Final Document Portfolio

Your final document portfolio is your first real grade on your game, in that we grade you on the artistic results instead of just the process. You have received a lot of feedback over the course of the semester; our grade will take into account how you have responded to our suggestions.

Required Documents

The final document portfolio consists of documents that you have already turned in over the course of the semester. Indeed, you have already received a grade on many of these for earlier drafts. The purpose of this assignment is to earn one final grade for all of them. As we mentioned in class, the following four documents are absolutely required for final document portfolio.

You will notice that Concept Document is missing from the documents below. That is because, this year, we wanted to get the final version from you at the mid-term revisions. You will get your final grade on this document at the same time as the others.

Gameplay Specification

This is the document where you describe the core actions, challenges, and interactions in your game. It should be updated to reflect the most recent version of your gameplay as of this assignment. Again, you should read and respond to our comments from the previous two drafts.

Architecture Specification

This is the document where you describe the basic architecture of your game. It should be updated to reflect the most recent version of your software as of this assignment.
It will not be graded for the actual software design decisions; instead the grade will just reflect your ability to communicate these design decisions. Again, you should read and respond to our comments from the previous two drafts.

Design Specification

This is the document that describes the visual and auditory design of your game. Typically these documents are very strong, and many of these documents should be almost done. Just respond to our most recent comments and you will be fine.

Game Manual (Optional)

The game manual will actually be graded at Showcase. Hence, you do not have to turn it in for this assignment. You are welcome to do so. If you do we will treat it as another draft for comments; the grade assigned will not be your final one. However, if you do not submit the game manual, then your next grade will be the final one.

The manual will be graded as if it were the manual to your shipping game. While your game may deviate from the manual eventually - that is what errata are for – it must not appear to be incomplete. Again, while you may use beta artwork, it must be complete in terms of content and artwork.

Submission

Due: Sat, May 08 at 11:59 PM

Unlike the revisions, we have created a single assignment in CMS for final document portfolio that will take all of your documents. You should submit the documents there instead of within the original assignments. This assignment in CMS has submission slots for the following five files.

• concept.pdf
• gameplay.pdf
• architecture.pdf
• design.pdf
• manual.pdf (optional)

The last file is optional. However, if you do not submit the level design document, you do not get a second draft on it. As hinted above, all of the documents should be PDFs so that we can annotate them with feedback justifying your final grade.