Instructor:
Dr. Marc Olano
(olano@umbc.edu)
Office/lab hours: ITE 354; M 2:30-3:30
Recommended Text: Agile Game Development with Scrum, Clinton Keith, Addison-Wesley
This is a capstone class, intended for graduating seniors (& occasionally juniors) in the GAIM specializations. In it, students will propose game development projects, plan them, form groups, and implement their plans. The goal is to have interdisciplinary teams, using a broad spectrum of what they have learned as undergraudates, collaborating to build interactive computer games.
Welcome to GAIM studios! I am Marc Olano, your studio executive. In the coming months, we will be developing some awesome games. First, you will pitch your game ideas. Some of those will be green lit for prototype development, and I will form you into prototype teams. In about a month, you'll need to show those prototypes. Some will be cancelled, and some will be green-lit for further development with a larger team. About a month after that, you'll have your alpha release and demo. By May, your games will be polished works of art bringing you fame and/or fortune.
By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities of an active participant in UMBC's scholarly community in which everyone's academic work and behavior are held to the highest standards of honesty. Cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and helping others to commit these acts are all forms of academic dishonesty, and they are wrong. Academic misconduct could result in disciplinary action that may include, but is not limited to, a reduced or zero grade, course failure, suspension or dismissal. To read the full Student Academic Conduct Policy, consult the UMBC Student Handbook, the Faculty Handbook, or the UMBC Policies section of the UMBC Directory [or for graduate courses, the Graduate School web site].
Plagiarism is the presenting of others’ ideas as if they were your own. When you write an essay, create a project, do a project, or create anything original, it is assumed that all the work, except for that which is attributed to another author or creator is your own work. Word-for-word copying is not the only form of plagiarism.
Plagiarism is considered a serious academic offense and may take the following forms:
Bottom Line: If you wish to use work that it not your own, give attribution.
[Adapted by Neal McDonald from the Modern Language Association’s MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: MLA, 1995: 26.]
Class time will consist of an amorphous mix of things I think will help you succeed, guest appearances by people from the games industry, time to work on your games, and milestone presentations. The mapping of topics to weeks will certainly change depending on guest lecturer schedules. I'll fill in the online verision of this schedule as we go. Check there for updates.
Date | Class | Deadlines/Events |
---|---|---|
Jan 28/30 | Overview; Pitching your game Prototyping |
Pitch Slides (Thu) |
Feb 4/6 | Game Pitches | In-class pitches |
Feb 11/13 | Revision Control URCAD, Art pipeline |
Prototype teams announced |
Feb 18/20 | Development Roles Scrum |
|
Feb 25/27 | Prototype Demos |
Prototype complete URCAD submission Semester teams announced |
Mar 4/6 | Team selection, snow day | |
Mar 11/13 | Game Engines New FX Development |
Sprint 1 |
Mar 18/20 | SPRING BREAK | |
Mar 25/27 | Snow day, Art & Technology | Sprint 2 |
Apr 1/3 | Resumes & Web Sites | |
Apr 8/10 | Budgets | Sprint 3 |
Apr 15/17 | Monetization | |
Apr 22/24 | URCAD | Alpha URCAD |
Apr 29/May 1 | Marketing, URCAD round-up | |
May 6/8 | 51 things Art and Science of Lighting |
Beta |
May 13 | QA | |
May 22 | Final Demos | Final Demos 7-9pm |
60 | Game milestones | |
10 | Pitches | |
10 | Prototype | |
5 | URCAD submission | |
10 | Alpha | |
10 | Beta | |
15 | Final Demos | |
10 | Social and marketing | |
20 | Attendance & personal performance goals | |
10 | Personal portfolio site & resume |