Lab 1 - Create a Project Design Document

Tutorial

·

Beginner

·

+10XP

·

90 mins

·

(53)

Unity Technologies

Lab 1 - Create a Project Design Document

Overview:

In this first ever Lab session, you will begin the preliminary work required to successfully create a personal project in this course. First, you’ll learn what a personal project is, what the goals for it are, and what the potential limitations are. Then you will take the time to come up with an idea and outline it in detail in your Design Document, including a timeline for when you hope to complete certain features. Finally, you will take some time to draw a sketch of your project to help you visualize it and share your idea with others.

Project Outcome:

The Design Document will be filled out, including the concept, the timeline, and a preliminary sketch of the minimum viable product.

Materials

Languages available:

1. Introduction

U1.Lab1.Intro


2. Understand what a Personal Project is

Before we get started on our personal projects, we should make sure we understand our primary goals.


CWC_Lab1.S1_T1_v01


3. Review Design Doc examples

Now that we have some idea of what a Personal Project is, let’s look a couple examples


CWC_Lab1.S2_T1_v01


  1. Click on the link to open the “Project Design Doc [EXAMPLE]” and read through the Project Concept

  1. Click on the link to open a new “Project Design Doc” as either a Google Doc Copy, Word Doc or PDF

  1. Think through how you would fill out a design doc for other games

4. Complete your Project Concept V1

Now that we’ve seen some examples, let’s try to come up with our own project concept.


CWC_Lab1.S3_T2_v01


  1. Add your name and date in the top-right corner

  1. Fill in the blanks for your project concept

  1. Share your project concept with someone else to make sure it makes sense to them

5. Complete your Project Timeline

Now that we know the basic concept of our project, let’s figure out how we’re going to get it done.


CWC_Lab1.S4_T1_v01


  1. Fill in milestone descriptions based on your schedule for the course, including self-imposed due dates

  1. Add features that will not be included in your MVP to the “Backlog”

6. Complete your MVP sketch

To help visualize our minimum viable product, it’s always helpful to have a sketch.


CWC_Lab1.S5_T1_v02


  1. Look at sketch in the example

  1. Using Google Docs, some other online simple drawing program, or pencil and paper, draw a sketch of your MVP and add it to your doc

7. Create a Testing database

Using what you've learned from creating a test case and a bug report from your first prototype and challenge. Now let's start to apply how you will test your personal project. Create a database, in a spreadsheet or in a software like Jira, Github or another software, and begin populating it with features and mechanics of your project that you will need to test as you build.



8. Recap

CWC_Lab1.SRecap_T1_v02


New progress


  • Completed your project concept and production timeline

  • Created your testing database

New concepts & skills:


  • Personal Projects

  • Design Documents

  • Project Timelines,

  • Project Milestones and Backlogs

  • Minimum Viable Products

  • Testing databases

Complete this tutorial