Day 2 PM Session Plan

Session Introduction

Note: Be aware that some students may have already completed the Game Programming version of this course. If a student has already covered the material from this session forwards, allow them the option of using the game they made in the last course. They should take this time to build out more levels for their games and add additional assets.

What Are We Doing?

Brainstorming
The Development Cycle
Rapid Prototyping Activity
Creating a Bouncy Box game level from the template

What is Brainstorming?

• Game ideation is simply the process of coming up with ideas for games. It is important for starting a project and making it unique.
  
  A common method for ideation is brainstorming.
  
  Slide Usage Suggestion: Show the students the first slide with just the question what is brainstorming? Then ask them what they think it is and how to brainstorm.
  
  After you have taken student answers, you can switch to the next slide with the model answer.
  
  Brainstorm:
  1. Think of one central idea.
  2. Branch from that idea to find related ideas.
  3. One idea will lead to others.
     e.g. Vehicle -> Trucks -> Monster Trucks -> Monster Truck Racing.

Brainstorming Activity

1. Give students a piece of paper.
   Note: If in a virtual session, students can use the whiteboard tool associated with the virtual conference tool, or Google Drawings
2. Guide students to:
   a. Think of one word and write it in the center of the paper.
   b. Think of two or more new words or ideas related to the original word.
   c. Write the ideas down with arrows coming from the original word.
3. Repeat this two more times so they have a few different game ideas.
4. Guide students to:
   a. Pair up with another student.
   b. Imagine a game that combines an idea from each student.
   c. Write down the ideas
5. Optional: Share the game idea with another group or the entire class.
Example: A game where you create battle robots that race each other through a city.

If you're struggling to come up with ideas, you can use the themes from Global Game Jam Years
1. 2020: Repair
2. 2019: Home
3. 2018: Transmission
4. 2017: Waves
5. 2016: Ritual

Development Cycle

• The development cycle is the process of planning, creating, testing and launching a game.
  
  The cycle encourages iterative design. This is where you create a feature, test it, then make changes to its design for improvement.
  
  Rapid Prototyping is where you quickly go through this cycle, constantly adding and improving features.
  
  The main parts of the cycle include:
  
  Documenting features
  
  Programming features
  
  Creating art for features
  
  Testing the features
  
  
  The cycle continues until the game is complete and polished. It can then be released.
  
  Document
  
  The game design document (GDD) is where all the information about the game is written.
  
  What game information do you think should be included in documentation?

  
  Character design, Level design, Mechanics, Story/Plot, Controls, Monetization etc.

  
  
  As you go through the cycle, the document should be updated with any changes made.
  
  
  Programming
  
  Each cycle should concentrate on programming one feature at a time.
  
  The first features to program should create the minimum viable product (MVP).
  
  The MVP is the state of the game where the core features are included and the basic gameplay is there.
  
  
  Recommended video on MVP for students (2mins 30s long):
  
  Full video (7mins 38s long):
  
  Art
  
  Most features have a visual or audio component. E.g. character art, level art, background music or sound effects.
  
  When first creating art, it should be simple to get a basic idea of the art layout.
  
  Gray boxing is creating art that is represented by simple shapes (usually colored gray).
  
  
  Test
  
  Testing is needed to see whether features are working, balanced and overall fun.
  
  One way to do this is playtesting. This is where other people play the game and give feedback. This can be collected in a survey.
  
  Hubris is where you have too much pride or self confidence which should be avoided when testing the game.
  
  Why is hubris bad?

  
  Thinking your game is too good will cause a lack of improvement. It's harder to see the the negatives of the game.
  
  
  Optional Activity
  
  If time allows, you can ask students to pick which two parts of the cycle they would most like to work on. This can be helpful later when sorting the students into their teams.

(Optional) Tic Tac Toe Activity

• The aim of this activity is to let the students practice iterative design and rapid prototyping.
  
  They will create their own unique rules for tic tac toe, test it with peers and improve the rules based on feedback.
  
  This activity is optional. If you're running low on time after the brainstorming activity, skip ahead to having students make the bouncy box game. They will need at least 1 hour to finish the game, and should finish before the end of the day.
  
  
  1. (Optional) Explain the rules of tic tac toe to the students and have them play the original game in pairs.
  2. Have students change one or two of the rules (or add new rules).
     a. This can be done alone or in groups.
     b. Encourage them to be unique.
     c. Give examples of rule changes e.g. a grid of 6x6 instead of 3x3.
  3. Let students swap their games with the person/group next to them.
  4. Students should play each others' games and write down what was good and bad.
  5. They should then improve their rules based on feedback.
  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as necessary and then have students share their game rules with the class.
  
  
  You can also look up additional resources on tic tac toe variants if you want to learn more about all the directions that these variants can go.

Bouncy Box