The first part of this course will focus on game design basic concepts and techniques, which you will practice by making a board game. In the second part you will transfer skills&ideas from analog to digital game making. You will create a videogame using p5.play.
Remember...
| When | What | What?! | Home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday 05.10 |
Level 01 Hacking games with verbs |
Mechanics + dynamics + aesthetics (MDA) | Individual: pick a game of your choice and analyse its MDA Individual: 10 bad boardgame ideas |
| Thursday 12.10 |
Level 02 Prototyping the Minimum Viable Game (MVG) |
Game core, toy vs game, prototyping | Individual: solo playtest + writeup Team: video-tutorial of your hack from Level 01 |
| Thursday 19.10 |
Level 03 Playtesting |
Game state, game play, rules+algorithms | Team: draft a rulebook for your game prototype |
| Thursday 26.10 |
Level 04 Blind playtesting |
Feedback loops, choices & chance | Team: prepare boardgame for submission |
| Thursday 02.11 |
Level 05 Tuning |
Types of fun, economies and balance | Individual: 10 videogame ideas |
| Thursday 16.11 |
Level 06 From boardgames to videogames |
Real-time vs turn-based Intro to p5.play: preload, setup, draw |
Individual: build the toy |
| Thursday 23.11 |
Level 07 Meaningful play |
Algorithms & flowcharts, game interface, spritesheets | Individual: build the puzzle |
| Thursday 30.11 |
Level 08 Playtesting |
Bookkeeping + scores, game over | Individual: scratch that itch |
| Thursday 07.12 |
Level 09 Tutorials |
Debugging and playtesting | Individual: prepare videogame for submission |
| Thursday 14.12 |
Level 10 Final bosses |
Presentations | Hand in your videogame! |
Prototype a fundane boardgame!
This will be a team project.
Your boardgame prototype will be inspired by everyday life: take a mundane task (like washing the dishes) or an awkward social situation and turn it into a game!
No monsters, swords, dungeons, spaceships or armies will be tolerated in your game.
Due date: Thursday, the 2nd of November
Submission checklist:
- Game prototype required
- Rulebook required
- VLE group submission required
- Videotutorial desirable
All the details here.
Make a videogame with p5.play!
This will be a team project.
Your game must adhere to the following creative constraints:
-
Every visual element in your game must be represented with emojis. Player characters, non-playing characters, walls, obstacles… everything.
Your can use several emojis for a single object, but only one emoji at a time. For example, your player character could have a happy state 😀 and a sad state 😢 but only one can be experienced by players at any given time.
You can download all the emojis from this repository.
-
Your game must be playable by at least 3 players.
Some of them may be eliminated whilst playing. However, there need to be at least three human players to start a game.
And no, they can't take turns. They have to play all at the same time.
Due date: Thursday, the 14th of December
Submission checklist:
- Your videogame published on
itchrequired - All your game code + assets required
- Your videogame interface sketches required
- A list of games from
itchthat inspire you required
All the details here.
- Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers by Ethan Ham (book, ~30 squid)
- Game Design Concepts by Ian Schreiber (online, free)
- What's the point if we can't have fun? by David Graeber (online, free)
- Getting Started with p5.js by Lauren McCarthy and Ben Fry (book, ~12 squid)
- p5.play manual and examples by Paolo Pedercini and contributors (online, free)
- Making Games with p5.play by Allison Parrish (online, free)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
