to determine your own Gamer Motivation Profile. Later in the project, your team will decide which gaming motivations to target for its game concept.

Quantic Foundry is a game analytics consulting company that has gathered data from over 400,000 video game players to construct a scientific model that describes different types of gaming motivations.

This model identified 12 gaming motivations that form into 6 groups. For example, Challenge and Strategy are gaming motivations that belong to the Mastery group.

1. Take the online survey to determine your Gamer Motivation Profile. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete.

2. Record your results in this assignment template.

3. Discuss and compare your results with others in the class.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your Gamer Motivation Profile results

How do we create video games that people want to play?

The class will represent a video game company that is divided into project teams. Each team will design and develop its own video game concept. The teams will help improve each other’s games through feedback and playtesting. At the end of the project, the teams will present their video game demos at a public game convention.

Each team must create a playable demo of a video game that is designed to appeal to players with certain gaming motivations.

You'll use the to create browser-based, 2D video games. You'll use other online tools to create the game's art and sound (such as animated character sprites, sound effects, etc.).

Each phase of the project has a set of team deliverables, but they ultimately lead to these final deliverables from each team:

• Video Game Demo that is available online and ready to play

• Project Poster that shows how your game was created and highlights key features of the game

• Public Presentation that explains your game concept and allows people to play your demo game

Each team's video game must meet these design criteria:

• Innovative: Your game should be unique (can be unique remix of existing game concepts).

• Engaging: Your game should be fun and motivating to play (i.e., match your targeted gaming motivations).

• Functional: Your game's core features should be functional and have no major problems (e.g., no dead ends that prevent player from progressing, etc.). Because your game is a demo, some of your envisioned game features might be limited or missing. However, your core game features should be functional.

• Usable: Your game should provide clear feedback to players and be easy for a new player to learn (e.g., learning the game's controls, objectives, and rules)

• Balanced: Your game mechanics should be fine-tuned to produce your desired gameplay (e.g., balance success vs. failure, risk vs. reward, skill vs. chance, etc.)

Each team's video game is subject to these constraints:

• Browser-based game created using Phaser CE

• 2D game world

• Single player game (or multi-player game that uses same computer – e.g., could be turn-based game, or players could use different keys to play at same time)

Each team will have 2-4 members. Everyone will be a Game Designer, contributing to the ideas, decisions, and work related to the design of their team's game.

In addition, each team member will have at least one other specialized role:

• Programming Lead: leads programming of game code

• Art Lead: leads creation of art and sound assets for game

• Research Lead: leads the playtesting and evaluation of game

• Project Manager: manages team to ensure project completed successfully

Teams of 2 need to designate one person as the Programming Lead and the other person as the Art Lead. The Programming Lead will also serve as the Project Manager, while the Art Lead will also serve as the Research Lead.

Teams of 3 need to designate different people as the Programming Lead, the Art Lead, and the Research Lead. One person (probably the Research Lead) will also need to serve as the Project Manager.

Teams of 4 need to designate different people for each role.

We know that video game players are motivated by different types of gameplay. For example, some players are motivated to play games featuring destruction and competition, some players are motivated by games featuring story and strategy, etc.

Besides the type of gameplay, there are other factors that can keep players motivated and engaged in a game. We can use research findings from psychology to understand factors that motivate people to perform certain behaviors (whether playing a game, doing a task, learning something, etc.).

Two of the possible ways to classify motivations include:

• External vs. Internal — External motivations originate outside ourselves, while internal motivations come from within ourselves.

• Negative vs. Positive — Negative motivations involve painful experiences, while positive motivations involve pleasing experiences.

This model represents these two dimensions for classifying motivations:

This model classifies motivations into four types:

• Negative External Motivation (punishments)

• Positive External Motivation (rewards)

• Negative Internal Motivation (feeling bad)

• Positive Internal Motivation (feeling good)

Video game designers typically use all four of these types of motivations to help keep players engaged in the gameplay through incentives and flow.

External Motivation: Incentives

Rewards and punishments are commonly used in video games to help players learn how the gameplay works and to keep players engaged in the gameplay:

• Rewards in games might include: receiving points, gaining special abilities, etc.

• Punishments in games might include: losing health, losing resources, etc.

An advantage of incentives is they can quickly teach and reinforce desired behaviors. Typically, people will quickly learn the cause-and-effect relationship between their actions and the incentives that result.

However, a disadvantage of incentives is that people will also quickly stop performing a behavior if the rewards or punishments are removed — unless the person has developed some internal motivation to keep performing the behavior.

Internal Motivation: Flow

People will naturally do certain things to avoid pain (e.g., to avoid pain, fear, anxiety, embarrassment, unhappiness, etc.) and seek pleasure (e.g., to feel happy, satisfied, engaged, empowered, etc.). This internal motivation helps us fulfill basic biological, psychological, and social needs. In general, internal motivation is more effective than external motivation at determining people's behavior.

Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi conducted research on happiness, creativity, and motivation in people. He found that people performing tasks can experience a mental state of deep focus and engagement that he called flow. This is sometimes referred to this as "being in the zone" (which is the opposite of "zoning out").

If you're experiencing flow while performing a task:

• You are completely focused on the task (e.g., might forget to eat or rest, etc.).

• You have a feeling of control (e.g., feel confident, know what to do next, etc.).

• You aren't thinking about yourself (e.g., your worries melt away, etc.).

• You lose awareness of time (i.e., usually time will seem to fly by).

• You enjoy doing the task for its own sake (i.e., positive internal motivation).

People can experience flow in many different types of tasks, including: art, music, sports, games, work, hobbies, etc. Experiencing flow requires certain conditions:

• Having clear goals

• Avoiding distractions

• Receiving clear, immediate feedback

• Having proper balance of challenges vs. skills

The challenge of a task plays a critical role in whether or not the person experiences flow. This diagram shows how flow is affected by the challenge of a task compared to the person's skill level:

The diagram reveals several things about challenges vs. skills:

• If the challenge of a task is too high compared to your current skill level, it leads to anxiety (feeling bad) — and you'll probably stop doing the task.

• If the challenge of a task is too low compared to your current skill level, it leads to boredom (feeling bad) — and you'll probably stop doing the task.

• If the challenge of a task is well-matched to your current skill level, it leads to a sense of focus and control (feeling good) — and you'll probably stay engaged in the task. You're probably in a state of flow.

• As you continue to perform a task, your skills tend to increase over time, so the challenges also need to increase at an appropriate rate to keep you in flow (and prevent you from becoming anxious or bored).

Many video games are designed to include the right conditions to encourage a state of flow — such as clear objectives, clear feedback, balancing the game's challenges vs. the player's skills, etc. Including these conditions in your game will typically improve the gameplay experience, even if the player doesn't experience flow.

Assignment

1. Read the information above on external and internal motivations. If necessary, discuss these concepts within your team or as a class. For example, how have you experienced incentives and flow in other tasks besides video games?

3. Discuss your findings from the video game comparisons as a class.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your analysis of incentives and flow in the video games

Each individual will complete the to develop a firm understanding of the technical opportunities and constraints your team will have when designing and coding your own video game with the Phaser CE game framework.

❏ Deliverable

Demonstrate you have completed the assigned tutorials and can discuss how the code works.

Games have certain design elements that help define them as being games — whether it is a board game, a card game, a sport, a video game, etc. If you're going to create a game, you'll need to make design decisions about all the key elements of your game.

For example, we recognize checkers, soccer, and Space Invaders as being examples of games. What do these have in common that define them as being a game?

We would probably agree that one element that all games have is players — people that agree to participate in the game. Checkers needs two players. Soccer needs two teams of players. Space Invaders is a single-player game. Every game has one or more players as part of its design.

Game designers have come up with different ways to define the elements of games. In this assignment, you will come up with a set of game design elements by constructing an affinity diagram.

Constructing an affinity diagram involves three basic steps:

1. Record each piece of information separately. If possible, record the information on index cards or sticky notes (to make it easier to sort the ideas into groups and label the groups). Otherwise, record the information as a list in a document.

2. Sort related pieces of information into groups. You can have as many groups — or as few groups — as you need, based on the patterns in the information. The groups will not necessarily have the same number of pieces of information.

3. Label each group to identify the pattern or relationship it represents. Add the group's label using a new card or note — or add the label to your document.

Assignment

1. Work in a small team (2-4 people) to construct an affinity diagram of the elements that define games. It might help to focus on a small number of specific games (such as: checkers, soccer, Space Invaders, etc.). What are the specific elements that define each game? Record your examples, sort them into groups, and label the groups. When finished, take a photo of your affinity diagram (if you used cards or notes) — or save a copy of your document.

2. Discuss your findings as a class. How similar are they?

❏ Deliverable

Submit the following:

• Document or photo of your team's affinity diagram

• Your analysis of the design elements of an existing game

Affinity Diagram

Your completed affinity diagram will be a document or photo showing related information (ideas, examples, etc.) sorted into groups that are labeled. This example affinity diagram includes a group labeled "Players" with examples from specific games. The other three groups in the diagram don't list specific labels or information (but your diagram should). Your diagram will probably have more than 4 groups. The groups will not necessarily have the same number of pieces of information in them.

Analysis of Design Elements in Game

Your team will create game treatments to summarize your top three game concepts. Then you'll gather external feedback to help select and refine one game concept as your team's proposed project.

A game treatment is a written summary of a game concept that includes concept sketches of the game world and characters.

In the gaming industry, game treatments are used to get feedback on game concepts, as well as to pitch game concepts to get approval and funding to create them. Once a game treatment is approved, the team creates a detailed game design document and then begins to prototype the game.

1. As a team, evaluate and refine your team's game concepts to select your top 3 game concepts.

   • You can critique ideas, filter out ideas, revise ideas, and add new ideas.

   • Be sure your top game concepts match your team's targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals listed in your persona.

   • Be sure your top game concepts seem engaging and innovative — as well as technically feasible to prototype.

2. Use to create a game treatment for each of your team's top 3 game concepts.

   • The written summary will be brief (working title + 3 paragraphs).

   • The concept sketches are just rough mockups. Be sure to include captions or labels for the sketches.

   • Decide on a plan for each team member to contribute to the game treatments by writing, editing, and/or sketching.

   • Be sure the game treatments will make sense to people outside your team, so you can get useful feedback.

3. Pair with another team to critique each other's game treatments.

   • Review one game treatment at a time.

   • The design team should share its target player persona, so the reviewers are aware of the targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals.

   • The reviewers should read the game treatment and then provide constructive feedback and ask questions.

   • The design team can respond to the feedback and ask follow-up questions.

   • Be sure someone on the design team records notes on the feedback.

   • Each game treatment review should take about 5-10 minutes. Repeat until all game treatments for both teams have been reviewed.

4. Within your own team, select one game concept as your team's proposed game.

   • If necessary, refine the game treatment prior to the proposal presentation.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's 3 game treatments (including feedback notes)

example of deliverable

Create a slide presentation that summarizes your team’s proposed video game concept. The presentation is an opportunity for other teams to ask questions and provide feedback to help your team clarify and improve its proposed game concept.

Your team's presentation should include the following (in this order):

1. Project Team: game's working title, team name, team members & their roles

2. Target Player Persona: Describe the persona for your game, including the targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals.

3. Premise: Briefly explain the game's premise — as well as its setting (game world), characters (player and non-player), and story (if applicable). Be sure to include concept sketches of the game world and characters.

4. Objective: Briefly explain the objectives of the game — as well as the conflicts that players will face. If helpful, include concept sketches.

5. Gameplay: Briefly explain how the game is played — as well as key gameplay features. If helpful, include concept sketches.

The presentation should have 5-12 slides and take about 5-10 minutes to deliver.

• Be sure to practice your presentation before delivering it to your class.

• Be sure to record notes on the constructive feedback your team receives.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's slide presentation

Based on the research you completed in the previous assignments, your project team is ready to begin creating its own video game by following a player-centered design process. You'll start by deciding:

• What kind of gameplay experience do you want to design?

• Who are the target players you're designing this game for?

The first step is to select gaming motivations to target for the gameplay experience. Most games target more than one gaming motivation, often from different motivation groups. This can allow the gameplay to be more complex and appeal to more players.

You'll use Quantic Foundry's Gamer Motivation Model, which identifies 12 different gaming motivations that form into 6 motivation groups (Action, Social, Mastery, Achievement, Immersion, and Creativity).

For example, a team might decide to target the gaming motivations of Excitement, Strategy, and Story (which are from the groups of Action, Mastery, and Immersion).

Next, your team will create player experience goals based on your targeted gaming motivations. Player experience goals describe what players will do, think, or feel during your gameplay.

Player experience goals will help narrow your focus for brainstorming game ideas, while still being general enough to allow a range of possible game design features.

For example, some possible player experience goals for a game targeting Excitement, Strategy, and Story might be:

• Players will have to make quick decisions weighing risk vs. reward.

• Players will feel a sense of tension during the gameplay.

Finally, your team will use its targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals to create a persona representing a possible target player for your game.

A persona is a model of a target user for a product or service, such as an app, website, device, etc. The persona summarizes the target user’s background, motivations, goals, needs, and expectations. The persona is used as a reference throughout the design process to help ensure your solution meets the needs of your target users.

Normally, a persona is based on user research data gathered through interviews, surveys, observations, etc. However, in this case, you'll create a fictional (yet realistic) persona based on your targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals.

Assignment

1. Select 2-4 gaming motivations to target for the game your team will design.

   • Be sure each team member has one of their top three gaming motivations represented (refer to your Gamer Motivation Profile results).

   • Be sure to select motivations from at least 2 different motivation groups.

2. Create 1-3 player experience goals to target for your team's game design.

   • Be sure each goal relates to one or more targeted gaming motivations.

   • Be sure each goal will allow a range of possible game design ideas.

3. • List your team's targeted gaming motivations and player experience goal(s).

   • Complete the persona by adding a photo, name, and other relevant characteristics consistent with your target player audience.

   • The persona should seem realistic — not a joke or stereotype.

   • Your team will be designing its game to appeal to this persona.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's target player persona

Your team will conduct playtesting sessions with your paper prototype, in order to evaluate and improve your game's design.

Playtesting of a prototype for a game is similar to user testing of a prototype for a website, app, or device.

You'll playtest your paper prototype within your own team and then with people outside your team.

1. Within your team, playtest your paper prototype to evaluate and refine your game design and/or paper prototype.

   • Have one person on your team act as the player. The player can perform any actions allowed by the procedures and rules of the game.

   • Another person on your team will act as the "computer" by responding to the player's actions and controlling non-player characters and game objects — according to the procedures and rules of the game.

   • Focus on making sure the core gameplay makes sense and matches your targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals.

   • As necessary, make additions or revisions to your game design document and/or paper prototype.

2. Record a brief video (about 1-3 minutes) demonstrating your core gameplay with your paper prototype.

   • Provide narration (or captions) to explain the key features of the gameplay.

3. Partner with another team to have them playtest your paper prototype.

   • Your team should describe your game's targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals. Then briefly explain your game's premise and objective — as well as the basic actions that the player can perform.

   • One person from the external team will act as the player. Ask the player to “Think Aloud” while playtesting the game.

   • One person on your team will act as the "computer" to respond to the player's actions and control the non-player characters and game objects.

   • Another person on your team should record notes on issues and feedback.

   • After playtesting, the two teams can discuss the game in more detail to generate constructive feedback on the game's design.

   • When finished, the two teams should switch roles to playtest the other team's paper prototype.

4. Within your team, analyze the notes from the external playtesting to evaluate and improve your game's design.

   • Create a list of key game design issues to resolve, and generate design ideas to address them.

   • Make any necessary additions or revisions to your game design document.

❏ Deliverable

Submit the following for your team:

• video demonstrating your core gameplay with your paper prototype

• list of key issues in game design and changes made to address them

• updated game design document

Here are videos demonstrating paper prototypes of video games:

• Paper Prototype 1 — Remote Control

• Paper Prototype 2 — Flying Toucan

• Paper Prototype 3 — Monkey vs. Mosquito

Your team needs to create a project schedule to help ensure that you'll complete all the necessary tasks involved to design and develop your team's robot solution. This phase of the project will require about 6-7 weeks to complete. Your teacher will identify the specific deadline(s) for this project phase.

This flowchart shows the major tasks that your team must complete during this project phase:

In the first few tasks, your team will work together to create a detailed game design and then evaluate that design using a paper prototype. This will give your team a shared vision of what your video game will be.

Then your team members will start to work in parallel on different tasks, depending on their team role. For example, you should have a team member coding the game, while another team member creates game assets. When necessary, you might have multiple team members working together on certain tasks.

Your team will finish this project phase by presenting your video game to the class. (In the next project phase, your team will evaluate your game with people outside your team, in order to refine the game before the final public presentation.)

There are different methods and formats for project schedules (Critical Path, Gantt Chart, etc.), but developing and using a project schedule typically involves these steps:

1. Identify the sequence of tasks to be completed (which might require dividing major tasks into subtasks)

2. Assign one or more team members to lead or perform each task

3. Estimate the amount of time to complete each task

4. Develop a draft schedule with specific dates for working on the tasks

5. Finalize the schedule by making any necessary adjustments (task sequence, assigned resources, durations, dates, etc.) to ensure the project deadline(s) will be met

6. Use the schedule to monitor the team's progress on a regular basis, and make any necessary adjustments to keep the project on track

Your teacher might assign a specific format or template for your team's project schedule.

If not, you could use this project schedule template, which has a simple format that assigns tasks by week (similar to a weekly sprint in Scrum or Agile planning).

❏ Deliverables

• Submit your team's project schedule

• Provide weekly updates on your team's progress

example of deliverable

Your team will create a paper prototype of your video game. In the next assignment, you'll have people outside your team playtest the paper prototype, in order to evaluate and refine the game's design before you start coding and creating graphics.

Even though a paper prototype can't simulate all the aspects of a video game, you will hopefully discover that creating and playtesting a paper prototype will help:

• clarify your team's conceptual model of the game

• verify which game design elements are working well

• identify which game design elements may need improvements

Here are some videos demonstrating paper prototypes of video games:

1. Create a paper prototype that can be used to demonstrate your core gameplay.

   • Focus on prototyping the core gameplay — at this point, don't worry about including a title screen, menu screen, etc.

   • Draw the game world on paper with one sheet representing the size of the computer screen. If the game world extends beyond a single screen, attach multiple sheets of paper together.

   • You do not have to draw the entire game world (or include all its features) — but include enough to sufficiently test the core gameplay.

   • Any game objects (such as: obstacles, etc.) that will NOT move or change during playtesting can be drawn directly on the game world.

   • Any characters (player, enemies, etc.) or game objects (resources, etc.) that will move or change should be created as separate parts.

   • Many games display certain gameplay information (such as: score, etc.). Determine if there is certain information (such as: health, etc.) that will be important to show in your prototype during playtesting.

2. Take 2-3 photos of your paper prototype, and annotate the photos with labels.

   • Each photo should show a different point in the gameplay or a different part of the game world.

   • Use an image editor (such as: , , etc.) to annotate the photos with text labels to identify the key features being shown.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's annotated photos of its paper prototype

example

Teams will create the assets (art and sound) for their game. In the meantime, the team's coder can use placeholder assets to program the game. As the final assets are completed, they can be incorporated into the team's game.

Art assets might include: animated sprites, static images, backgrounds, UI icons, etc.

Sound assets might include: sound effects, voice acting, background music, etc.

❏ Deliverable

Submit a link to your team's assets folder (containing game's image and sound files)

example of deliverable

Throughout the development of your team's game code and assets, your team should periodically playtest your game in progress to ensure newly-added features are functioning as intended — and to identify any issues that should be fixed.

Your team's Programming Lead should be testing the game as new code and assets are added. However, it will be helpful to have your team's Art Lead or Research Lead act as another playtester:

• Your team's Art Lead could playtest the game to verify that newly-added assets (animated sprites, sound effects, etc.) are functioning as intended. For example, are the sprites the correct size, are the sprite's animations playing properly, etc.

• Your team's Research Lead could playtest the game more thoroughly — by not only testing new features but also ensuring existing features still work.

Communication between your team members will be important, so the internal playtesting can focus on specific game features that need to be tested, while also providing specific feedback on any issues that are detected.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's ...

Create a slide presentation that explains and demonstrates the video game that your team designed and developed. The presentation is an opportunity for other teams to ask questions and provide feedback to help your team improve its game.

Your team's presentation should include the following (in this order):

1. Project Team: game's working title, team name, team members & their roles

2. Gaming Motivations and Player Experience Goals: Describe the targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals for the game.

3. Game Concept: Briefly explain the premise, setting, characters, story, objective, and conflict of your game. Be sure to include concept sketches.

4. Paper Prototype: Show the video demonstrating your paper prototype gameplay. Narrate the gameplay to explain key features.

5. Paper Prototype Playtesting: Briefly summarize the key issues discovered during playtesting and the design changes made to address the issues.

6. Video Game Demonstration: Provide a live (or recorded) demonstration of your video game. Narrate the gameplay to explain key features.

The presentation should have 6-10 slides and take 5-10 minutes to deliver.

• Be sure to practice your presentation before delivering it to your class.

• Be sure to record notes on any constructive feedback your team receives.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's slide presentation

Your team will brainstorm design ideas for possible games that could fulfill the gaming motivations and player experience goals for your target player persona.

As you learned, there are many game design elements that define a game. Arguably, the two most important design elements are the game's premise and objective:

• The premise is the main dramatic concept driving the game's action.

• The objective is the main goal the player is trying to achieve in the game.

The premise helps establish the dramatic elements of the game, while the objective helps establish the structural elements of the game:

• Premise → Setting (Game World) → Characters → Story

• Objective → Conflict → Gameplay (Procedures, Rules, Resources)

If you have an idea for a premise or objective, you can then try to brainstorm related design ideas (setting, conflict, etc.) to help build a more complete game concept.

Of course, you might think of another game design element first, besides the premise or objective. For example, you might first have an idea for a setting — which leads you to an idea for a character — which leads you to an idea for a conflict the character has to resolve — which leads you to the idea for the character's objective in the game.

Assignment

1. As individuals, brainstorm and record your own ideas for possible games.

   • Keep in mind your team's gaming motivations and player experience goals.

   • Try to think of ideas related to different premises or objectives.

   • Don't criticize or reject any ideas yet.

   • You do NOT need complete game concepts yet, but when possible, try to build on your ideas to think of related ideas.

   • If helpful, create simple sketches (characters, setting, etc.) to help record certain ideas. Sketching is also a good way to help spark more ideas.

2. As a team, share your ideas, and brainstorm together to produce more complete game concepts.

   • Don't criticize or reject any ideas yet.

   • Try to build on each other's ideas to create more complete game concepts.

   • You can also combine different ideas to form entirely new game concepts.

   • Be sure to record any new ideas the team generates.

   • Be sure everyone has the opportunity to contribute and be heard.

   • Be sure your team has generated at least 5 different game concepts having at least a premise and objective.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's set of game design ideas

You'll have people outside your team playtest and evaluate your video game. External playtesting of a game is similar to user testing of a website, app, or device.

Conducting this evaluation will help determine how well your game meets the project challenge criteria (i.e., is your game innovative, engaging, functional, usable, and balanced). Your team will use the evaluation data to identify issues with your game and make improvements before the public presentation.

1. Prepare Survey

   • Save a copy of this survey form in your team's shared folder.

   • Open your saved copy of the survey, and modify the last question to list your game's targeted gaming motivations.

   • Each participant will complete this survey after playtesting your game.

2. Recruit Participants

   • You'll need 3-5 participants to playtest your game in individual sessions.

   • Ideally, the participants should be similar to your target player persona — especially in terms of gaming motivations.

3. Explain Playtesting Process

   • Let the participant know the game is being tested, not the participant.

   • Let the participant know the game is a work-in-progress.

   • Ask the participant to “Think Aloud” while playing the game.

   • Do NOT explain your game because you need to observe first impressions.

4. Observe Playtesting

   • Allow the participant to play the game for about 5-10 minutes.

   • Record notes on issues you see or hear the participant experiencing.

   • If necessary, remind the participant to think aloud while playing.

5. Ask Follow-Up Questions

   • Afterwards, you can ask the participant about specific issues you observed (if you need to better understand why the issue occurred).

6. Administer Survey

   • Open your saved survey, and click the "Preview" icon (at top-right of form) to allow the participant to take the survey.

   • Afterwards, be sure to thank the participant for their time and feedback.

7. Analyze Data

   • After all the participants have completed the playtesting and survey, review your playtesting session notes, and summarize your game's issues in this evaluation findings table. For each issue, you'll estimate its severity, identify a possible fix, and estimate the feasibility and priority of making the fix.

   • Next, open your survey, and click the "Responses" tab (at top) to show the summary of the participants' responses.

   • For each survey question, there will be a histogram (similar to bar chart) showing the distribution of the responses:

     • Ratings of 1 or 2 are negative because the participant either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement.

     • Ratings of 3 are neutral because the participant neither agreed or disagreed with the statement.

     • Ratings of 4 or 5 are positive because the participant either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement.

     • After each histogram, you’ll see the participants' explanations for their ratings. If these reveal any new issues with your game, add them to your evaluation findings table.

   • Create a document that will contain all the histograms (in order) for your survey data. Hover over the top-right corner of each histogram, click the copy icon, and paste each histogram into the document.

❏ Deliverables

Submit the following for your team:

• Evaluation findings (table of issues)

• Survey results (document with histograms)

example of deliverable

You'll create a poster that helps explain and show how your team researched, designed, prototyped, and evaluated your team's video game.

The poster will be a visual reference to supplement the explanation and demonstration that your team gives during the public presentation event. Even though a poster won't explain or show everything about your team's project, a person should be able to understand the key aspects of your team's project just by reviewing your poster.

The goal is for the poster to be clear, concise, engaging, and professional in terms of its content and visual design.

The standard size for a large poster is 36 inches wide by 24 inches tall (your teacher will clarify if a different poster size will be used). Print-quality materials typically use a resolution of 300 pixels per inch. Your teacher will have the posters printed prior to the public presentation.

1. Determine the content to be included on the poster. Gather text and images from your team's previous project deliverables. You may need to modify certain content to make it more suitable for a poster (e.g., text might need to be summarized or simplified, images might require labels or captions, etc.).

2. Determine the layout of the content by sketching a small-scale poster mockup on a regular sheet of paper. Be sure the layout will be easy to understand and follow.

3. Create a full-scale digital version of the poster using a drawing/illustration tool, such as Google Drawing, Pixlr Editor, Adobe Illustrator, etc. Be sure the visual design of the poster reinforces the concept behind your team's robot solution.

4. Save or download the final poster as a PDF file that your teacher will have printed.

POSTER TEMPLATE

• You can use this Google Drawing template which is set to 36 inches wide by 24 inches tall. Zoom in or out as needed to add text, images, etc. – but do not change the canvas size. (To use the template, make a copy from the File menu, and save the copy to your shared team folder in Google Drive.)

• If you use a different drawing/illustration tool, set the canvas to 36 inches wide by 24 inches tall at 300 pixels per inch (10800 pixels wide by 7200 pixels tall).

• If your teacher has specified a different size for the poster, use that instead.

❏ Deliverable

Submit a PDF of your team's poster for printing

This shows a generic layout for the typical content that would be included in a project poster. However, you can modify the layout and appearance as necessary.

Your team will use your evaluation findings to implement refinements to your team's video game. Focus on the highest priority design changes first. Implement as many refinements as possible depending on the available time and resources prior to the public presentation.

If possible, test your game again with new participants to verify whether the refinements resolved the issues.

❏ Deliverable

Submit a list briefly describing each refinement that your team implemented

Your team will create a game design document, which details your game's design and will help guide the prototyping and development of your game.

A game design document builds upon a game treatment by adding specifics for all the game's design elements:

• Structural Elements — which determine the game's mechanics

• Dramatic Elements — which determine the game's story

• Artistic Elements — which determine the game's aesthetics

The game design document also includes concept sketches of the game world, characters, and key game objects.

The game design document is a "conceptual prototype" of your game's design. Later, your team will construct and test a physical prototype of your game (using paper) before developing your digital prototype (using code).

1. Use this template for your team's game design document.

   • Summary of Game Concept: Transfer this from your game treatment. You can make revisions based on the feedback from your proposal presentation.

   • Gaming Motivations and Player Experience Goals: Transfer these from your target player persona.

2. Document your game's design elements by brainstorming, discussing, and refining ideas as a team.

   • Dramatic Elements: Transfer the premise, characters, and story from your game summary. Then add more details (as necessary) for these elements, as well as the other dramatic elements (such as challenge, etc.).

   • Structural Elements: Transfer the objectives and conflict from your game summary. Then add more details (as necessary) for these elements, as well as the other structural elements of your game (such as procedures, etc.).

   • Artistic Elements: Transfer the concept sketches from your game treatment. As necessary, revise the sketches or add more. Then add details for the other artistic elements of your game (such as audio, etc.).

3. Review your completed game design document to ensure the design elements form a cohesive game matching the targeted gaming motivations and player experience goals.

   • It may be helpful to have someone outside your team also review the game design document to provide feedback.

   • Refine your game's design elements as necessary.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team's game design document (including concept sketches)

example of deliverable

You'll create a slide presentation that summarizes the evaluation and refinement of your team’s video game. Practice your presentation before delivering it to your class. This will be an opportunity for other project teams to ask questions and provide constructive feedback to help your team prepare for the public presentation.

Your team's presentation should include the following (in this order):

• Project Team: product name, team name, team members & their roles

• Game Summary: Use your team's Game Design Document to provide a brief summary of the game (such as its premise, objective(s), basic gameplay, etc.).

• Target Player Persona: Be sure the persona is useful for understanding the target players that the game was designed for.

• Solution Evaluation: Briefly describe the participants (number, gender, age, etc.) involved in the playtesting of the video game. Briefly summarize the evaluation findings, including the survey results.

• Solution Refinements: Briefly describe the refinements that were made to the video game. If helpful, you can include “before” and “after” images to better show certain types of changes.

• Project Poster: Show a preview of the team’s project poster, and briefly explain what information is included on the poster.

The presentation should have 6-10 slides and take 5-10 minutes to deliver.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your team’s slide presentation

As an individual, you'll respond to these project reflection questions.

Your teacher might also have you participate in group reflections: your team could reflect on its performance, and the entire class could reflect on the project.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your project reflection responses

Teams will code their video game based on their game design document.

A suggested order of what to code first will be provided. Emphasis will be on programming a minimal viable product (MVP) version of the game, rather than a full version. The game needs to be a playable demo that highlights the game design, but may not necessarily incorporate all envisioned features.

❏ Deliverables

Submit the following:

• Pseudocode or flowchart for core gameplay

• JavaScript code (script.js file) for the video game

Example Flowchart for Space Invaders (core gameplay only)

Example Pseudocode for Space Invaders (entire Phaser game)

An important part of celebrating the completion of a project is expressing gratitude and appreciation towards people for their help and work on the project.

You'll create a list of people that you want to recognize:

• Thank people who provided help to you or your team

• Recognize exceptional work done by someone on your team or another team

Your list could include any people inside or outside the class that helped during the project. Be specific when describing the help or work done by the other person.

During your class celebration, share some of the recognitions publicly.

❏ Deliverable

Submit your list of recognitions

Your team will explain and demonstrate your project solution to a public audience, which might include professionals from industry, college, and your school – as well as parents and fellow students. Some audience members might be acting as judges reviewing the team projects. Many audience members may be learning about the project for the first time.

Your team's presentation needs to tell a complete story (with a beginning, middle, and end) in just a few minutes. The presentation should be clear, concise, engaging, and professional.

• Plan and practice your team’s presentation and demonstration

• When helpful, refer to your poster and product website during the presentation

• Be sure to allow the audience to examine and interact with your project solution

• Be prepared to answer questions from the audience

• Be prepared to adapt if a technical issue occurs during the demonstration

❏ Deliverable

Participate in your team's presentation and demonstration at the public event