This page contains details about Seminar on Computer Games Development (NSWI158) that has been organized during summer semester of 2022/2023 at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. The seminar is organized by Lukáš Kolek (kolek@ksvi.mff.cuni.cz).
The seminar provides students with opportunity to discuss current issues in the video game industry and get familiar with the current video game production and conferences. Requirements of this seminar are a combination of preparation work for our seminar classes, active discussions and self-studying of materials allowing you to expand your horizons in the video game industry.
Dates
Irregular – based on Doodle voting at the beginning of the semester. (Join the relevant channel on our Discord https://discord.gg/qf2cBTM)
Credit Terms
The first step is to join our Discord server for the most recent information – https://discord.gg/qf2cBTM. All the important tasks for the seminar will be discussed there.
This course will require from you:
a) preparing yourself for discussions/presentations on chosen topics
The presentations will happen in 10 physical sessions (in 5 days) in March-May (based on your Doodle voting on Discord). Each of you will attend exactly 4 sessions. You will be provided with materials prior to the seminar and homeworks, so you can prepare yourself and answer our questions (approx 2h of preparation for each discussion).
You should be currently assigned to your dates via Discord (if not, do that asap)
b) self-studying (visiting conferences)
We would like you to visit at least 1 conference and critically summarize at least 5 talks in total happening on each of them based on your preference using the questionnaire [LINK was shared via discord at the beginning of the semester]
What conferences can you attend? There are plenty of online conferences with free tickets available (yet, their program is not often finalized and you will need to register). The tips for conferences and game-related events were shared via Discord
The deadline for this is 20.5. – negotiable for the Game Access in Brno
c) self-studying (playing games)
Another part of your self-studying is playing game demos and critically evaluating them. There is an online event called Ludonarracon – 4.-8. May (however, demos are sometimes available longer) https://www.ludonarracon.com/
At the festival, you will see a number of demos of the upcoming games. Your task is to play at least six of them and answer the following questionnaire [LINK will be shared via discord two weeks before the event]
The deadline for this is 10. 5.
d) self-studying (invited talks)
To attend at least 1 invited talk. The dates of at least two invited talks were shared via Discord.
e) Game diary
1) During this semester, you will play at least 4 games and review them in the shared table according to categories there. [LINK with a model exaple was shared via discord]
2) Record 10 minutes of gameplay of your favorite game that you have played during this semester (it should be one from the 1)) and review it using your voice commentary over the video. Your commentary in a video should be very informative
– focus on gameplay aspects – how do you like the game, what is surprising, describe gameplay loop and hook
– do some research before – who are the developers? How does their studio work?
– comment it from the business perspective as well – was it successful? Do you think that it helped the studio to gain some financial sustainability for the next title?
– if you do not want to, we will not share the video with your colleagues and you can share it with us via emal
The deadline for this assignment is 1.6.!