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I have some programming experience, thanks to the time I spent at Full Sail. We are taught mostly in C++ but I also dabbled in C#, Java, Assembly, and even made a few applications for the Game Boy Advance.
One of the really fun parts about going through the Game Development Bachelors degree program at Full Sail is that you get to learn a little bit about everything it takes to make a game in the real-world. When a game is first started, it has to be laid out like a story. This story is the Design Document. Once that document is finished, the game can be worked on, kind of like following blueprints for construction. There are a few more steps between the document and actually having something to play, but I'm not going to go into all of that here.
Have fun checking out some of my accomplishments!
In my Master of Science
degree for Game Production & Design at Full Sail University, the
last 5 months of the degree are assigned to us breaking up as a class with teams in the Game
Development Final Project to manage them into designing and creating a game. This is
the same Final Project I went through when I was in my Bachelors', but the
difference is that now Game Art B.S. students and the Game Design M.S. students are integrated as
well.
My team, DigiRex, was composed of 10 people total,
including myself. We had 2 Internal Producers, myself and another
Master's student, 5 Game Development B.S. programmers, and 3 Game Art B.S.
artists. We developed a flying adventure game where the player plays as a
pigeon flying around a city collecting items to build a super cool nest. While
flying around, the player has to dodge environmental obstacles like cars, clothes
lines, power lines, and billboards to escape the hawks that attempts to
catch you.
If you are interested in supporting our team and game, please become a fan on Facebook by searching for Nest Quest. Our studio created a website, www.digital-alchemy-studios.com, to showcase all of the games produced from our graduating class.
I finished the Final Project part of the Bachelor of Science in Game Development at Full Sail University in May 2009. During the project, I was in the role of Project Lead for a team of 6 programmers, including me, for the 5 month development cycle. The five classmates I worked with are Josh Burdette (Design Lead), Ryan Harding (QA Lead), Austin McCoy (Asset Lead), Chris Thatcher (Technology Lead), and Ryan Correia (Game-play Lead). We made a First Person Shooter, titled "Robot Revolt," that allows the player to use magnetic weaponry to defeat an army of evil robots. Feel free to download the installer and check it out.
The purpose of my paper is to gain a better understanding of stress and motivation and how they affect performance and overall well-being. The research throughout this thesis will help in gaining a clearer view of how incorporating video game recreation into the work environment will help increase productivity in game industry employees. Information is provided about physiological, psychological, and long-term effects of stress, the motivational process and how to improve it, as well as the benefits of playing video games. The paper is concluded by providing some examples of companies already incorporating video game recreation, an analysis of findings, and advice for future research.
This course takes students through the marketing process, helping them to develop the skills required to help an organization deliver a concise and credible message. Topics of study include consumer research, advertising, product planning, distribution, public relations, and media relationships. The culmination of this course is the application of these topics to the capstone final project.
Make Your Point - Speak Clearly and Concisely Anyplace, Anytime
Authors - Bob Elliott and Kevin Carroll
How to Work a Room - Your Essential Guide to Savvy Socializing
Author - Susan RoAne
Quality Assurance is an integral component of the game design process. The successful delivery of a game is dependent on the verification and validation of an effective quality assurance system. Topics in this course include function prototypes, test sets (which include defect testing and acceptance testing), and structural prototyping. Students develop a continuous process improvement program for their capstone project. The bug testing cycle and accepted bug testing software are also introduced. This course provides students with the skills to design and implement a testing program from the beginning of the development cycle to the end.
Game Testing All In One
Authors - Charles P. Schultz, Robert Bryant, and Tim Langdell
Usability Engineering
Author - Jakob Nielsen
In this class, we learned about the history, theories, and practices in the software and manufacturing industries. We studied software and manufacturing history, examined possible hybrid production models, analyzed various companies' efficiency in developing software applications to products, alternative methods of production, and what the game industry can benefit from this. We examined Human Resource and Procurement and the integral roles each has in the production models we analyzed. We learned about MRP, MRPII, and Kanban resource tracking and manufacturing techniques, Agile, Waterfall, Lean, and Six Sigma production methodologies, and also learned about hybrid methods like Extreme Programming and Rapid Application Development.
This course is a study of the process and production
of assets for games. The analysis of asset needs as related to game
requirements will lead to a possible track within the game industry, where
cross-functional management is required. Throughout the month, we examined
the needs of a product through its various stages of development, and applied learning
towards managing assets that allows for communication and coordination of the game
development process. The course included opportunities for us to apply the knowledge
we'd gained to industry related challenges that focused on creativity and problem
solving, as well as gaining an in-depth knowledge of issues that reoccur in the lifestyle
of a game, to help us become successful asset managers.
The Game Asset Pipeline
Author - Ben Carter
Throughout this class, we learned all about different design principles that can be of great help when developing a video game. This course is a blend of traditional science as applied to game mechanics, and focuses on the core fundamentals that go into the game design production cycle. We learned about basic research concepts and grew to understand the approximate truths of inferences about the decisions we make related to research and design investigation. We learned how to influence design concepts, how to help people learn and progress through a design, how to enhance the usability of a design, how to increase the appeal of a design, and how to make better design decisions. Alongside design principles and research validity, we also took part in a Game Design Challenge to help in creating a game for the visually impaired. This was a lot of fun and is beneficial to research more in order to help broaden the video game market to everyone. Towards the end of the course, each student completed an IRB research certification to understand laws, rules, policies and procedures of the correct way for implementing any research project. Different usability testing was also discussed and a Think Aloud Usability lab was conducted to show us what we can learn when examining a subject using a product for the first time.
Universal Principles of Design
Authors - William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler
Developing the Leader Within You
Author - John C. Maxwell
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Author - Patrick Lencioni
The Halo Effect
Author - Phil Rosenzweig
This course covers the history, theory, and practice of game design. We studied game histories, genres, and rating requirements around the world. At the start of the month, each student pitched two game ideas, and one was chosen by the course director to design throughout the month. The chosen Intellectual Property (IP) that was chosen as a theme was Cartoon Network. Some of the game pitches included a Johnny Quest game, a Courage the Cowardly Dog game, and a few more. The game that was chosen for me to work on was for Samurai Jack. I called it Aku's Domination because it was kind of a mixture between Overlord and Demigod. Throughout the month we examined theories from multiple disciplines and applied what we learned to the level, character, and thematic aspects of the design document.
The Art of Producing Game
Authors - David McCarthy, Ste Curran, and Simon Byron
The Art of Game Design - A Book of Lenses
Author - Jesse Schell
September 2009 - Game Production Tools:
This course covers the tools used to help in the production of video games. In this class I learned how to create Prioritized Feature Lists, Master Task Lists, Capacity Plans for both Monthly and Weekly schedules, CUT Lists for when features need to be eliminated from the production schedule, Quality Test Plans, and detailed schedules for the entirety of a game production cycle using Microsoft Project. I also learned how to create Menu and Game Flow Charts using Microsoft Visio to help with planning out the development and usability of a game. Through this class, I was able to create templates to use quickly fill out during the Production Cycle (Pre-Production, Production, Testing, and Post-Production) to help create a better and more efficient team.
Fundamentals of Technology Project Management
Authors - Colleen Garton with Erika McCulloch
The Game Production Handbook Second Edition
Author - Heather Maxwell Chandler
This course was a comprehensive introduction to general Project Management (PM) theory and principles, as well as offering practical applications for Project Planning and Team Management. Throughout the course I was immersed in the Project Management Body of Knowledge, with case studies and real-life analogies to complement their theoretical understanding. The course also explored the five process groups, explored the various knowledge areas and introduced the myriad management skills - necessary to be successful project managers and team leaders.
A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) Fourth Edition
Published by - Project Management Institute, Inc.
Leadership Lessons from Star Trek The Next Generation - Make It So
Author - Wess Roberts, Ph.D & Bill Ross
This course covered behavioral issues associated with leading game production teams including interpersonal communication, the human/work motivational process, leadership theories and best practices. Methods for leading and motivating teams were investigated for validity and applicability to the game production setting. Related issues such as workplace diversity, ethics, power, conflict resolution, and change management were also taught throughout the course. Research methods were a large part of the class activities and included a review of statistical methods, critical analysis of scholarly and trade literature, research design approaches and their associated threats to validity.
Leadership Theory and Practice Fourth Edition
Author - Peter G. Northouse
Managing Motivation
Authors - Robert D. Pritchard & Elissa L. Ashwood
Game Development Bachelors Degree Overview:
Structure of Game Production:Halfway through my Bachelor's degree, I was in a class titled Structure of Game Production and I had the pleasure of working on a game titled "Death of a Dragon." This game is an adventure platform game. You play as Fitch, a boy trying to become a knight. You fight through bandits, wolves, squid monsters, and much more to prove to the princess that you are indeed a knight. This game took two months to design and code in a team of four people including me. I worked with Jay Hall, Nathan Jansen, and Brandon Choinski on this game and we had a lot of fun working together. I was the Project Lead for this team and along with keeping on top of scheduling and important milestones, I was also in charge of Rendering and Animations. I made an Animation Editor for this project that was used constantly to generate all the animations seen in the game. The editor could load in Sprite Sheets, XML save files, and binary files created by the editor.
Structure of Game Design:
Time went by and I learned a little bit about programming with DirectX 9 and OpenGL to help make my games a little more entertaining:
In the class before I started Structure of Game Production, I had two weeks to design and program a game for a class called Structures of Game Design. This is the first game that I made with no help. It is a really simple top-down scroller. This means you will start at the top and move down the screen defeating enemies below you. The game is entitled "Attack of the Killer Squids."
So now that you have seen some of my major accomplishments, let me show you some of the projects I worked on in other classes. First I start out learning the basics. After I got text on screen, it was time to learn how to use colors and some of the built in features of the Windows API.
Side Projects:
When I first started using C#, I was still very new to programming. I had only been programming using C++ for about 3 months. I really enjoyed the functionality and the ease of starting a project. To help with fast paced classes at Full Sail, I made a program that would help me study for quizzes and tests. It is simple, and it can be reused with whatever subject you are studying for.
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