Assignment 12
Pre-Beta Release

Demo: Monday, April 13th at 11:15 am
Due: Thursday, April 16th at 11:59 pm

We are calling the first presentation coming back the pre-beta release. This is to reflect that we need something a little more than alpha to make sure we finish by the end of the semester (assuming they do not extend the semester). But we do not need too much more. Historically, we asked for a level editor and one (small) complete level. This time we are going to ask for three levels.

The levels do not have to be fun or complicated. We just want to see that your game can have more than one difficult setting. Level design will be the push for the next release. With that said, this is an extremely important presentation, and should be thought of as your midterm.

The Level Editor

You should be familiar with the structure of a level editor from the introductory course. We are not expecting a fancy GUI, but simply hand-editing XML or JSON files is not desirable either. We want something that allows you to visualize the game layout. However, it does need to run on the device. One common solution for level editors is a web app that exports downloadable JSON.

You are allowed to make use of 3rd party editors like Tiled. However, you are not allowed to use the run-times. You must process the JSON or XML output yourselves. In addition, there are a lot of things this editor cannot do, so choose wisely.

Your level editor presentation can be entirely self-contained. You do not need to show us how to move a new level on to a mobile device. Last minute device loading can always go wrong and slow down the presentation. However, we do want your sample level already loaded onto a device.

The Sample Levels

In addition to a demonstration of the level editor, we want three levels created ahead of time. These levels should be carefully thought out. We would like to see an easy, medium, and hard level for your game. The easy level can be a tutorial level if you so wish, but this is not required.

Some of your are developing networked games that do not have traditional levels. However, you do have some way adjusting the difficulty. Or different types of multiplayer maps that affect the available strategies. All of these can count as levels.

We are not expecting your levels to be particularly balanced. However, they should have clearly identifiable challenges, and should show how your game mechanics are used to overcome these challenges.

Class Presentation

As with previous demonstrations, your class presentation will consist of two parts. In addition to the software prototype, we are also expecting a (short) presentation from the designers on your team. But everything must fit into 18 minutes (including questions), so you should only highlight the most important new ideas.

Software Prototype

We want the bulk of your time (8-10 minutes) to be devoted to showing off the software prototype. This includes the level editor and sample level. We suggest that you break up your time as follows:

Level Editor Demo: You should spend 3-5 minutes showing how your level editor works. Identify the challenges that you have made so far. Show how you can combine these challenges to make interesting levels.

Sample Levels: You should spend 3-5 minutes on a demo of someone playing on your device. The levels should be one generated by your level editor, but you do not have to show us how it was created by the level editor.

During this part of the presentation, you should be prepared for questions from the audience. You should at least be able to answer the following questions:

• What do you consider to be the core mechanics of this game?
• How does your level editor help you visualize your level layout?
• What were your greatest difficulties in making it to alpha release?
• What are your plans for the first beta release, particularly regarding level design?

Design Ideas

Your designers should spend no more than 5 minutes of the remaining time with their presentation. At this point in the semester, there should be several assets already completed for the game. While they are hopefully on display in the software prototype, we would like the designers to go into more detail about them.

In this presentation, we are expecting to see the following:

• The main character animation (mostly complete)
• Basic animations for enemies or environmental obstacles.
• UI element assets
• Updated game screen mockups

Presentation Schedule

This is the first release to test our online presentations. To have some normalcy, we will adhere to the normal class times for presentations. However, we are going to make some changes to the way we do playtesting which means we cannot extended presentations to Friday. Instead, we are going to use the 12:20 lab section for additional presentations. If you are in that section, you are required to attend. Students in the other section are encouraged, but not required, to attend. We will swap sections next release.

Obviously attendance will be online via Zoom. When we get near the presentation data, we will include secure Zoom links below. You will need to use your netid to access these links. The presentation schedule is as follows.

Monday (April 13) [Zoom Recording]

• Synergy Studio (Eidolon)
• Singularity Studios (System Access)
• Coconaut Studio (Milky Way Gourmet)

Wednesday (April 15) [Zoom Recording]

• Enigma Studios (Spectral)
• onewordstudios (Sweetspace)
• B-Side Games (Deck Jockey)

Section 201 (12:20-1:10)[Zoom Recording]

• mooove studios (Pinball Mania)
• Studio Cupid (Swipe Right)
• Pirate Ship Productions (Runecasters)

Submission

Due: Thursday, April 16th at 11:59 pm

Once again for this assignment, we ask you to turn in your release. But this time we want an executable. We do not want to have to build the game from software. For iPhone, that means a TestFlight release. For Android that means creating an APK. This is going to make playtesting easier.

Speaking of playtesting, you will notice that we are asking for the release a little early. We want the release before class-time on Friday (hence the Thursday deadline). That way, we can have your release for the associated playtest session. Playtesting is going to be one of the trickier parts of thew new class-format, so it is important that we have these on time.

In addition, you should not forget to turn in your third two week report (which is due on Saturday). This will allow us to see how you are organizing you time, and make suggestions for future milestones.