RECENT ASSIGNMENT

Programme Code BN021, BN112
BA in Creative Digital Media
Module Code DMED 2023, Multimedia Development 1
Autumn repeat assessment breakdown
Project 100%
Deadline Friday 20th August at 9:00 am

Instructions:
• Candidates are required to complete the assignment over the summer months.
• Submit DVD of assignment files to Shaun Ferns on or before Friday 20th August @ 9am.
• Read and understand this document fully before beginning the project.
• Use the submission checklist on page 4 of this document.
Assignment Overview
Students are to develop a children’s game using Unity 2D. Individually, you are to design, develop and test an interactive, 2D, game with Unity.
This game should be based on the adventures of a dogcatcher. The dogcatcher’s job is to catch as many puppies as possible before the timer runs out - Or - to find all of the hidden dogs within a scene in order to end the game. The game must have a ‘dog-like’ animal (such as a cat) that can be used to misdirect the dogcatcher and cause him/her to lose time or points. When the dogcatcher finds all of the puppies in the scene, he/she will then be permitted to find the puppies parents (mammy and daddy dogs). It is important to note that it should not be possible for the dogcatcher to catch the parents until all of the puppies are caught. This functionality should be achieved using variables and conditional statements.
• The fun of this game should be in finding the animals… so be inventive in designing your animals and your scenes hiding places etc...
• Puppies and dogs should be clickable or draggable objects
• ‘Cats’ should be clickable or draggable objects
• Selecting a dog or cat should effect a variable which counts the number of animals ‘saved’ or ‘captured’
• The parent dogs should not be visible until the correct number of dogs have been ‘saved’ or ‘captured’
These instructions where purposely written with a level of ‘vagueness’ to offer the student some room to interpret the project in an original manner. It is important however to include, to some degree, all of the functionality described above.
Assignment Requirements
Deliverable 1
There are 2 deliverables and some supporting materials required for this project. Students must submit their game (60%) and a project book (35%) which includes the game concepts (10%), a game design (15%), a game evaluation (10%). The final 5% are for the supporting documentation (5%).
The format of the game project book should be similar to that of the design books on display in F036.
• The game should ‘make sense’, in that:
o You have considered a narrative and the reason the dog-capture is in the current scenario o The game becomes progressively more difficult, so that the beginning should be straightforward for most people to complete, but it should require some practice and skill to complete the final parts of the game (so the player has a reason to want to come back to play it several times …)
o 4 scenes (minimum):
? One welcome/splash scene
? One game play scene (minimum)
? One game ‘win’ scene
? One game ‘lose’ scene
• The game should showcase the students’ knowledge and skills of the Unity package. Including any independent learning of materials NOT covered in tutorials.
• The game should illustrate effective and clever use of:
o Audio artefacts (effects, speech, background music) o Still and animated 2D sprites o Unity UI development
• Students may use media assets from other sources o as long as these are clearly declared in the 'sources' document in Harvard referencing o 80% or more of the assets for the game MUST be developed by the student.
o When using 3rd party assets, students must declare (in the sources doc):
? the name of the asset as it appears in the assets folder
? the original name of the asset (from its original source)
? the location the asset came from (e.g. URL / magazine disk etc.)
? a statement of whether the asset is used unchanged from the source, or if the student has adapted it. Indicating what adaptations have been made.
• The game should be of a HIGH PRODUCTION QUALITY and have a consistent audio-visual ‘theme’.
Deliverable 2 – Demo Defence Video
As there is little opportunity to demonstrate your creation of the interactive story you are required to demonstrate by screen capture your work. Similar to presenting during class time this is your opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the process for developing and creating your children’s game solution.
In your video defence/presentation you will be required to demonstrate and defend your understanding of your selected platform, specifically the use of code to enhance your work, your methods, choices and design, and the quality of your children’s game. You may also be asked to defend/present your work in person if there is some query about your project/grade.
Demo/Defence video
• video file o “StudentNumber_defense.wmv”
o You are to submit a 5min video file containing your video demo/defence o Load video on YouTube or Vimeo(private – password “md1”)
Method of submission
All work is to be uploaded to Moodle – deadlines are as specified on Moodle aswell as 2 DVDs
Files should be named in the style: B0007 (but with your names and student number…). Folders should be correctly named BEFORE being ZIPed. Incorrect file names will not be assessed. When a ZIP folder is required do not use RAR or 7zip etc.
Submission
1. Deliverable 1
All work is to be uploaded to Moodle
A zipped folder containing all documentation
A folder containing Unity Files for game
2. Deliverable 2
A document containing the link to your defense video on Vimeo (password “md1”)
In addition to the Moodle uploads students will need to submit: DVD-ROM x 2 copies. Each DVD contains all of the following deliverables:
Note: Project book on the DVD should be a PDF. No hard copy is required.
Note: Students are required to create a file architecture on the Zipped Folder(for Moodle) and the DVD which matches the bullet points below. i.e. the project book will be in a folder called ‘D1’, the Game will be in a folder called ‘D2’ etc…
• D1: Project book. Must be in the format of the design documents on the wall in F036 and be A4 size.
o Must include inspirations, concept art and conceptual ideas for game play o Must include asset designs and game play designs. There should be multiple versions of these. o Evaluation approach and results. Including copies of any surveys, evaluation reports etc…
• D2: The Game
o Unity project folder (project folder – not just an executable)
? so that your project can be opened and edited / run / built in the Unity Editor o Unity game build for game play (App or web application suit best.)
• D3: Supporting files (marks are deducted if these items are not included) o Its best to populate this document/folder concurrently with the project as opposed to doing it retrospectively
o 'declaration of sources' document (sources.txt – text file)
? a list of the URLs / sources of all media assets you did not create yourself
(images, audio, 3D models, scripts etc.) in Harvard referencing
? this must make clear any parts of the project not created originally yourselves, what existing work you used, and the extent to which (if any) you modified the work of others
o Supporting documentation for the evaluation (put in D3 folder) o All game visual and audio assets. Including any assets that didn’t make the final cut
• Ensure that both DVDs are correctly labelled on the disc and cover (Student name, number, group number, module title, 2nd year)
Submit to Moodle upload for Deliverable 1 & 2 in addition submit two copies (video and supporting files) on two DVDs (two copies of the same content) to Shaun Ferns’ post box in D-block ground floor(beside door for estates) on or before Friday 20th August @ 9am.
N.B. submissions will be collected at 9.05am
Penalties
• Due to a tight correction deadline, late submissions will not be accepted.
• Where no proof of creation is offered for the development of a new asset, it will be assumed that the asset is from a 3rd party. In such a case, zero marks will be awarded for the creation of that asset.
• 3rd party assets used but not listed in the sources list will incur a penalty.
• If a particular asset does not work or run correctly, marks will be not be awarded for this part.
• Marks will only be awarded for files submitted. If, for example, the student submits an incomplete Unity project file, resulting in the project file being corrupt or ‘unopenable’, zero marks will be awarded for that component.
• It is important to note that work already submitted may NOT be submitted again. This is considered plagiarism.
Hint: To avoid penalties, document your work periodically and create versions of your game. Create a realistic schedule of tasks to ensure a timely completion of the project. Approach the project incrementally to ensure that, even if the project is unfinished, a version is still submitted.
Advice to students
• Following the project description above will gain students a good passing grade. Students need to add something ‘extra’ to achieve a higher grade. That something extra could be an excellent design, additional functionality, a large amount of animation etc…
• Students need to plan their time well in order to achieve all aspects of this project. The documentation matches the various phases of the software development lifecycle therefore; it makes sense to write the documentation at the appropriate stage of the project.
• Check your DVD contents against the submission guidelines before submitting.