General information


Subject type: Mandatory

Coordinator: Adso Fernández Baena

Trimester: First term

Credits: 4

Teaching staff: 

Adso Fernández Baena

Teaching languages


The materials can be provided in Catalan as well as in Spanish or English.

Skills


Specific skills
  • E13. Apply business vision, marketing and sales, economic analysis and technical knowledge for video game production.

  • E14. Lead teams of designers, artists or developers to achieve the specified objectives in the time provided, in a structured manner according to the methodology established for project management.

General competencies
  • G1. Demonstrate having and understanding advanced knowledge of their area of ​​study that includes the theoretical, practical and methodological aspects, with a level of depth that reaches the forefront of knowledge.

  • G2. Solve complex problems in their field of work, by applying their knowledge, developing arguments and procedures, and using creative and innovative ideas.

Transversal competences
  • T2. Work as a member of an interdisciplinary team either as an additional member or performing management tasks in order to contribute to developing projects with pragmatism and a sense of responsibility, making commitments and taking into account available resources.

Description


The subject of Game Production deals with the process, planning and management of video game production in the framework of the subject of Production and Business. We work from the vision of a game to the description and estimation of the tasks to be performed in order to produce it. The course consists of theoretical sessions, workshops and teamwork sessions. In order to acquire the knowledge, the subject is evaluated on the one hand the planning of the production of video games by groups and on the other the theoretical knowledge individually, both with exercises in class and in the final exam.

 

This subject has methodological and digital resources to make possible its continuity in non-contact mode in the case of being necessary for reasons related to the Covid-19. In this way, the achievement of the same knowledge and skills that are specified in this teaching plan will be ensured.

The Tecnocampus will make available to teachers and students the digital tools needed to carry out the course, as well as guides and recommendations that facilitate adaptation to the non-contact mode.

Learning outcomes


At the end of the course students must be able to:

E13.1. Demonstrate knowledge about the structure and organization of a company.

E13.2. Use forecasting and business planning tools. 

E14.3. Contribute to generating a culture of learning, error management, feedback and criticism management.

Working methodology


The subject uses the following work methodologies:
Master class, lectures, video capsules, seminars, debates and forums, collaborative learning and problem solving.

Contents


Topic 1: Introduction

1.1 Development phases

1.2 The team

1.3 Type of production: Indie vs AAA

Topic 2: Stages

2.1 Pre-production

2.2 Production

2.3 Post-production

Topic 3: Prioritization

3.1 Basic concepts

3.2 Challenges in prioritizing

3.2 Prioritization methods

Topic 4: Planning

4.1 Basic concepts

4.2 Roadmap and calendars

4.3 Budget

4.4 Risks, assumptions, problems and dependencies

4.5 Tools

Topic 5: Methodologies

5.1 Agile vs Waterfall

5.2 Agile

5.3 SCRUM, Lean i Kanban

Topic 6: SCRUM

6.1 Roles and ceremonies

6.2 User Stories

6.3 Condition of DONE

6.4 Release planning

6.5 Scaling SCRUM

6.6 User Story Mapping

Topic 7: Teams

7.1 Agile teams

7.2 Functional equipment

7.3 Feature teams

7.4 Other equipment

Learning activities


With the aim of collecting evidence of the achievement of the expected learning outcomes, the following activities of an evaluative nature will be carried out (related to all the common competences):

A1. Exercises in class: Workshops (Evidence of learning outcome E13.1 and E13.2)

  • Simulation of a negotiation between publisher and development studio
  • Requirements and prioritization
  • Task planning
  • Lean Game
  • Scrum Card Game

A2. Group work: Planning the production of a video game in Waterfall (Evidence of learning outcome E13.2 and E14.3)

Students will be required to choose a published video game, and define the team, the The roadmap and the tasks to be performed in order to produce it. Finally, they will have to translate it into a diagram Gantt.

A3. Group work: Planning the production of a video game in Agile (Evidence of learning outcome E13.2 and E14.3)

Students will be required to choose a published video game, and define a Kick-off plan and Release plan in order to produce a Vertical Slice of it. 

A4. Final exam (Evidence of all learning outcomes)

General criteria of the activities:

- The teacher will present a statement for each activity and the evaluation and / or rubric criteria.
- The teacher will inform of the dates and format of the delivery of the activity.

Evaluation system


The grade of each student will be calculated following the following percentages:

A1. Exercises in class: Workshops 20%

A2. Group work: Planning the production of a video game in Waterfall  20%

A3. Group work: Planning the production of a video game in Agile 20%

A4. Final exam 40%

Final grade = A1 0,2 + A2 0,2 + A3 0,2 + A4 0,4

Considerations:

- It is necessary to obtain a mark superior to 5 in the final exam to pass the asignatura.
- An activity not delivered or delivered late and without justification (court summons or medical matter) counts as a 0.
- It is the responsibility of the student to avoid plagiarism in all its forms. In the case of detecting a plagiarism, regardless of its scope, in some activity it will correspond to have a note of 0. In addition, the professor will communicate to the Head of Studies the situation so that measures applicable in matter of sanctioning regime are taken. .

Recovery:

- It is necessary to obtain a mark superior to 5 in the examination of recovery to pass the asignatura.
- The mark of the resit exam will be applied only to the mark of the A4 activity in the calculation of the final mark.
- Activity A1 cannot be recovered.
- In the event of suspending activity A2 or A3, it can be resubmitted in a call for recovery with the possibility of obtaining a maximum grade of 5.

REFERENCES


Basic

Chandler, Heather Maxwell. The game production handbook. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2009.

Keith, C. (2010). Agile Game Development with Scrum (Adobe Reader). Pearson Education.

Complementary

Patton, Jeff, and Peter Economy. User story mapping: discover the whole story, build the right product. O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2014.

Rosenfield Boeira, Julia Naomi. Lean Game Development: Apply Lean Frameworks to the Process of Game Development. Apress, 2017.