Game Studio Syllabus
High-Level View of the Class:
• Readings and reading submissions are always due before the class that they are listed in.
• Tasks and related Canvas submissions are always due the week after they are assigned/selected.
• You will take 2 weeks to become familiar with a large-scale game project and the tools and processes being used to develop it.
• You will spend 10 weeks contributing to the ongoing development of the project.
• You will spend 1 week documenting the ways you have evolved the processes for your discipline in the onboarding document.
• Throughout the semester you will listen to short lectures by professional developers from across the industry.
• We will spend time in each class talking about different development practices and tools currently used in the industry.
• You will continue to adapt these tools and incorporate them into our project.
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Wednesday 6 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Classroom: Shillman Hall 220 Game Studio Lab: Meserve 168 Immersive Media Lab Professor’s Office: ???
Course Roster and Required Documents:
Class Discord Server: https://discord.gg/fBBBanPCHrLinks to an external site.
Important Documents:
Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11hkBUsSkMqglAFw2No0dyEACPF KggTSg25epH0TMgAA/edit?usp=sharingLinks to an external site.
Studio Google
Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DNWh01DRdpJFc2xaja1tcE0IhQ61 HkFoLinks to an external site.
Jira Project Board for What Remains of Me: https://games-at-northeastern- studio.atlassian.net/jira/software/projects/GS/boards/2Links to an external site.
• FallTeamOne
GamesAtNortheasternStudio: Atlas20 23
• FallTeamTwo
GamesAtNortheasternStudio: Atlas20 23
• FallTeamThree
GamesAtNortheasternStudio: Atlas20 23
• FallTeamFour
GamesAtNortheasternStudio: Atlas20 23
• FallTeamFive
GamesAtNortheasternStudio: Atlas20 23
• FallTeamSix
GamesAtNortheasternStudio: Atlas20 23
• FallTeamSeven
GamesAtNortheasternStudio: Atlas20 23
• FallTeamEight
GamesAtNortheasternStudio: Atlas20 23
Legacy Onboarding Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hiS5H8- OFMtjMvkiXfrWBHJjkJ-7tkkhZdlf9LeM-TALinks to an external site.
Legacy Design Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QPNTcuVJHbiU- Q9HwIZaTfBo3dk995XYNPU64oN0EOQLinks to an external site.
Legacy Trello Task
Board: https://trello.com/invite/b/VeCOAzNc/71219d3b58c4fa420d7d14d76c8e0a 9c/game-studio-tasks
Instructor:
Christopher Barney
Associate Professor
Northeastern University
(Personal email, use if you need me on a weekend or after the end of the semester)
Intended Learning Outcome:
After the course students should be able to:
• Understand the structure of a game design studio
• Identify the different roles found in a game studio and which they can or
want to be able to fulfill.
• Implement level design using selected tools. (Unity)
• Use Version Control tools: Git
• Use Project Planning (Agile/Scrum) tools: Trello, Jira
• Fulfill the role of Scrum Master
• Communicate within and between teams
• Assess the effects of the design on players.
Teaching Method:
The course will consist of:
• In class Lectures
• Industry Lectures
• In class assignments
• Sprint Task assignments
Text Book: None
Recommended: Pattern Languages for Game Design – Chris Barney https://patternlanguageforgamedesign.com/
Recommended: Art of Game Design
Recommended: 2020 Scrum Guide: https://scrumguides.org/download.htmlLinks to an
external site.
READINGS ARE DUE BY THE END OF THE DAY BEFORE THE CLASS IN WHICH THEY ARE LISTED RECORDED INDUSTRY LECTURES SHOULD BE WATCHED BEFORE CLASS
Evaluation:
Industry Lecture Responses (10%) Individual Assignments (25%) Individual and Team Sprint Tasks (40%) Team / Group Participation (10%) Class Participation (15%)
Note on Participation: Participation refers to in class attendance and participation, but it also includes the following:
• Completion of at least 10 ‘Story Points’ of work per week. (You have individual assignments and will be graded on them, but failing to do your work affects your teammates and that will lower your participation score.)
• Attendance of agreed-upon group meetings outside of class time.
• Helping and supporting your teammates and classmates.
• Treating your teammates and classmates in a respectful and supportive
• Treating the professor, any TAs, or external collaborators in a respectful
and supporting way.
Any failure to follow the above guidelines may result in a loss of points in participation, up to and including the full 15% of your grade. So be kind to each other and lift each other up.
Software Required:
• Canvas • Zoom
• Google Docs • Discord
• Jira / Trello • Git
Class Conduct:
Zoom Etiquette: Cameras on. Mic muted unless speaking.
Cell phones and Texts: No use of cell phones, or texting is permitted.
Social Networking: social networking is not allowed unless specified by the instructor.
Late: Don’t be late (more than 5 minutes is considered late). Every class you are late without permission will result in a deduction of 2% from your grade.
Attendance: Attendance is required. Absence without a pressing and convincing excuse will result in a deduction from your grade.
Disability:
If you have a disability-related need for reasonable academic accommodations in this course and have not yet met with a Disability Specialist, please
visit www.northeastern.edu/drc and follow the outlined procedure to request services.
If the Disability Resource Center has formally approved you for academic accommodation in this class, please present the instructor with your “Professor Notification Letter” during the first week of the semester, so that we can address your specific needs as early as possible.
Participation in TRACE:
TRACE (Teacher Rating and Course Evaluation) is a required part of every course. Your participation is needed and encouraged as it is one way to enhance the quality of the course. Your voice matters.
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Class 1: Overview / Structure
Welcome to the
• Who am I
• Who is your TA
• Who else is working on this project?
Lecture: Orientation
• What is the
• What is in this for you
• How is professional development different from what you usually do in
Industry Lecture: Systems Design (Mathew More) Classroom Activity:
Your Developer Profile:
• Select your Primary Discipline
• Select your Secondary Discipline
• Select a discipline that you want to learn more about
• Rate your experience in each discipline (1-5) Beware Dunning-Kruger
Coursework:
On the Pattern Library Website: Read the Game Design Patterns listed in the Onboarding Document
Tools config:
o Google Docs
o Pattern Library WebsiteLinks to an external site.
• Submit at least one question per tool in Canvas
Class 2: Onboarding, VC, Content/Narrative Design
Lecture: Version Control
• Why version control?
• How version control?
• When version control?
• Checkout, build, and play ‘What Remains of Me’ from the Git Repo
Industry Lecture: Production (Ji-Ling Pan / Colin Friday / Envy Seekly / Josh Kohn) Classroom Activity:
Coursework:
Project Documentation
o Read: How to use the document
o Read: general sections
o Read: section for your primary discipline
• Submit one or more questions about the documentation in Canvas
Class 3: Project Management
Lecture: Agile/Scrum
• What is waterfall development?
• What is Agile/Scrum?
• How are we adapting Agile?
• Tasks vs. Tickets
• What is Trello and how do we use it?
Industry Lecture: Narrative Design (Ashley Ruhl / Heidi McDonald) Classroom Activity:
• Creating and assessing tasks
• Create your own Trello board, and create tasks for the work you have to
do in any class or other area of your life for this week.
• Assess the story points for your task.
• Trade tasks with a teammate. Assess whether you could do the task based
on their description and whether you agree with their story point number.
Coursework:
Project documentation
o Read the section for your secondary discipline
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• Submit one or more questions about the documentation in Canvas Trello
• Submit at least one question per task in Canvas
o Read 10 tasks in the backlog that are related to your primary or secondary discipline
Class 4: QA and First Sprint
Lecture: Quality Assurance and Task Review
Industry Lecture: QA (Sarah Hope Scoggins / Mathew More) Classroom Activity: Sprint Kickoff
o Break into Scrum Teams of 5 students. These are cross- disciplinary and may not relate to the work you are individually doing.
o Work with your team to break down the 13-point stub task assigned to your team into claimable tasks.
o Each team member will select 5 story points of tasks from the sprint backlog. Select tasks that are in some way related if possible.
Coursework: Project Documentation And Sprint Tasks
o Read the section of the onboarding document for a third discipline
• Meet with your Scrum team in the Studio Lab (ME 168) before class next week. Perform your Sprint Review/Retrospective.
• In Canvas, submit a list of the tasks you have completed or worked on and have not completed this sprint. Include the number of story points for the task and if you did not complete it, describe the thing that blocked your progress.
Class 5: Game Engines
Lecture: Game Engines and other Tools in the industry
• History of game engines
Programming Help, Add QQ: 749389476
• Current major players
• Why you should probably use Unity rather than Unreal as a student
• Unity Plug-ins • Engines/Tools
o Audition
o Aesprite
o Specialty Engines
§ Construct § Twine
§ RPGMaker
Industry Lecture: Games for Social Impact (Ruben Brennan-Adams) Classroom Activity: Iterating on Team and Discipline Process
• Break into your teams.
• If you have not completed your Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective do
• If any tasks taken by your group members are not in the Done Column,
o Finish the task review and move the task to Done
o Mark the amount of work done on the task in Trello and move
the task back to the Current Sprint Column.
o As a team post to the sprint review Discord Chanel summarizing
the work completed by your team. Link to individual tasks.
• Each team will send the facilitator forward to present the team’s work for the sprint. (2 Minutes or less each)
• As a class, we will discuss the positive and negative reports from the Retrospective meetings.
• We will move to our Discipline teams and discuss how to implement changes to address the things we learned in the retrospective.
• Disciplines will use the new Task GoogleForm to enter any new tasks that are needed.
• Select a new Team Facilitator if you have not already.
• Return to your teams and conduct your Sprint Planning Meeting resulting
in claiming new tasks for the upcoming sprint.
Coursework:
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o Remember your Retrospective identifying the things that worked or failed this sprint and try to implement the suggestions this sprint.
o Teams will select at least 5 story points of tasks per student for this week’s sprint. Select tasks that are in some way related if possible.
o Meet with your Scrum team in the Studio Lab before class next week. Perform your Sprint Review/Retrospective for this sprint.
• In Canvas, submit a list of the tasks you have completed or worked on and have not completed this sprint. Include the number of story points for the task and if you did not complete it, describe the thing that blocked your progress.
Class 6: Game Design Patterns Lecture: Game Design Patterns
Industry Lecture: Level Design on Mobile (Norma Tu) / Content Design (Mathew More)
Classroom Activity:
• Close Sprint 2 (30 min)
• Meet Briefly with your Team to discuss the focus of your next sprint (15
• Meet with your Discipline to Share team focus and create necessary tasks.
• Meet with your Team to select tasks for Sprint 3. (15 min)
• Game Design Pattern Exercise (2 hr)
Coursework:
o As a team post to the sprint review Discord Chanel summarizing the work completed by your team. Link to individual tasks.
o The Team Facilitator for the week will present their team’s work in 2 minutes or less.
o Remember your Retrospective identifying the things that worked or failed this sprint and try to implement the suggestions this sprint.
o Teams will select at least 5 story points of tasks per student for this week’s sprint. Select tasks that are in some way related if possible.
o Meet with your Scrum team in the Studio Lab before class next week. Perform your Sprint Review/Retrospective for this sprint.
• In Canvas, submit a list of the tasks you have completed or worked on and not completed this sprint. Include the number of story points for the task and if you did not complete it describe the thing that blocked your progress
Class 7: Audience and Community
Lecture: Identifying, Finding, and Building Audience
Industry Lecture: Community Management (Catherine Lavaitis) Classroom Activity: Audience Search
• Individually consider who the audience for What Remains of Me is.
o Do you think that this audience fits the genre/game?
o Where would you go to connect with this audience?
o Design a message/piece of media to connect with this audience. o What does the audience need to know before launching of the
o What does the audience need to know at the launch of the
• What does the audience need to know after the launch of the game?
• Do you think that there will be a community for the game after launch?
• What is the purpose of that community, and what do they gain from the
game and from the community?
• What tools/structure do you need to provide for the community?
• Answer these questions individually and then discuss them with your
Coursework:
o As a team post to the sprint review Discord Chanel summarizing the work completed by your team. Link to individual tasks.
o The Team Facilitator for the week will present their team’s work in 2 minutes or less.
o Remember your Retrospective identifying the things that worked or failed this sprint and try to implement the suggestions this sprint.
o Teams will select at least 5 story points of tasks per student for this week’s sprint. Select tasks that are in some way related if possible.
o Meet with your Scrum team in the Studio Lab before class next week. Perform your Sprint Review/Retrospective for this sprint.
• In Canvas, submit a list of the tasks you have completed or worked on and not completed this sprint. Include the number of story points for the task and if you did not complete it describe the thing that blocked your progress
Class 8: Studio Art
Lecture: Working with Artists / Working with other Devs.
Industry Lecture: Art / 3D Character Art / VFX (Hadidjah Chamberlin-Huffman / Brian Choi)
Classroom Activity:
• Each group: find an artist if you don’t have one in your group already. This may result in larger groups.
• Choose a level from the game design of What Remains of me.
• Identify what art assets are already specified for that level.
• Consider whether other assets will be needed. Include things like concept
art, level design sketches, character/enemy concept art, and final pixel art
• Individually pick at least one art asset and create a description to hand off
to an artist.
• As a group, review as many of your art descriptions as possible and revise
them as needed to make them useful enough for the artist to create the art
you requested.
• Normal sprint ‘rituals’ Sprint Review/Sprint Planning
• Nominate a team member or discipline member for the Product Owner
Coursework:
o As a team post to the sprint review Discord Chanel summarizing the work completed by your team. Link to individual tasks.
o The Team Facilitator for the week will present their team’s work in 2 minutes or less.
o Remember your Retrospective identifying the things that worked or failed this sprint and try to implement the suggestions this sprint.
o Teams will select at least 5 story points of tasks per student for this week’s sprint. Select tasks that are in some way related if possible.
o Meet with your Scrum team in the Studio Lab before class next week. Perform your Sprint Review/Retrospective for this sprint.
• In Canvas, submit a list of the tasks you have completed or worked on and not completed this sprint. Include the number of story points for the task and if you did not complete it describe the thing that blocked your progress
Class 9: User Experience
Lecture: Connecting Audience and Intended Experience
Industry Lecture: UX (Jenifer Ash)
Classroom Activity: User Experience Assessment Epics and Features!
• Individually consider the overall User Experience of What Remains of Me. Write a one-paragraph description of that experience.
• As a group compare your descriptions.
• As a group pick a level. Consider the intended experience of the level.
• Break that experience down to narrative and gameplay beats. Describe the
level experience and the individual beat experiences.
• Do you think the level will create the intended experience? (For you, for
the intended audience?) (Spoiler: Most likely it will not.)
• What could you change about the level design to make it more likely to
create the intended experience? (Unified Design)
• In order to help out the new Product Owners group we will all be looking
at the game as a whole and trying to break it down into ‘Epics’ and
‘Features’.
• Take 15 minutes as a group and try to break the game down into Epics.
o You will not complete this process, and that’s fine, just look for as many Epics as you can find.
• Take 10 minutes to select 1 Epic and write a description.
• Take 15 minutes as a group and consider that Epic.
o What Features are part of that Epic?
o Make a list of at least 10 or as many as you can fit into 15
• Take 20 minutes and write detailed descriptions for as many features as you can.
Coursework:
o As a team post to the sprint review Discord Chanel summarizing the work completed by your team. Link to individual tasks.
o The Team Facilitator for the week will present their team’s work in 2 minutes or less.
o Remember your Retrospective identifying the things that worked or failed this sprint and try to implement the suggestions this sprint.
o Teams will select at least 5 story points of tasks per student for this week’s sprint. Select tasks that are in some way related if possible.
o Meet with your Scrum team in the Studio Lab before class next week. Perform your Sprint Review/Retrospective for this sprint.
• In Canvas, submit a list of the tasks you have completed or worked on and not completed this sprint. Include the number of story points for the task and if you did not complete it describe the thing that blocked your progress
Class 10: Implementing Narrative
Lecture: Conveying in-game narrative
Industry Lecture: Cinematic Design (Ashley Ruhl) Classroom Activity:
• Consider the narrative for an individual chapter/level of What Remains of Me
• As a Group for each piece of information in the description of the level/chapter describe how that information is conveyed to the player. Decide whether you are using gameplay, dialogue, cutscene, interstitial text, environmental/embedded narrative, etc.
• For each piece of information rate how important it is to the narrative on a scale of 1-10.
• For each piece of information rate how difficult it is to implement into the game in the way you have chosen.
• Can you combine multiple pieces of information into single conveyance instances? (Eg. show more than one thing in a cutscene/encounter etc.)
Coursework:
o As a team post to the sprint review Discord Chanel summarizing the work completed by your team. Link to individual tasks.
o The Team Facilitator for the week will present their team’s work in 2 minutes or less.
o Remember your Retrospective identifying the things that worked or failed this sprint and try to implement the suggestions this sprint.
o Teams will select at least 5 story points of tasks per student for this week’s sprint. Select tasks that are in some way related if possible.
o Meet with your Scrum team in the Studio Lab before class next week. Perform your Sprint Review/Retrospective for this sprint.
• In Canvas, submit a list of the tasks you have completed or worked on and not completed this sprint. Include the number of story points for the task and if you did not complete it describe the thing that blocked your progress
Class 11: Learning and Tutorials
Lecture: Meaning in games, transference
Industry Lecture: Learning Games (Ruben Brennan-Adams) Classroom Activity:
• Individually pick a mechanic from What Remains of Me
• Design the tutorial/learning method for that mechanic
• What is the larger abstract meaning of that mechanic?
• Do you want the player to transfer that learning outside the game?
• How can you alter the learning method to better accomplish that?
• Review the work of at least of one of your teammates.
Coursework:
o As a team post to the sprint review Discord Chanel summarizing the work completed by your team. Link to individual tasks.
o The Team Facilitator for the week will present their team’s work in 2 minutes or less.
o Remember your Retrospective identifying the things that worked or failed this sprint and try to implement the suggestions this sprint.
o Teams will select at least 5 story points of tasks per student for this week’s sprint. Select tasks that are in some way related if possible.
o Meet with your Scrum team in the Studio Lab before class next week. Perform your Sprint Review/Retrospective for this sprint.
• In Canvas, submit a list of the tasks you have completed or worked on and not completed this sprint. Include the number of story points for the task and if you did not complete it describe the thing that blocked your progress
Lecture: Project Management and Planning Industry Lecture: Design Ops (Mathew More) Classroom Activity:
• Before Class: Read a chapter or article about studio structure. Recommended: Game Development Essentials Chapter 10. Pro-Tip, have different team members read different articles.
• We have been developing as a studio using a particular structure for a few months now. Work as a group to describe and document the studio’s current structure.
• Reflect on how the reality of this structure differs from what you read in the Onboarding Document. Why do you think each difference exists?
• How does the structure we have been using differ from those you read about?
• Why does each difference exist?
• How would you change our current structure to work more effectively or
efficiently?
• In Canvas record your reflections and responses to the above prompts.
Coursework:
o As a team post to the sprint review Discord Chanel summarizing the work completed by your team. Link to individual tasks.
o The Team Facilitator for the week will present their team’s work in 2 minutes or less.
o Remember your Retrospective identifying the things that worked or failed this sprint and try to implement the suggestions this sprint.
o Teams will select at least 5 story points of tasks per student for this week’s sprint. Select tasks that are in some way related if possible.
o Meet with your Scrum team in the Studio Lab before class next week. Perform your Sprint Review/Retrospective for this sprint.
• In Canvas, submit a list of the tasks you have completed or worked on and not completed this sprint. Include the number of story points for the task and if you did not complete it describe the thing that blocked your progress
Lecture: Metrics, Instrumentation, and Data Analysis Industry Lecture: User Research (Jenifer Ash) Classroom Activity:
• Choose at least one feature or level that your team worked on.
• Make a list of the useful things that you could instrument to gather
gameplay data.
• Pick the most important and implement it!
• If you are able to do that before the class is over choose another and
repeat till the end of class.
Coursework:
o As a team post to the sprint review Discord Chanel summarizing the work completed by your team. Link to individual tasks.
o The Team Facilitator for the week will present their team’s work in 2 minutes or less.
o Remember your Retrospective identifying the things that worked or failed this sprint and try to implement the suggestions this sprint.
o Teams will select at least 5 story points of tasks per student for this week’s sprint. Select tasks that are in some way related if possible.
o Meet with your Scrum team in the Studio Lab before class next week. Perform your Sprint Review/Retrospective for this sprint.
• In Canvas, submit a list of the tasks you have completed or worked on and not completed this sprint. Include the number of story points for the task and if you did not complete it describe the thing that blocked your progress
Lecture: Organizational Structure, Management and Leadership
Industry Lecture: Indie Studio Management / Game Design Leadership (Mathew More / Jenifer Ash)
Classroom Activity:
Coursework:
• Break into your Disciplines and work with the other members of your Discipline to revisit your discipline’s section in the onboarding document.
• Create a final build of What Remains of Me for the semester.
• Prepare an Itch.io page for the build.
• Create a promotional sheet/poster for the game as it stands.
• Create a sheet listing all notable features of the game as it stands.
• Record a gameplay video of the existing content of the game.
• Capture 20 screenshots across all aspects of the game.
Industry Lecturers:
• Ji-Ling Pan: ?
• Anders Howard: Systems Design
• Riley Halliday: ??
• Ashley Ruhr: Narrative Design/Cinematic Design – BioWare, SWtOR
• Robert J. Rap-Oporto: Encounter Design
• Ruben Brennan-Adams: Games for Social Impact/Learning
• Norma Tu: Level Design on Mobile – Jam City / Indie
• Colin Friday: Prodiction ??
• Envy Seekly: Production ??
• Brian Choi: 3D Character Art – ??
• Catherine Lavaitis: Community Management
• Mathew More: Systems Design / Design Ops / Content Design / Indie
Studio Management / QA – Disney Interactive / ArenaNet / Microsoft
Game Studio
• Sarah Hope Scoggins: QA / Production
• Josh Kohn: Production
• Jenifer Ash: UX, User Research, game design leadership – Bungie
• Hadidjah Chamberlin-Huffman: VFX/Art
• Natasha Lee: ???
• Heidi McDonald: Narrative
Disciplines:
1. Systems Design (2) / Encounter Design
2. Content Design / Narrative Design (2)
3. Level Design on Mobile
4. Art / 3D Character Art / VFX
5. Games for Social Impact
6. Production (4)
7. CommunityManagement
10.Cinematic Design
11.Learning Games
12.Design Ops
13.User Research
14.Indie Studio Management / Game Design Leadership