Computer Games Development (Summer 2023/2024)

The course gives a complex overview of computer games development. It covers programming (middleware for games, scripting languages, etc.), game design, project management, game marketing and also briefly touches basics of computer graphics for non-programmers. This is a joint course for students from multiple faculties and universities. In the course, the students create their own small game in small teams of 3-4 students. Every team is given own exclusive mentor who is a professional game developer. Many lectures are led by game development professionals and a mini game development conference is organized as part of the course. The lectures will likely be given in English.

Main parts of the course are led by Otakar Nieder (Virtuos), Martin Klíma (Warhorse Studios), Vojtěch Černý, Lukáš Kolek and Cyril Brom (CUNI).

The course is open for MFF UK students as well as (a limited number of) students from FF UK, ČVUT, FAMU, ZČU Plzeň and VŠUP Praha.

News

Follow the appropriate channel at Gamedev Discord!
https://discord.gg/FaZAAAdCbe

ORGANIZATION

1. First of all, be sure to have fun!
2. The Fun starts at 2024/Feb/23 at 9:00 AM in S5 + Discord (channel AUDITORIUM). Mark this in your calendar. YOU MUST ATTEND THIS INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. We are going to tell you EXTREMELY IMPORTANT organization information, which WILL NOT BE REPEATED AGAIN.
3. Read about the Grading (the scoring system), Team rules and Mini-grant applications at the second half of this (not so short) page.
4. Subscribe to the Gamedev Matfyz Discord (Deadline: the day of the first lecture!) .
5. If you have Facebook, stay connected with our FB page.
6. Attend networking events that are organized during evenings (see schedule below).
7. Decide on a game you want to make, find or form a team and as a team give a pitch presentation about your idea.
8. Mind the Team rules at the bottom of this page. Deadline for forming the team comes quite quick (see below). Fill in your bio into this shared spreadsheet, which serves both us and you to track who is part of this course and especially who does not have a team yet.
9. Meet all deadlines, attend all mandatory events.
10. Create a magnificent game prototype!
11. Present your game prototype during the Presentation day (see deadline below).
12. The grade is given by the points you accumulate (see below). The biggest part (up to 50 points) is given based on the final quality of your game and its presentation, assessed by the committee consisting of academia representatives and industry professionals. 

SCHEDULE

Note that end-times can vary!

Teams

Each team should have 3 – 4 people, 4 is an ideal number, 5 is a bit too many but acceptable occasionally. Members of the team must be from at least two different faculties. Every team must have at least one programmer, it is better to have two. Ideally, every team should have at least one creative guy/gal. There can be at max 1 person from FF UK in each team. (Students from FF UK should not flock together!)

Deadline for forming teams is: 2024/Mar/13 at the latest! You should start forming teams ASAP, ideally right after the first lecture.

We advise you to write your name into this spreadsheet that can be used to quickly check who still does not have a team…

Deadlines

All deadlines are here to be met!

As in game industry itself, all deadlines are strict. If not stated otherwise, deadline means the very day till 23:59:59 (CEST). 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 (well not literally, you will not receive points, but that may ultimately lead to failing the course).

Piece of advice to teams (and their leaders), make sure all your team members is committing to deadlines, otherwise they might lose motivation working on the project if they found out they will not be able to receive A…

Project

In this year, your goal will be to develop a small game that can compete with other existing games on an international level. Creating such game is a question of good game design and 15-30 days of programming and graphics making. You can check on projects from previous years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021. 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, artist at each team. But it is up to you to form teams. 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 Discord or even our Facebook page to promote yourself or propose your projects. We are going to organize informal networking events. You should also read “Teams” section above first (if you haven’t already)!

We are trying to find external mentors who have a lot of experiences with game development and team management to help you with project management and game development. 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 (at the Pitch Session, see above) as if they are potential investors (which they truly are, they will be investing their own time to you!).

You are also required to use Git as SCM (namely GitHub); if you do not know what that is, ask your programmers ;-). GitHub provides you with many useful stuff, namely it allows you to have a project’s front page, wiki, forum, etc.

As a part of the project we will require you to create a webpage that describes your game (example pages from 2019: Afterlife Dogs of Eden, Breach, 2018: Silicomrades, Out of Sight, 2017: Trashscraper, Toasty Conquest; 2016: Spring, 2015: Swappie) and a small gameplay video (examples: Breach, Toasty Conquest, Spring). You can setup your own webpage anywhere, but you can also use GitHub Pages, itch.io or similar services.

Grading

You final grade depends on your team performance throughout the whole semester. Points are collected both by teams and individual members. Every team member can gain up-to 111 points in total. We will be sending a link to the scoring sheet through e-mail (to MFF students who should forward it to other members of the team), if you miss it, e-mail to cerny@gamedev.cuni.cz who will resend the link to you.

You can receive points for various meetings / events / consultations / awards, 10 points == grade difference:

ČVUT Students

Please note that if you are ČVUT student, you have to write to Cyril Brom (zc.inuc.ffm.ivsk reverse-it morb) that you wish to attend the course.

ZČU Students

Please note that if your of age 15-26 you are eligible for getting a “Žákovské jízdné” discount from ČD on trips between Pilsen and Prague.

Step-by-step guide (kudos to Olga Tesliuk, who has punched this through!):

1. Buy a Žákovské jízdné card for 2 CZK at train station (they should have it available both in ČD and Regiojet desks).
2. Fill in your name, surname, birthdate and towns you going to commute between (Pilsen – Prague); of course write this in Czech 😉
3. Go to your student affairs at ZČU and have it signed (let tem fill “date from-to” for you).
4. Go back to the train station and have it signed by ČD (you will need that card, your identity card – občanka, and some money).
5. PROFIT!

Another generic step-by-step guide available here (in Czech only).