Closed Beta Release

Your fourth presentation is your “closed beta” presentation. In order to get your development going quickly this semester, we moved up the production schedule split the single beta release into two. With that said, the difference between betas is a bit artificial. As for any beta release, we are expecting a clearly recognizable game. In particular, we want at least four playable levels of clearly varying difficulty.

In addition, closed beta should be finished enough that you can start getting extensive feedback on your game from your close friends or residential hall mates. It should be playable by people who are forgiving of a clearly unfinished piece of software. This is different from public beta, where the user interface should be much more polished (from feedback on this closed beta).

Table of Contents


Presentation Format

As with the last prototype, your class presentation will consist of two parts. However, this time the presentation is a little different. We are not asking for a separate designer presentation to show off art. By this time, we hope that your assets are finally incorporated into the game. Instead, we ask that the designers give us another presentation about your level design. We removed the historical level design document to make room for the promotional video. So we need a new way to see and critique your level design ideas.

Software Deliverable

We will have roughly 18 minutes per group, per presentation. We want the bulk of this time (8-10 minutes) to be devoted to showing off the game so far. You should have one person playing it while another team member narrates the play. The narrator and player should not be the same person (so that the player can concentrate on playing). The narrator should point out game play elements, challenges, and strategies as the player encounters them.

We expect this to be somewhat rehearsed. You should develop a script for this presentation and stick to it (to the best of your player’s ability at the game).

Level Design Ideas

As with all of the presentations, we do want a slide presentation with design ideas. However, the design presentation will be different this time. We no longer want to see art in your design presentation. Our philosophy is that, from this point forward, any finished art should be incorporated into the game.

Instead, we want you to review your level design ideas. In this slide presentation, we want the following:

  • A brief of your design philosophy (as stated in the gameplay specification)
  • At least three basic patterns that you have identified in your game.
  • A complex pattern that combines two or more of these patterns together.

To come up with your design patterns, you should review the level design video. You also consider the feedback that you received on the level design critique


Presentation Schedule

The structure for this presentation is the same as the previous ones. But as you can see from looking at the calendar, this presentation is interrupted by the fact that we have no class on Friday (due to wellness days). This means that we will use section for presentations, instead of using them for a playtesting session.

We still want you to playtest. However, this time the playtesting session will be in class, after you return from the mini-break. That means that you can keep working on your deliverable up until the time for submission if you wish.

So that you are prepared, the presentation schedule is as follows:

Monday (April 19)

  • Roshamboogie (Moosey Studios)
  • Ghosted (Star Soup Games)
  • Sea Slanty (Humpback Whale)

Wednesday (April 21)

Lecture
  • Lab Cat (Fuzzy Kiwi Studios)
  • Core Impact (Ellipsis)
Section 201 (12:40-1:30)
  • Dire Deal (Catana Games)
  • Lumia (Coffee Powered Studios)
Section 202 (2:30-3:20)
  • Phase Dash (Bite-Sized Studios)
  • Panic Painter (Dragon Glass Studios)

Submission

Due: Thu, Apr 22 at 11:59 PM

As before, you are not submitting any software to CMS. Instead, we want you to create a release in your Git repository. This release should follow the same rules that you used for the technical prototype.

However, we have an additional requirement this release*. We are no longer accepting releases that require us to compile code. You must have an executable for your targeted mobile device. For Android, this means an APK built to run on all devices. For iPhone it means either using TestFlight or Firebase. Talk to the course staff if you need to know more.

We also want you to upload your level design slides. We will make an entry for this in CMS.

Finally, you should not forget to turn in your fourth two week report. This will allow us to see how you are organizing you time, and make suggestions for future milestones. Remember to address any issues that we pointed out in your previous report.