Claypool's Lectures at Osaka University, Summer 2010
Project 3: The Game

Due date: Wednesday, July 21st, by 11:59pm


Objective:

This is the last project that your team will complete in working towards creating a videogame prototype.


Motivation:

The purpose of this project is to develop the prototype for your game. In the previous projects, you have learned about Game Maker and created your game conceptualization and some design. Now you must code your objects, create or select your art and bring it all together into a prototype that shows the potential of your game.


Overview:

For this project, you will complete the prototype of your game using the Game Maker software. As the purpose of your prototype is to give people an impression of how your game will play, you should construct enough Game Maker rooms as it takes to show off the objects and interactions that you have created so far.


Details:

For this project, you should continue to work with the group that you formed for the previous project.

You will select most of the content for use in your game. Unfortunately, you are unlikely to have time for your team to create all the content needed for your game (but you could certainly make some). In the Resources section below, there are several libraries that you may use, but feel free to use other content, so long as you accurately document where the content sources came from.

If you do make your own art (tiles, sprites, sounds...) don't worry if no one on your team is an experienced artist - it counts more on your ideas and effort than on your execution. Be sure to indicate custom art in the credits.

The final form that your prototype takes will be highly dependant on your original design, but in all cases the prototype must be playable. Your prototype will be evaluated based on how well you realize your vision from project 2. Use as many or as few Game Maker rooms as it takes to represent the gameplay experience you wish to achieve. For example, perhaps a prototype of a strategy game would only require the use of one battlefield to get the point across, where perhaps a puzzle game would require a sequence of several puzzles to indicate the possibilities.

In addition to these example rooms, you are also required to instructions and credits for your prototype. The credits should at least list all members of your team, and include external art or credits as appropriate. There should be basic directions for the game available to the player (either on a separate screen or by the built-in F1 options in Game Maker).

If time allows, you may create additional artwork and game objects as needed. Title-screen artwork or a team logo might be good additions.


Submission:

All documents are to be submitted electronically via turnin by 23:59 on the day the assignment is due.
Your Game Maker file (.gmk) is to be submitted electronically via turnin by 11:59 pm on the day the assignment is due.

Choose one of your team members to submit the document.

Email your document to me (claypool at cs.wpi.edu) as an attachment. Use "Project 3" as the subject.



Resources:

You might check out the slides summarizing the project (ppt, pdf).

Possible sources for content assets:

  • Game Maker resource packs. Sources of art from Game Maker, itself. You might check out the "Tools" section for some free tools that might be useful.
  • Ari Feldman's SpriteLib. Here you can download the free SpriteLib GPL written by Ari Feldman with many sprites that have potential.
  • Molotov.Nu. A page with many different sprite resources, e.g. the famous tile sets by Hermann Hillmann.
  • Reiner's Tilesets. A site with a huge number of attractive tilesets and animated characters. And they are free.
  • Midi World Many different midi files can be found here.
  • FlashKit sound effects. A site with a huge number of sound effects. Meant for Flash but also useful for Game Maker.
  • Video Game Music Archive. Contains midi files of lots of game music.
  • GameDev.net. Many sprites available (and other stuff if you look around).

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