Week 5 survey,
complete between 4:00pm on Monday, Feb. 2 and 3:00pm on Wednesday, Feb. 4.
Week 3 survey,
complete between 4:00pm on Wednesday, Jan. 21 and 4:00pm on Thursday, Jan. 22.
Reading Assignments
all reading assignments are from The Art of Game Design
before lecture on Jan. 7: Hello, Chapter 1, Chapter 2.
before lecture on Jan. 14: Chapter 12, Some Elements are Game Mechanics
before lecture on Jan. 16: Chapter 5, The Game Consists of Elements; Chapter 8, The Game Improves through Iteration;
Chapter 13, Game Mechanics Must Be in Balance.
before lecture on Jan. 30: Chapter 17: One Kind of Experience Is the Story
before lecture on Feb. 13: Chapter 4: The Experience Rises Out of a Game.
before lecture on Feb. 20: Chapter 20: Worlds Contain Characters.
before lecture on Feb. 25: Chapter 14: Game Mechanics Support Puzzles;
Chapter 27: Good Games Are Created through Playtesting
Games
Game assignments will be done by pairs of students, and two students can only make a pair for one assignment.
Pairs must be in the same discussion section.
At most one "pair" per discussion can contain three students.
The general rule is that both students in a pair will receive the same score for the assignment.
If you feel that the workload isn't being shared reasonably,
or if you cannot get in contact with your partner, contact
the TA or Prof. Frost as soon as possible, ideally before the assignment is due.
Pairs should turn in only one copy of each assignment, through an upload to an EEE DropBox.
When an assignment involves multiple uploads to EEE, the same student should upload all components.
Make sure both students' names and UCInetIDs are on all files uploaded.
Working on a team is an essential part of game design.
If a student works individually (probably due to missing the team formation meeting), the maximum score
is capped at 85%.
Game 3 - A Game with Puzzles
The primary goal of this assignment is to design and implement in Scratch a game that has a significant
puzzle component - that is, the player encounters and solves puzzles while playing the game.
The assignment has the following parts:
- Design your game so that solving puzzles is an important part, thinking about the principles provided in chapter 14.
Discuss your ideas with your teammate during the Week 8 discussion.
Describe how you are using, or not using, each principle,
starting from the template at
http://frost.ics.uci.edu/ics61/Game-3A-PuzzlePrinciples.doc.
Due at noon Wednesday, March 4, via upload to EEE DropBox "ICS61-Game3A". Just one upload per team, please.
- Design your game and implement a portion with at least one puzzle in Scratch.
Bring your game on a laptop to discussion in week 9 and be prepared to playtest it with classmates.
- Revise, re-design, and implement in Scratch your game,
using the feedback from your playtesters and your own further thought.
Due at noon on Monday, March 9, via upload to EEE DropBox "ICS61-Game3B":
- your game, as an .sb2 file;
- your description of the game and its puzzles,
starting from the template at
http://frost.ics.uci.edu/ics61/Game-3B-PuzzlingGame.doc;
- A ReadMe file (named ReadMe.txt/doc/docx/pdf)
that contains information for the player/grader:
how to play the game, known bugs, partially incomplete features, etc.
Just one upload per team, please.
Make sure that in your game there is a Credits area -
it might be part of the title screen, part of the final screen, or a separate screen/page.
Give the author and/or URL for every art, sound, and/or code asset in your game that
is derived from someone else's work (but you don't have to reference MultiScene.sb2).
If all art was created by the team, say that (so that we know you haven't forgetten to give credit).
Game 2 - Telling a Story
The primary goal of this assignment is to design and implement in Scratch a game that has a significant
narrative component - that is, it tells a story.
The assignment has the following parts:
- Design your game's story, thinking about the tips provided in chapter 17.
Discuss your story ideas with your teammate during the Week 5 discussion.
Describe how you are using, or not using, each tip,
starting from the template at
http://frost.ics.uci.edu/ics61/Game-2A-StoryTips.doc.
Due at noon Wednesday, Feb. 11, via upload to EEE DropBox "ICS61-Game2A". Just one upload per team, please.
- Design your gameplay and implement one or two scenes in Scratch.
Bring your game on a laptop to discussion in week 6 and be prepared to playtest it with classmates.
- Revise, re-design, and implement in Scratch your game,
using the feedback from your playtesters and your own further thought.
Due at noon on Monday, Feb. 23, via upload to EEE DropBox "ICS61-Game2B":
- your game, as an .sb2 file;
- your description of the game and its story and characters,
starting from the template at
http://frost.ics.uci.edu/ics61/Game-2B-StoryAndCharacters.doc;
- A ReadMe file (named ReadMe.txt/doc/docx/pdf)
that contains information for the player/grader:
how to play the game, known bugs, partially incomplete features, etc.
Just one upload per team, please.
Make sure that in your game there is a Credits area -
it might be part of the title screen, part of the final screen, or a separate screen/page.
Give the author and/or URL for every art, sound, and/or code asset in your game that
is derived from someone else's work (but you don't have to reference MultiScene.sb2).
If all art was created by the team, say that (so that we know you haven't forgetten to give credit).
Game 1 - Pong
The primary goal of this assignment is to design and implement in Scratch a game that is a variant of Pong
(in, perhaps, the same way that Avatar is a variant of Pocohontas, and Ultima (Baroque Chess) is a variant
of Chess, and Marco Polo is a variant of Hide and Seek).
The assignment has the following parts:
- Think about the design of Pong, in terms of the mechanics defined in Chapter 12.
Describe Pong's mechanics, starting from the template at
http://frost.ics.uci.edu/ics61/Game-1A-PongMechanics.doc.
Due at noon Friday, Jan. 23, via upload to EEE DropBox "ICS61-Game1A". Just one upload per team, please.
- Design a new game that has some similarities to Pong.
Create a paper prototype of this game, following the ideas in Prototyping Tip #6 on pages 104-105 of the textbook.
Bring your paper prototype to your discussion session on Monday, Jan. 26,
and be prepared to playtest your game and other teams' games.
Your paper prototype materials will probably consist of paper you have written/drawn on
of various shapes and sizes; do not bring any materials that were printed using a computer.
- Revise, re-design, and implement in Scratch your game,
using the feedback from your playtesters and your own further thought.
Due at noon on Monday, Feb. 2, via upload to EEE DropBox "ICS61-Game1B":
- your game, as an .sb2 file;
- your description of the mechanics and balance of your game,
starting from the template at
http://frost.ics.uci.edu/ics61/Game-1B-MechanicsAndBalancing.doc;
- A ReadMe file (names ReadMe.txt/doc/docx/pdf)
that contains information for the player/grader:
how to play the game, known bugs, partially incomplete features, etc.
Just one upload per team, please.
Make sure that in your game there is a Credits area -
it might be part of the title screen, part of the final screen, or a separate screen/page.
Give the author and/or URL for every art, sound, and/or code asset in your game that
is derived from someone else's work.
If all art was created by the team, say that (so that we know you haven't forgetten to give credit).
Homeworks
Homework 1, due Monday, Jan. 12, at noon: Write a paragraph or two,
between 75 and 150 words, summarizing Chapter 2 in your own words.
Do not quote from the text.
Upload a Word doc, PDF file, or plain text file containing your summary to the EEE DropBox "ICS61-Hw1".
Homework 2, due Monday, Jan. 12, at noon:
Scratch Lesson 1
Lecture Notes, Overheads, and Links
Jan. 5: I Am A Game Designer
Jan. 7: Jesse Schell, DICE 2010: Design Outside the Box
(we will watch part during lecture, watching the remainder is an assignment)
Jan. 9:
Design Tips from Tom Hall - the anti-Schell
Light, Color, and the Mind
Jan. 12: Original Arcade Pong (YouTube)
Jan. 14: Two Scratch projects:
Cameron-M-Project.sb2 and
Ruthie-E-Project.sb2
Chapter 8 - The Game Improves through Iteration (pptx)
Paper Prototyping Pong
An example of more typical (non-game) paper prototyping
Jan. 26: Graphics
Jan. 28: Sign up for play testing on Tuesday, Feb. 17, from 3:30 - 4:50pm
Jan. 30: MultiScene.sb2
Hunger games
Feb. 2: Potential Midterm Questions (updated Friday, Feb. 6)
Artificial Intelligence (pptx)
Feb. 11: Midterm Scoring Notes and Rubric
The Experience Rises Out of a Game (pptx)
Feb. 18: Four Basic Elements of games
Feb. 23: The Internet and underlying ideas
History of the Internet
Feb. 25: Portal trailer
VVVVVV walk through
Puzzle Principles (ppt)
March 4: Path Post Mortem
Let's Play The Path
March 6:
Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world (TED talk)
Potential Final Questions (updated March. 13)