Computer Games Development (Winter 2015/16)

The course gives a complex overview of computer games development. It will cover programming (middleware for games, scripting languages, etc.), game design, project management and game marketing. This is a joint course for computer science students of Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (CS) and students of Faculty of Arts (FA). In the course, the students will create their own small game in small teams of 2-4 students. The course will also introduce: HTML5, Flash, Android, and Unreal Development Kit. Several talks will be given by invited speakers from the gaming industry.

Main parts of the course are led by Otakar Nieder (Bohemia Interactive Simulations) and Martin Klíma (Warhorse Studios) and Milena Koljenšič (Gamajun Games). Courses are complemented by two lecturers from CUNI Jakub Gemrot and Cyril Brom.

Important Info

You MUST attend the first lecture 2015/10/09 at 9:00 am, MFF UK (Malostanské nám. 25) room S4.

We are going to tell you EXTREMELY IMPORTANT organization information, which WILL NOT BE REPEATED AGAIN.

All deadlines are here to be met!

As in game industry itself, all deadlines are strict. If not stated otherwise, deadline 2015/10/16 means the very day till 23:59:59 GMT+1. If you are unable to deliver, you have to mail us in advance explaining your problems. If you mail us after the deadline, you’re doomed.

Course Terms

1) Signup to the email conference

If you are unable to sign to email conference, you do not have enough IQ to pass. Sign-up no sooner that 2015/09/25

Deadline is: 2015/10/16

2) Project

In this year, your goal will be the same as in previous one. You will have to develop a small casual game that can compete with other existing games or in international competition. Creating such game is a question of good game design and several days of programming and graphics making. You can check on projects from previous year. We will require you to form a team, write a Game Design Document (the link contains a template with instructions) and implement the game according to it. Finally, you will have to present and defend your game during presentation day.

Student teams are interdisciplinary as gamedev teams usually are. We aim at having a distinctive person for roles: programmer, designer, graphics at each team. But it is up to you to form teams. Deadline for forming a team is 2015/10/30. We require that all members creatively contribute to the project. No team member should be “hiree-to-do-some-dull-stuff”.

You can use our Facebook page or email conference to promote yourself or propose your projects. But read “Teams Rules” section down below first!

We are trying to find external mentors who have a lot of experiences with game development and team management. Each team should get one and you will have to report to them regularly; take this opportunity to learn from them!

You will have to pitch your project to mentors first (2015/10/30) as if they are investors (which they truly are, they will be investing their own time to you!).

3) Experiment

You have to attend an experiment, email zc.inuc.ffm.isvk reverse-it morb for details, deadline 2015/10/16.

Workshops

Workshops are intended for:

• individual project consultations that are **mandatory** for the whole team, they will happen during November and December;
• to attend an “experiment”;
• work creatively on the game project of yours.

Workshops presenting respective game middlewares/engines (for MFF UK students only) will be presented during another course Game Development Middleware, which you should **sign up** to as well if you will have to fill a programmer’s role..

Lectures and Events

This year, lectures will be done in blocks. Block will run at MFF UK (Malostranské nám. 25) in the room S4 every Friday since 2015/10/09 till 2015/11/06 or 2015/11/13 between 9:00 AM till about 4:00 PM.

Preliminary schedule:

Team Rules

Each team should game 3 – 4 people, 4 is an ideal number, 5 is a bit too many.

Members of the team are from at least two different faculties.

Ideally, every team should have at least one creative guy/gal and a programmer.

There can be at max 1 person from FF UK in each team. (Students from FF UK should not flock together!)

Minigrant Application Instructions – 2015/16

1. Application text must be submit (that is delivered!) together with design documents till 2015/11/13 midnight (tj. 11:59.59 PM GMT+1)
2. There must be at least 1 MFF UK member within the team, which applies for minigrant.
3. Application must include:
   1. Name of the team (together with names and affiliation of its members) and name of the project
   2. Concrete description what do you apply for.
   3. Concrete description how are you going to obtain it.
   4. Price including VAT (round up to 500.- KČ).
   5. Reason, why do you want the “thing” and how are you going to use it within the scope of the project.
   6. How will your situation change, if you do not get the minigrant.
4. You can apply only for things, that can be bought against receipt (a bill for hardware or an invoice for services). If you cannot comply with this condition (you need real money), you might try to apply nevertheless, but it will lower your chances for getting the money.
5. Everything you buy must “exist” and it will remain the property of Charles University. This applies to hardware as well as sounds, graphics, etc. (but that does not mean you will have to remove the graphics or sounds from your game at the end of the term). You must return the “thing” after you finish the project (subject for discussion, state your reason why you will need to keep the “thing”).
6. You can ask for up to 10.000,- Kč. In case of multiple high-quality applications we will split 10.000,- Kč between them.
7. Valuation criteria:
   1. Formal compliance of application with rules above
   2. Meaningfulness
   3. Game design document quality and quality of your project in general
8. You have to buy the “thing” no later than 2015/11/25, bills must be handed to Jakub Gemrot or Cyril Brom no later than 2015/11/26 if not if not arranged otherwise. We will not refund and bills after 2015/11/26.