International Game Developers Association

Advanced Game Project USC School of Cinema-Television, CTIN 491a

Games Education
Course

Contents 1 Teachers 1.1 Instructors 1.2 Guest speakers 2 Course Background Information 2.1 Location 2.2 Classification 2.3 Student background needed 2.4 Course prerequisites 2.5 Time periods 3 Course Structure 3.1 Course description 3.2 Course learning objectives 3.3 Week by week topics 4 Course Materials & Facilities Used 5 Analysis of learning methods 5.1 What worked 5.2 What didn't work

Teachers

Instructors

• Tracy Fullerton

Other specialization mentors

Guest speakers

N/A

Course Background Information

Location

University of Southern California

Classification

Primary classification:

Game Production

Secondary classification:

Student background needed

Pervious CTIN courses

Course prerequisites

Instructor approval

Time periods

Full crew & faculty meeting: Wednesdays 1:30-3:20PM

Specialization & mentor meetings: Mondays 6:30-8:20PM

Course Structure

Course description

This two-semester advanced project class challenges students to use what they have learned in previous classes to design and execute a large-scale, innovative game project. The class introduces professional-level concepts in game design and development, such as competition for project greenlight, specialized team-building, advanced ideation, visual design and technical implementation, effective use of marketing & focus groups, advanced project planning and management, budgeting, actualization, usability, quality assurance and project polish and distribution. During the first semester, projects will go through an extensive prototyping and design process, moving into production only when core game mechanics are solid. The final milestone for this semester is a polished “playable level” demonstrating the key features and play mechanics. During the second semester, level design, usability, “professionalization” and distribution of the project will be the focus of the class.

This course is analogous to the School of Cinema-Television’s advanced project course CTPR 480 and requires the same high level of commitment from all participants. The end product of the 491ab cycle is intended to be a complete, polished advanced game project that is innovative in both its aesthetic and technical aspects. To this end, the teams will draw on teaching and student resources from a number of areas of areas of the University, with the goal of integrating team members from various disciplines into a tightly-knit collaborative group. In addition to the core faculty, each specialization area (described below) will work with a professional mentor from the game industry throughout the process.

491 is a studio class and a large part of the class content will focus on critique and problem-solving for individual projects. While the class will include lectures on design and development topics, many class days will be devoted to working on and critiquing team projects. As such, it is imperative that students treat the development of their projects professionally and bring requested milestones to class on time, ready to present. Students will be expected to participate actively in all critique sessions, giving and receiving feedback of the highest quality.

Throughout the class, students are encouraged to take risks and to look beyond the examples of existing game genres to try new and different design ideas. At the same time, the team is expected to fully complete an innovative advanced game, and so must take into account the timeline of the course and the resources available to complete the project. Teams may enlist the help of outside musicians and/or voice-over actors; however, all the artwork, animation and game programming must be original. Teams may not use copyrighted material in their project unless the material has been legally cleared for use. (See Student Production Office for assistance with this process.)

Course learning objectives

To be added

Week by week topics

Discussed with instructor

Course Materials & Facilities Used

Syllabus

CTIN 491a

Analysis of learning methods

What worked

Please discuss what techniques worked well

What didn't work

Please discuss what techniques didn’t work as well as you had hoped

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