Homework 14: State

Homework 14
Assigned Oct. 29, 2013
Due: Nov. 7, 2013

As discussed in class, objects have actions, and transitions lead from one action to another. After reading the section in Chapter 10 that relates to States, construct two state diagrams related to your game, create an image describing the actions and transitions (similar to the way it was done for the game Pacman), and describe each of your diagrams. These descriptions must relate to your team's game. Do these individually (do not copy from each other).

This homework is individual, not team-based, although it is based on your game.

Homework 13, 2013

Homework 2013

Each team will have a chance to show their game off to the class. This will occur for the first time on Nov. 5 and Nov. 7, 2013. Expect critique from both me and the class.

Homework 12: Task assignments

Homework 12: Task assignments.
Assigned: October 17, 2013
Due: October 24, 2013

I would like each member of each team to put in his/her blog what they plan to do between today and one week from now on their team. This is to ensure smooth functioning of the team and that everybody contributes. The assignments should be specific and have a deliverable. Please do this by the weekend. Next Thursday, I will check that the assignments have been accomplished. We will do this every week between now and the end of class.

Not satisfying the assignment given decreases your grade at the end of this class.

Homework 11, Chapter 15 and 16

Homework 11: Story and Indirect Control
Assigned: Tue. Oct. 15, 2013
Due: Tue. Oct. 22, 2013

Please read chapters 15 (One kind of experience is the story), and 16 (Story and game structures are artfully merged with indirect control). Answer the following questions (the homework is individual):

Yes/no answers are not valid. One must expand somewhat on each answer.

Chapter 15

1. A goal with no obstacles is not worth pursuing. 
2. What is the relationship between the main character and the goal? Why does the character care about it? 
3. What are the obstacles between the character and the goal? 
4. Do the obstacles gradually increase in difficulty? If yes, how? 
5. Great stories often involve the protagonist transforming to overcome the obstacle. Does your protagonist transform? 
6. How is the game world simpler than the real world? 
7. What kind of transcendent power do you give to the player? 
8. What is the weirdest element in the game story? 
9. How do you ensure that the weirdest thing does not confuse or alienate the player? 
10. Will the players be interested in the game story? Why? 

Chapter 16

1. In what sense does the player have freedom of action? Does the player "feel" free at these times? 
2. What are the constraints imposed on the players? Do they feel constrained? 
3. Ideally, what would you like your players to do (lens #72)
4. Can you set constraints to "kind of" force the player to do it? 
5. Can you design your interface to "force" the player to do what you (the designer) wish him/her to do? 

Oct. 8, 2013: Update your game document

No graded homework for next Tuesday. However, I expect your game documents to all be updated with the latest information regarding your game. Your game document must include:

- Experience
- Objective
- Rules, mechanics
- Characters
- Story
- Objects + actions
- any puzzles and their solutions
- pictures of all elements of your game and snapshots of your game.

Of course, you might not have all these elements yet, but your game document should be updated.

Homework 10: team homework

Homework 10: game presentation
Assigned: Thur. Oct. 3, 2013
Presentations: Thur. Oct. 10, 2013

Each team will give a 10 min presentation of their game, using the web, powerpoint, etc.
You must describe the objective, experience, ideas behind it and show a few snapshots. Do not use Blender. Maximum number of slides: 10.

Students who are absent next Thursday will get a grade of zero, unless there is a written justification for the absence, and the student's contribution to the presentation is stated.

Homework 9: Balance

Homework 9
Assigned: October 1, 2013
Due: October 8, 2013

For this homework, you will lead the chapter on Balance, pp. 171-205. In this chapter, the author discusses 12 different types of balance.

Assignment:
In your blog, write up 1-2 pages that discusses balance and how it relates to your game. Consider all 12 types of balance. Some will apply, some will not. Provide examples within your game.

This homework is individual.

I will  grade your homework taking into account the degree to which you analyzed this chapter and transposed the concepts to the team game.

No Homework assigned this Thursday!

No homework assigned on September 26, 2013!!!
Enjoy the weekend!

Homework 8: Chapter 10

Homework 8: Chapter 10
Assigned: September 24, 2013
Due: October 1, 2013

After reading Chapter 10 (Game Mechanics), please answer the following questions as they relate to your team game. Answers are individual and posted to your blog. The answers should apply to your  team game, as discussed at your meetings. 

The answers can be brief, but must be to the point, and expressed as full sentences and paragraphs. Make sure that each question is answered individually. Some of the questions cannot be answered without reading the book chapter. 

You can skip subsections 2 and 6: State and Chance. 

1. Is the space in your game discrete or continuous?
2. How many dimensions does your space have? 
3. What are the boundaries of your space? 
4. How many verbs do your players (characters) have? What are they? 
5. How many objects can each verb act on? What are these objects? 
6. How many ways can players achieve their goals
7. How many subjects do the players control? What are these subjects? 
8. How do side effects change constraints. 
9. What are the operative actions in your game? 
10. What are the resultant actions in your game? 
11. What actions would you like your players to do that they cannot presently do? (based on your current knowledge of Blender)
12. What is the ultimate goal of your game? 
13. Are there short and long term goals? What are they? 
14. How do you plan to make the game goals known and understood by the player? 
15. What are the foundational rules of your game? 
16. How are these rules enforced? 
17. Does your game develop real skills? What are they? 
18. Does your game develop virtual skills? What are they? 

Homework 7, Blender Animation in the Game Engine

Homework 7
Assigned: September 19, 2013
Due: September 26, 2013

In this homework, you are required to use the game engine to enhance your game.
You must use the following elements:

• Parenting
• Animation
• Linking from another file
• Materials

As usual, you must discuss what you did in your blog and, 

• Provide one or more images or a video
• Provide a written description of what you have done
• Explain how what you have done fits into the larger picture of your game

Please provide your game through a link or a dropbox. No need to send the file in an email. 

Homework 6: Chapters 4-5

Homework 6
Assigned: Sept. 17, 2013
Due: Sept. 24, 2013

Please read chapters 4 (Elements) and 5 (Theme) of the class textbook "The Art of Game Design" by Jesse Schell.
Answer the following questions in your blog (this is individual). If you have answered the question previously, copy/paste your previous response and improve on it. Your game is undergoing evolutions after all, and your understand is increasing over time. Some questions might seem confusing. The book discusses these and makes it possible to think and answer the questions. Please discuss with the instructor if necessary. 

1. Four each of the four elements of the Tetrad, explain how it is addressed by your game. If one of the four elements is not used, please state this. 
2. Do the four (or less) elements work towards a current theme? 
3. In your own words, describe the meaning of a "theme", and how does it differ from an "experience" (see book for examples in Chapters 2 and 5. 
4. What is your game's theme? 
5. What are the elements in your game that are meant to reinforce this theme? 
6. What is it about your game that you feel makes it special and powerful?

Your blog should have a header for each question and an answer for each question so that I can clearly identify question and answer. 

Homework 5: Blender Game Engine

Homework 5: Blender Game Engine
Assigned: Thur. Sept. 12, 2013
Due: Thur. Sept. 19, 2013

In this homework, you will each use the game engine with one or more of the objects that will be used in your game. Use the object(s) created in homework 3. You must use your object and in addition, you may use other objects created by your team members.

The homework will be created in your personal blog. You will put the Blender file somewhere to be downloaded and send me the link. If you cannot do this, email me the Blender file.

Deliverables:

• Use the game engine, combined with physics, to do something interesting with your objects. 
• You must be able to move the objects with the keyboard (some combination of horizontal, perhaps with, vertical motion). Your characters could jump up for example. 
• Use the add objects facility in your little engine simulation
• Describe what you have done in your blog (using words). You can create a video to describe what you have done, but a text description is a requirement. 
• Describe how use of the game engine will relate to the team game you are developing. Therefore, it might be a good idea for the team to discuss what each member is doing for this homework in order to help with the game development at a later time. The homeworks of each team member must be individual and not copies of each other. 
• I want a video of your use of the game engine OR some images, that illustrate what you have done (in addition to text description.)

Homework 4: Teamwork

Homework 4
Assigned: Sept. 10, 2013
Due: Sept. 17, 2013

Please read chapters 23 (Teams) and 24 (Documents) of the class textbook "The Art of Game Design" by Jesse Schell.
Answer the following questions in your blog (this is individual).

1. Do you love your project/game. If not, how can that be changed? 
2. Does the team as a whole love the project? If not, what can be done? 
3. Are the team members communicating with each other?
4. Does the team have a regular meeting schedule? What is that schedule? 
5. Describe the modes of communication between the team members. 
6. Regarding game documents, what must be remembered while designing your game? 

You'll be starting on your game document in the near future.

Homework 3: First Objects in Blender

Homework 3: First Objects in Blender
Assigned: Sept. 5, 2013
Due: Sept. 12, 2013

In this homework, you will construct your first object(s) necessary to your game. Each team member will build a different object, or set of objects. This (these) object(s) will be formed from spheres, cubes, cones, cylinders (in any combination) and edited to create anything you like. You are required to do some extrusion and subdivision. Teams should discuss this homework and how it relates to the planned game. However, each team member is responsible for building his/her own object(s). Use your imagination. Look through Youtube/google to get ideas.

Expected deliverables:  (total grade: 100%)

1. A blender file with your objects  (50%)
2. A description of what you have done with Blender in your Blog (labelled Homework 3) (25%)
3. A description of how these objects fit into your teams' game (25%)

Other optional ideas: add one or two lights, add a second camera.

Homework 2: Meet your team

Homework 2
Assigned: September 2,  2013
Due: September 9, 2013

• Now that your teams are formed, meet with your team (in person, via Skype, during lunch, before class, after class, etc.)
• Develop a game concept that includes an objective, desired experience, desired audience
• Provide a very rough idea of the story (this will be developed throughout the course)
• Give me an idea of the characters in your game
• Describe the above in your googledocs notebook document. Perhaps each your contributions is written in a different color? Make sure you include your team names, your domains of expertise, what you hope to accomplish during the game development.
• For now, leave the googledocs game document alone. Once you have a better idea of your game and its structure, you will update the game document. 

Homework 1: First Blog Entry

Homework 1: First Blog Entry

Assigned: Tue. Aug. 27, 2013

Due: Tue. Sept. 3, 2012

Your first assignment is:

• Create a Blog at http://www.blogspot.com
• email the name of the blog to the gerlebacher@fsu.edu
• Put gd2013 in the subject of the email
• create a video with voiceover (your own voice) describing the content of the video.
• upload this video to YouTube and copy the link
• Create a blog entry with a link to this YouTube video and also add a few lines of text describing the content of this video. Also try to embed the video directly into the blog. 
• Create a second blog entry that contains one or more images created by you. Include descriptions of each image in the blog entry. 
• Provide at least two links to games that involve cities, city building, village building, house building, etc. (Do not include SimCity)
• Install Blender 2.68 onto your computer. The download link can be found under Blender Resources. 
• To help you, use one of the software programs listed at
• http://fsugd.blogspot.com/p/useful-links.html

Use Google to figure out how to upload a video to Youtube. The video you create can be anything . No longer than 3 minutes, no shorter than 1 minute. Make sure I hear your voice on the video. 

Grading: 

• Blog entry 1, maximum grade: 50
• Blog entry 2, maximum grade: 50

Bring your computer to class so you that we can work on Blender together.