Assignment 2
This is a group assignment (the size of the group is of max 3).
This assignment is marked out of 54 points, and it's worth 15% of your course.
(There is also an additional 4 points towards in-class activity.)
Note: if you have problems with a specific teammate, you can raise the issues
with the instructor and opt to remove him/her from the team. In that case,
your teammate will have to work hard to have you "adopt" him/her back into the
group. At that point, you may decide to work together or continue to work
separately.
Due Date
2:00pm October 19, 2017.
Extended to 2:00pm October 24, 2017.
For every 24 hours that your submission is made prior to the extended due
date, you will get +2 marks as bonus added to your graded mark for this
assignment.
Part 1: Game Prototype
This assignment serves as the first checkpoint for your project.
So far, you have completed various analysis and design exercises from A1 and
in class. In A1, you presented a game idea. Using the feedback you've gotten
so far, build a mobile game for this assignment.
You must consider the evaluation of the other games you reported in A1 and the
feedback you've gotten from the various activities in your game
implementation.
Specifically, your game must be implemented in either Corona/Lua or
Unity/C# (see some suggested tutorials here to help
get you started). Your game should include the following:
- A splash page of your game, with menu items on the front
- A menu option for users to play the game
- A menu option for users to view the credits of the game (include the
creators' names and sources for graphics and sounds that you are using --
note: these might change)
- An implementation of the actual game you designed from start to end
Part 1b: Additional Features in the Prototype
For a group of size N, you will need to build N features in the game.
However, if you are taking this course for graduate credits, you will count as
2 people.
Possible features include:
- A tutorial of your game (must be more than just simple images and text)
- A points system that lets the user purchase items at the in-game store
- Have a background story, so when the player wins/loses a session, the
story unfolds a little, and eventually an ending is presented
- Multiple difficulty levels (must involve more than just speed)
- Providing hints to help solve an exercise
- Scoreboard and social media posting of the game score
If you have additional features that you'd like me to consider, ask and if
approved, I will add them to this list.
Part 2: Written Report and Video
In addition to the game deliverable, you will submit a short report that
explains why this game is unique and better than the ones you sampled in A1.
Specifically, submit the following:
- A brief description of your game, what is the educational concept, what
is the user task, and which features you implemented
- In point form or table format, identify which team member(s) worked on
which part of the game, report, and presentation
- A rationale of why the design of your game is better in terms of UI
and/or pedagogy, in comparison to the points you raised in A1. You may want to
mention what design feedback you got to develop your game.
- A proposal of the data analysis log format for your game: you must
identify metrics to assess (i) how fun is the game and (ii) how educational is
the game
- A short video (60-120 seconds) showcasing your game - make sure the video
shows your game can be played from start to end so we can see what the user
needs to do in order to win/advance to the next level
What Kind of Game Metrics Should I Collect?
An educational game is good when your users find it fun and
educational. So how do you know if your users are having fun when they play
the game? How do you know if your users are learning?
For your specific game, you need to come up with specific questions that
target these two broad questions of game design. For example, you may consider
questions of the following form:
- How often do users ... [do certain activities] ... ?
- How much time do users spend ... [doing certain activities] ... ?
- How fast do users complete ... [certain activities] ... ?
- How many ... [measurable outputs] ... do users get correct and incorrect?
- How many users play your game ... [within given time periods] ...?
- Which ... [aspect of the game] ... do users like most?
- Which ... [aspect of the game] ... do users find most difficult?
Note: you need to develop questions that you want answers to for your
game. And these are not questions you ask the players, these are
research questions for you as a game designer that you use game play data to
get answers to.
From there on, you will need to derive a set of user events in your game that
answer those questions, such as
click on a menu button on the interface,
submit certain answer in the context of a question,
pause for an amount of time on a certain question,
view highscores after every game,
increase performance over time, etc.
Since user events are meaningless without the system context, your data log
must always include the full system context that uniquely identifies the
scenario -- the details need to be specific enough so you can recreate the
scenario using only the log if needed.
Note that these events may just tell you what the user is doing at the time,
but over time, they form a pattern that may give you information about how the
user progresses.
Evaluation Criteria
In reporting on the following, you are to use this
template provided.
- 2 point Splash page
- 2 points Menu options
- 1 point Credits page
- 5 points Appropriate use of all image and sound files
- 10 points Completion of basic game activity
- 10 points Game includes selected feature (doesn't crash)
- 3 points
Clear and convincing rationale that your game has a better UI design
- 3 points
Clear and convincing rationale that your game has a better pedagogical design
- 8 points
Asking the right questions for data collection and proposing useful events
to address those questions in your game(s):
two questions and associated events for measuring fun, and
two questions and associated events for measuring educational value
- 5 points
A 60-120 second video showcasing your game
(do a video capture with your simulator running on the desktop)
- 5 points
Presentation
- 4 points 4 peer evaluations (counts towards in-class activity)
Expectations for Presentation
You may use PowerPoint slides, whiteboard, or other notes to deliver the
presentation.
- Timing: 7 minutes
- Content: Clear explanation of the following:
- game concept: educational concept of focus, user task
- game activity (the one you finally decided on)
- what happens when the player wins/loses
- design feedback incorporated in your implementation
- uniqueness of your game
- the video showcasing your game
What to Submit
Submit on Canvas:
- A PDF report based on the template given.
- A PDF of your presentation slides.
- A video for your game (or a link included into the submitted report).