Diary questions

1. Intro, Nov 5

What type of player are you?
Describe a really good game experience. What was good? (the game, the situation, the platform, etc etc etc)
Describe a really bad game experience. Why didn’t it work?

2. Concept dev, Nov 8

Describe and present it. Analyse it. What is it? What type of game? Mechanics? Game play? Tech? Players? Business case? Competitors? You pick.

3. Fatshark/Bitsquid, Nov 12

Rikard (among other things) presented a few pointers what he thinks are good approaches to game development. What do you think is a good software development model for games? Why? What do other professionals think and what's their motivation for their choices?

4. Bitsquid engine, Nov 15

Consider the data-driven approach to game engine architecture and performance considerations in relation to both game engine development and selection.

5. The Future of Games, Nov 19

Investigate one or more of the real-time game technology areas outlined in the presentation (Lighting and materials, Procedural synthesis, Game AI and behaviour, Game interfaces) and consider how advances in each area may support or create new gameplay opportunities in future games.
It may help to think about historical breakthroughs in classic games, for example, the graphics environment of Doom, galaxy generation in Elite, ghost AI in Pacman, the handheld controller in Tennis for Two, and so on.

6. Games session, Nov 20

The script for the presentation is today’s diary entry, i.e. all in the same group will have the same or very similar entries

7. Alessandro Pieropan, Nov 22

On numerous occasions lately we've heard about pros and cons towards building your own engine or use an existing. We'd like you to put together these and discuss them - and it's not enough to say: "It depends on the game!". Of course that is true, but there are other considerations, e.g. time, team size, competence within the team etc etc.

8. Game physics and animation, Nov 26

Examine ways in which game physics techniques have led to interesting forms of gameplay in a game of your choice (for example, ragdoll physics in Trespasser, momentum redirection in Portal). Describe the implications of greater environment manipulation capabilities on game design efforts, especially in relation to unintended situations or consequences that may arise at runtime e.g. a player becoming trapped or the AI behaving strangely due to routes being blocked with objects, destructible environments, and so on.

9. Dataspelsbranschen: the trade organization, Nov 29

10. The game producer, Dec 3

Present up to three (3) game-related business models and highlight the pros and cons with each. Remember to exemplify and reference!

11. Mobile games, Dec 6

Tommy emphasized that, particularly for mobile games, you have 30 seconds to make the player interested. If not, they'll quit and play something else. Choose a few examples on how game developers have tried to do this. Discuss other possible ways to address the issue.

12. Final presentation, Dec 13