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 Scope

Learn More About Scope

Examples of relatively minimal, fun games

Scope.mp4

Scope, or the size of an idea, is one of the most important parts of game design – it directly determines whether you will finish a game or end up with a half-made, buggy mess. This tutorial talks about how smart scoping – thinking small – frees you to make games you'll be proud of.

Unity + USC Games Unlocked

Games

Read these resources to learn more about how game developers have used scope to help them develop their game. 

A game designer from Activision talks about how professional designers deal with scope. “What's the number one reason projects fail? What's the biggest title killer in the industry?” 

An indie designer gives practical advice for managing scope. “The completion of the game is more important than making it the next big thing.” 

The maker of Desolus tells the story of his first commercial game. “I opted for a game that could be created entirely with my given resources and experience.” 

You may recognize these from the list of simple games to play we provided in the last unit. Go ahead and check out a few more of them now – either play them or watch a gameplay video, and think about how you’d go about implementing them. 

These are polished, commercial games, and we’re not suggesting that you can finish a game or even one level to this degree of polish during this course. But they can help you get an idea of the right scope for this course. 

Scope

1. Introduction to Scope

2. Learn More About Scope

3. Examples of relatively minimal, fun games

Complete this tutorial