Game Design and Development 5: Capstone Project

Overview

Class Central Tips

In the game design and development capstone course, you will create an original game from initial concept up to the first playable version! Along the way, you will have the opportunity to put your game ideas in front of your peers. The capstone experience gives you the opportunity to push your skills further and demonstrate your newfound skills as a game developer. The capstone also contains guest talks from game industry professionals at Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment, Insomniac Games, Gearbox Entertainment, Iron Galaxy, Deep Silver Volition, Goodgame Studios, Stardock, GREE, Heart Shaped Games, and more.

Syllabus

Milestone 1: Your Game Idea

Welcome to the Game Design and Development Capstone. In this module I will give you a little bit of a sense of what to expect over the coming weeks. I am going to be honest with you though, this is going to be a fair amount of work. As you have learned, making games takes time and effort. And the goal of the Capstone is to prove that you have the knowledge, skills, and attitude to make games. So, get ready to flex those game design and development muscles that you have developed across the specialization. The first thing you need to do is come up with a game idea and then flesh it out into a high concept and pitch.

Milestone 2: Early Prototype, Blueprint, and Progress Report

Now you have to start the process of making your game a reality through early prototyping. No matter how you do this, either as a non-digital prototype or a digital prototype, you need to start building and testing some of your core gameplay systems and mechanics. Along the way, it is helpful to further document your design by creating "Design Blueprints". The result of this module is an early progress report to make sure you are on track.

Milestone 3: First Playable and Fun Test

The next step is the hardest one. It is time to fire up Unity and start game dev'ing. The goal is to build the first playable version of the game. With the first playable you are able to truly playtest and iterate on the game to "find the fun." Good luck.

Finishing Up

You are almost to the finish line! In this module, you finish up and submit your first playable prototype for peer review. I will also discuss what would be the next steps for your project if it shows promise, in the "Preparing to Ship" lecture. I also included several "Career Journey and Advice" guest lectures. Watch as many of these as you like. And last, but not least, I will close out the course and specialization by discussing your possible "Future Directions" after this course.