Course Organization

Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi
Course Organization
Video game Design and Programming

http://www.facebook.com/polimigamecollective
https://twitter.com/@POLIMIGC
http://www.youtube.com/PierLucaLanzi
http://www.polimigamecollective.org

Pier Luca Daniele Michele

50 hours of lectures and seminars
about videogame design and development

basic introduction to game programming,
some in-depth lecture, the rest is up to you

evaluation based on a team project consisting in the
development of a demo game (20 mins of play)

what type of game?

how good should the project be?

you should aim at competing in the student
showcase of one of game competitions

http://www.igf.com/php-bin/entries2012_student.php

you should also try to develop better games
than those developed by the previous students J

course project

structured in ﬁve deliverables: concept,
design document, prototype, beta and ﬁnal

each deliverable has a strict deadline

overall, the project cannot take
more than four months

trailers of student games since 2010
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6624CA9C566CEA0A

Beta
Game Concept
Design Document
First Prototype
Game Design
Game Design
Development
Game Design
Development
Game
Development
Trailer Final Deliverable Demoed at GGJ Opening

Our goal is to create a unique experience for
students attending classes while doing the project

We asked several people from game big, small,
tiny, companies to be involved in the evaluation

They will be have access to all your deliverable,
they will be involved in the evaluation process

Gives great visibility to your work!

Tuesday is Game Day

guests
(Tuesday @ 11:30)
workshops
(Tuesday @ 14:30)
lectures
(Tuesday @ 8:15)

Lectures – Tuesday 8:15-10:15
•  Theory of fun
•  Structure of Games
•  Formal and Dramatic Elements
•  Puzzles
•  History of videogames
•  Storytelling
•  Procedural Content Generation
•  Artiﬁcial Intelligence in Games
•  …
15

Invited Guests – Tuesday @ 11:30 16
Date Guest Room
October 6 Spartaco Albertarelli (Kaleidos) Aula Rogers
October 13 Marco Bielli (Bad Seed) Aula Rogers
October 20 Federico Fasce (Urustar) DEIB Conference Room
October 27 Yves Hohler (Broken Arms Games) Aula De Donato
November 3 Jacopo Dagnino (Forge Reply) DEIB Conference Room
November 10 InVerbisVirtus,The Way of Life Colto Aula Rogers
November 17 We Are Muesli Aula Rogers
November 24 Stefano Cecere –Tonzilla Aula De Donato
December 1 34 BigThings Aula Rogers

Workshops – Tuesday @ 14:30 17
Date Workshop Room
October 6 Idea Generation DEIB Conference Room
October 13 Unity Workshop – Basics DEIB Conference Room
October 20 Architettura Game Design Aula Rogers
October 27 Unity Workshop – Advanced DEIB Conference Room
November 3 Unity Workshop – Elements of 3D DEIB Conference Room
November 10 Unreal Engine DEIB Conference Room
November 17 Unity Workshop – UI/BAAS/Structure DEIB Conference Room
November 24
Sound Design – Dp Studios,Antonio Cantarin
Rene’ Giavazzi
DEIB Conference Room
December 1 Unity Workshop – Optimization Aula Rogers

Deadlines 18
Date Deliverable
October 11 @ 23:59 Introduce yourself in the course mailing list
October 11 @ 23:59 Submit the game concepts –Voting starts
October 20 Selected concepts are announced –Team building starts
October 25 @ 23:59 Teams must be ﬁnalized and submitted
November 10 @ 23:59 Link to the game design document must be submitted
December 15 @ 14:30-18:30 Prototype presentation event (DEIB Conference room)
January 19 @ 14:30-18:30 Beta presentation event (DEIB Conference room)
January 29 @ 14:00-17:30 Final presentation event @ GGJ16 (L26 Building)
February 14 @ 23:59 Final project submission (source, assets, etc.)

mandatory publication!
to get the ﬁnal grade the demo must be published for free
using one of the course accounts (IOS/Android/Windows)

why?
to have a unique place where people can play with
all the games developed during the course and
to avoid procrastination J

can we sell the game we developed?

yes! you are welcome to sell it and to become rich!

but the ﬁrst demo (the light/beta version) must
be available for free on the course accounts or website

Jam Jam Jam! 21
Global Game Jam
January 29-31, 2016

Teams Grades

Project Selection
•  Students attending classes must submit two one-page game
concepts, describing in simple words the underlying idea
•  Students, instructors, invited speakers will vote
for the best game concepts
•  Concepts will be selected based on
§ The number of votes their receive and the number of game
concepts in each category
§ Only a ﬁxed number of concepts for each category
•  The students who proposed the best concepts become team
leaders and must build up their teams
23

Team Building
• Team should consist of at most four course students
(three is the suggested size)
• At most three programmers, one or two POLIMI
designers
• Feel free to invite additional musicians, writers, artists to
collaborate on your projects
• But only at most three programmers and two designers
can be in team
24

team leaders are not dictators

concepts are an idea to develop
together with the team

team leaders have the duty to keep
the team in focused and well organized

Grades
•  The ﬁnal grade is the sum of 5 grades obtained for each
deliverable (game concept, design document, prototype,
beta and ﬁnal releases)
•  Game proposal: 3 points assigned by the instructors
•  Prototype: 6 points assigned by voting
(2/3 students + 1/3 instructors)
•  Beta Release: 18 points assigned by voting
(2/3 students + 1/3 instructors)
•  Final Release Trailer: 3 points assigned by voting
(2/3 students + 1/3 guests and instructors)
26

the course paradox

at the end of the course, …

less game design lectures,
the only interesting part
are the programming
workshops
there should be more lectures
on game design …
designer should be in
charge of the creative process


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpWAlvWNZj0


http://www.oneworldbirth.net/blog/you-complete-me/

What After the Course?

Next semester, you can enroll in the course
“Online Game Design” taught by Dario Maggiorini and
Laura Ripamonti at the Universita’ di Milano
http://onlinegamedesign.ariel.ctu.unimi.it

Computer Graphics (Gribaudo)
Data Mining and Text Mining (analysis of players’ behavior)

You can also consider doing your thesis with us!
(Car Racing, Starcraft, FPS, etc.)

You can still do the project outside the course

Contact the course coordinator who will
provide some game concepts

Choose one and then, just meet the deadlines!

what development tools?

Syllabus

Course Bibliography
•  Main texts on game design
§ Jesse Schell. The Art of Game Design (2nd Edition)
Morgan Kaufmann 2015
§ Tracy Fullerton. Game Design Workshop,
Third Edition. Morgan Kaufmann 2008.
§ Scott Rogers. Level Up!: The Guide to Great
Video Game Design. John Wiley Sons Inc 2014.
•  Programming textbooks
§ If you use Unity, any book will do as well as
the several tutorials available for free
§ If you use other system, choose the book you prefer J
•  Additional material
§ http://www.polimigamecollective.org
§ http://www.gamasutra.com
§ Papers, chapters, blogs, videos, software, etc.
36

Some Indie Games You Should Play (1)
•  Super Crate Box
http://www.supercratebox.com/
•  SpaceChem
http://spacechemthegame.com/
•  Super Meat Boy
http://supermeatboy.com/
•  Continuity
http://continuitygame.com/
playcontinuity.html
http://continuitygame.com/
•  Braid
http://www.braid-game.com/
•  Bit Trip Beat
http://www.aksysgames.com/bittripbeat/
•  World of Goo
http://www.worldofgoo.com/
•  Fotonica
http://www.fotonica-game.com/
37
•  Osmos
http://www.hemispheregames.com/osmos/
•  vvvvvvv
http://thelettervsixtim.es/
•  Canabalt
http://www.adamatomic.com/canabalt/
•  Fract
http://fractgame.com/
•  Frozen Synapse
http://www.frozensynapse.com/
•  Revenge of Titans
http://www.puppygames.net/revenge-of-the-
titans/
•  BOH
http://www.bohthegame.com/
•  Minecraft
http://www.minecraft.net/
•  Limbo
http://limbogame.org/

Some Indie Games You Should Play (2)
•  Luftrausers
http://luftrausers.com
•  Nidhoggg
www.nidhogggame.com
•  Hotline Miami
www.hotlinemiami.com/
•  FEZ
http://fezgame.com
•  Kentucky Route Zero
http://kentuckyroutezero.com
•  Gone Home
www.gonehomegame.com/
•  Space Team
www.sleepingbeastgames.com
•  Paper Please!
http://papersplea.se
•  Device 6
http://simogo.com/work/device-6/
38
•  Don’t Starve
http://www.dontstarvegame.com
•  The Stanley Parable
http://www.stanleyparable.com
•  All the IGF Finalists J
http://www.igf.com/02ﬁnalists.html

Some Other Games You Should Play
•  Cave Story (free on Steam)
•  Dwarf Fortress II (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_Fortress)
•  Hitchicker guide's to The Galaxy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-
hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-game-30th-anniversary-edition
•  I Wanna Be The Guy
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wanna_Be_the_Guy)
•  Quake Live
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_Live)
•  TrackMania
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrackMania#TrackMania_Nations)
•  Zak McCracken
(https://archive.org/details/msdos_Zak_McKracken_and_the_Alien_Mindbenders_1988)
•  Ghost Goblins: 'nuff said
(https://archive.org/details/msdos_Ghosts_N_Goblins_1987)
39

http://www.mame.net

http://www.emuparadise.me

https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games

https://archive.org/details/zx_spectrum_library_games

https://archive.org/details/C64Gamevideoarchive

…

Homework #2
•  Introduce yourself to the mailing list by send a photo of you and
telling something about you.
•  What games do you love?
•  What games did you play recently?
42

Course Organization

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