What is the Design Process? 

Scope

Constraints and Our Theme

Concentric Design

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

Course Introduction and Planning

Game Jams and Skilling Up

Set your goals and find your community

Why Prototype? 

Assets shouldn't be liabilities

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 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

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

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Introduction to Constraints

Be Inspired by Constraints

Introducing our Theme

Approach with Caution

Constraints.mp4

A constraint is a rule that you use in your design process. There are lots of kinds of constraints. Constraints can really help when you’re brainstorming or when you’re stuck for ideas, because they help define the edges of the design space that you’re exploring, and they help take some of the pressure off of you.

Unity + USC Games Unlocked

Games

Dive deeper into more inspiring stories of how game developers have faced and dealt with constraints they faced during their game development process: 

An artist suffers nerve damage in his hands and re-imagines his approach to art. The video (ten minutes long) shows his amazing work and offers lots of inspiration. “I had to quit trying so hard to think outside of the box, and get back into it.” 

Rough notes from a presentation by the makers of Tri, a Ludum Dare game they made into a full release. Includes a great list of small games. “Limit your project, not your brain.” 

How the makers of Gone Home turned their small team’s limitations into an innovative and successful indie game. “...slowly learning about everything it has the bravery and restraint not to be, not to do.” 

As you learned creating a theme helps create constraint, which then helps you stay in scope. Using the example of using "layers" as a theme, you could choose to use this theme mechanically, for example by using Unity’s physics layers. You could also use it thematically, for example by making a game about layers of meaning or atmospheric layers. 

Using the comment tools here, come up with some thematic concepts you are considering for your game. 

Too big for eight weeks: scope-busting genres These genres are “scope busters” that are not recommended for your first original game project. For most, it’s because of technical difficulty or art resources. In the case of role-playing and strategy games, it’s because they do not lend themselves to concentric design. Many professionals would struggle to make a good game in these genres in just eight weeks. 

Real-time strategy, except tower defense 

Too big for eight weeks: scope-busting features These features require deep technical expertise and/or many, many hours to implement. You can certainly make games with these features as you develop more skills and take on bigger projects, but trying to get them into your very first game would be a beginner mistake. 

Squad AI or fighting game AI – basically any AI besides patrol, navmesh or A* pathfinding 

Custom 3d models, i.e. that you model and texture yourself 

Approach with caution: risky genres and features The following genres and features are difficult for beginners, but doable in the context of this course if you have help from either asset packages or tutorials. 

Constraints and Our Theme

1. Introduction to Constraints

2. Be Inspired by Constraints

3. Introducing our Theme

4. Approach with Caution

Complete this tutorial