Why Prototype? 

Assets shouldn't be liabilities

In this project you will find out if your game idea is fun through Prototyping. You will also learn how to make a plan for assets you will use in your game – the sounds, images, models, animations and other resources that make up a game – to avoid nasty surprises later in development. 

Prototyping

Course Introduction and Planning

Game Jams and Skilling Up

Set your goals and find your community

What is the Design Process? 

Scope

Constraints and Our Theme

Concentric Design

The Stages of Game Development

Planning your project

CRC Cards

Your First Milestone: Vertical Slice

Why Agile?

Vertical Slice - Part Two

Refactoring

Sprint Planning

Alpha Build

What is Playtesting?

How To Playtest

Sprint Plan

Review and Redesign

How to Release your Game

Alpha and Beyond

Bonus Content

In this project you will learn about what's ahead for you on your journey to finishing a game! You'll also get a chance to confirm that you have the right knowledge and skills to get the most out of the course, along with links to useful resources that will help you on your way. You will also learn how to equip yourself for your journey, and meet some of your fellow adventurers.

Goal Setting and Community Building

In this project you will learn about using a design process to take your idea from a broad concept into a finished, polished game, the concept of scope will help you achieve your goal of making a game, how constraints can help you create rules to keep you in scope,  and how to use the specific design process, concentric design.

The Design Process

In this project you will learn how to keep a sense of the big picture by dividing the game development process into stages and milestones, hit your first major milestone in the development of a game through creating a vertical slice, and learn two planning tools you can use to plot a course to a finished game. 

Milestones

Agile Development

Professional teams schedule some time for code cleanup after each milestone so their code stays flexible and easy to work with. This project will give you some tips and general principles for this process, known as refactoring. With your vertical slice done and your code in good shape, this is where you’ll start down the road to alpha.

Writing Better Code

Playtesting is more than just asking people if your game is fun. It's a structured process for collecting useful information about specific parts of your design. In this project you will learn why Playtesting helps you collect useful information on your design and how to execute the entire process. 

Playtesting

In this project you will learn how to release your game, what the next steps are after game release, and additional tips for getting to the end. 

Release your game

Lots of people start games, but it’s surprisingly hard to finish one. This course guides you through the process used by professional game makers to develop their ideas, keep their projects on track and deliver a complete, released game. 

 that will help you quickly design and prototype your games. These resources can accelerate your development process and help you achieve your goal of releasing a polished game!

Design and Publish Your Original Game: Unity USC Games Unlocked

054c267a-f73d-5579-9252-05dfdf5341d1:5wZ4XsXcAZy0HxzXD44cOr

Example_-_Conversation_Game_Art_Asset_Inventory.pdf

Simple_Asset_Inventory_Template.zip

Planning for Assets

Using other people’s work 

What does a good asset inventory look like?

Assignment: Make an Asset Inventory

What's Next?

i have my own assets template but this is just for the exercise

asset inventory

dom567

I have created example inventory where you can find assets in online

Asset Inventory

OsmanC58

inventario juego nivel 1

raulsanchezmicheas

Asset List

Al Kraus

Software Developer

Asset inventory

Agustin Dominguez

Assets Documentation

unity_ABBB8FB9151B27AEEBC3

inventory assets

adaa96

There are prefab, material, audio and scripts in this project. Should be enough for basic prototyping. and yet sorry for my i just stupiid idiot and shit yea i want de@d you better than me 

i'm scary what you will hate me for all but i yet will love you guys for all good things what you done thank you for all 

safasfafsagj

Planning for Assets.mp4

In this session we will learn how to make a plan for assets – the sounds, images, models, animations and other resources that make up a game – to avoid nasty surprises later in development.

Unity + USC Games Unlocked

Games

There’s plenty of great free assets (art, sounds, animations, and so on) for games on the Internet, and using them can save you an enormous amount of time. Even professional teams often find or purchase assets to speed up development. But before grabbing that “ka-ching!” sound or sprite sheet for your game, make sure you are legally allowed to use it. It’s the professional and polite thing to do. This course doesn’t cover copyright law and certainly can’t provide legal advice. But here are a few resources that can help you understand the rules in the United States. This guide from Stanford is a good place to get started. Here’s a highlight: 

With one important exception, you should assume that every work is protected by copyright unless you can establish that it is not... The exception is for materials put to work under the “fair use rule.” 

Here’s a pretty readable summation of fair use in video games. Start with “What’s Protectable in Video Games Under Copyright Law?” 

And this article from the US government calls itself Copyright Basics, but it’s actually pretty detailed. 

But if all that seems difficult, don’t worry – there’s plenty of assets out there that the creators want you to use, as long as you follow their rules (such as giving them credit). Look for artwork that is explicitly labeled as “public domain” or “Creative Commons”, make sure you read and understand the rules, and go ahead. 


To make your feedback useful, or to assess your own work, briefly answer at least two of the following questions. 

1. Do you notice any missing categories of assets, such as UI sound effects or parts of the environment? If you do notice anything you think should be on the list, describe it briefly. If it seems complete, say something nice. 

2. Do you notice any specific missing assets, based on your imaginary playthrough? If you do notice anything you think should be on the list, describe it briefly. If it seems complete, say something nice. 

3. If your classmate has chosen to make their own assets, were they able to finish one in each category? 

4. If your classmate has chosen to use open-licensed art, have they found one in each category? Click on the links. Do the items they found look or sound consistent with one another? Note briefly if anything's missing or obviously under copyright. 

5. Try searching for more art in each category – give each category a minute or two. Do you see other sites or asset collections where they might find more of what they need? Do you think they’ll be able to find/modify as many of each kind as they will need? If you couldn't find anything compatible, let them know. 

6. Think about how you might help your classmate. Is there a resource you can send them, e.g. an arcade sound maker, that would be helpful? Is there a coding trick or an art technique that could save them some effort? 

7. Imagine you’re a publisher. You're deciding whether to invest money in this game, so you need reassurance that this asset plan is realistic. How would you rate it? 1 is "unlikely to finish in time" and 10 is "confident they'll finish". 

Like the last time, this isn't an assessment of your classmate – it's a data point for them to use as they decide how to proceed with their plans. Be honest with your number.

At the beginning of any game project, professionals plan their assets – they decide how to find or make them and they test bringing them into the game engine so they don’t get any nasty surprises later in development. In this assignment we’ll guide you through the process.

 Making an asset inventory means that you will test: 

Your plans for acquiring or producing your assets (sound, sprites, textures, models, and so on) 

Your pipeline: actually getting the assets into your game engine and integrating them with your code. 

Both of these things are often the source of nasty surprises in game development. 

This assignment will probably take an hour or two, depending on your asset strategy. It’s nearly all work you’ll need to do anyway to make your game. 

1. Make a spreadsheet. We’ve provided a basic template in the Tutorial Materials. Give it columns for name, file location, description, category and sub-category. If you’re not making your assets, you’ll also need columns to keep the original URL and notes about your right to use it (for example if it’s public domain or the artist provided it under a Creative Commons license.) 

2. Think about your game. Consider making rough sketches to help you visualize it. Mentally break it down into its individual screens and levels, and come up with some broad categories for art and sound. For example: 

Environment art, such as level backgrounds, platforms, or a frame around your match-three board. 

UI art, such as score, timers, health bars, buttons, or list background. Don’t forget your non-game screens like pause, main menu and settings! 

Character art, such as a sprites for different character states (walk, jump, hurt, etc.), avatars for visual-novel-style games, or enemy sprites that show damage. - In-game objects such as projectiles, power-ups, spell scrolls, or coins. 

Effects, such as particles, explosions, trail renderers, outline glow for an interactable object, or animations of puzzle elements. 

Sounds, such as background music, UI sounds like clicks, emotes, or puzzle pieces falling into place. 

Other categories appropriate to your game, such as card backs, puzzle tiles, list items, or level maps. 

3. Work on your prototypes for a while, or just look at them if they’re already finished. Pay attention to every placeholder asset and everywhere you’re expecting to put a sound. 

4. As you notice more assets you need, return and add them to your asset inventory. You’ll repeat steps 2 and 3 throughout development, because no one thinks of everything. 

If you are planning to make any assets yourself, go ahead and make a reasonably finished example for each category, including sounds. Put thumbnails of them in your spreadsheet. Record how long it takes you. 

If you plan to find rather than make any of your assets, go find one asset in each category that you would use in your final game, including sounds. You’re not committing to use these specific assets, but the examples you find should work together reasonably well and should not be placeholders. 

If you are planning to use something you found online, download the file and put the URL next to its entry in your asset list. You’ll need this later when you make your credits screen. 

For each asset, were there more where that one came from? If not, could you modify the ones you have, e.g. with a palette swap? If the answer is no for both of these questions, you will want to reconsider the assets you chose – this problem will not just go away during development. 

Now that you’ve made categories for your assets, choose a folder structure for storing your assets in your project. (You will be sad if you don’t do this near the beginning of your project.) If you’ve already started collecting assets, take this moment to clean up any strays that are in other folders. 

Now import your assets, that is, move them into the appropriate places in your project folder. Choose one asset from each category and make an object from it in Unity. Does it look good? Is it the right size? Adjust the import settings if necessary. 

If you are using any character animations, set up a quick test to show a few states (and transitions if appropriate). Are you able to see all the animations? Do they look good in your environment? 

Import and play a couple of your sample audio files, particularly any compressed files like mp3s. If you are planning to stream your audio, stream your samples. Do they sound good in engine? 

Finally, look back at your list and your samples. If there’s anything you didn’t find or make, either fix it or decide to cut it – it is not all right to think you’ll get them done later. 

If you weren’t able to get everything done, it’s not a reflection of you or your worth as a game maker; it’s just a reality of your skills and availability versus this project at this time in your life. You found it early enough that you can make intelligent adjustments, like a professional, and still get across the finish line. 

“I’ll catch up later” is what beginners think. Pros think “What can I simplify so that I still finish?” 

We highly recommend to comment on at least two other course member’s submissions. We've provided some questions below for you to think about. Read the questions first, then read your classmate’s concept document. Imagine you’re playing the game described – what’s on screen? What sounds do you hear? Try to think about less-obvious needs, such as fonts or a game-over sound effect. Then look at their asset inventory and write a couple of sentences based on the questions. 

1. Make your asset inventory as shown in the instructions above.

2. Review "What does a good asset inventory look like?" step. Think carefully about your own answers.

3. Take screenshots or make a video capture of your asset inventory and upload it. 

4. Look through the submissions on the gallery. We highly recommend to comment on at least two other course member’s submissions. 

In the next module you’ll learn how game professionals think about the timeline for making a game – the phases of a project and the meaning of particular milestones. You’ll learn about a tool for planning and organizing your code so it’s clear and easy to work with for the rest of the project. 

You’ll also use what you learned in your prototypes to take your game to the first milestone: the vertical slice. 

Assets shouldn't be liabilities

1. Planning for Assets

2. Using other people’s work

3. What does a good asset inventory look like?

4. Assignment: Make an Asset Inventory

Please login to submit

5. What's Next?