Due: May 7, 2022 @ 11:59 PM

Important Notes

Read the submission instructions carefully!

Final Project

Boss

Final Project

Your task is to as a team create a video game. Your grade for this project is made up of three major deliverables and team meetings with your assigned project mentor every two weeks. The details, dates, and list of documents to be turned in for each are below.

You can find all document templates needed for the project at the Course Google Drive folder

The final project is worth a total of 100 points. Each subsection will be graded per group, except for the peer evaluation section. Discovery, mid-project meetings, and peer evaluation forms reward points directly. The Alpha and Final submissions have sub-criteria and point value breakdowns.

Discovery (10 of points)

Due date: 11:59 PM March 30

The Discovery section is graded on completeness and correctness. Points will be taken off for incorrect submissions (such as missing documents) or for incorrectly filled sections. Therefore, please carefully inspect the style and format of the provided example documents. In particular:

Note that each vision canvas section has specific meanings and phrasings.
Try to break down the tasks as much as possible, and consider absolutely everything you may need to implement your vision.
The summary should give an idea of what the game is and what the player does. Avoid explaining implementations or precise technical details.

Mid Project Meetings (5 points)

Before the Alpha and Final submission due dates, groups will meet with their assigned TAs two times to discuss their progress, challenges, and feedback. Groups will be graded on:

Attendance. A majority of group members must attend.
Progress. The group should make significant progress since Discovery for the first meeting, and since Alpha for the second meeting. The group should be ready to show what progress they made in each meeting.
Feedback. For the first meeting, groups should take into consideration feedback given for their Discovery grade. For the second meeting, they should consider feedback from Alpha. Groups should update their vision canvases, summaries, and technical design documents periodically to reflect this feedback and any changes in design, and should be prepared to discuss how they are going to incorporate this feedback.

First round of meetings: April 6-13. Secound round of meetings: April 27-29*.

Not much progress is expected for the first round of meetings, but a live demosntration is expected for the second (should technology permit). Feedback will be given during these meetings, and this feedback should be incorporated to the alpha and final submissions.

Alpha (30 points)

Due date: 11:59 PM April 27

The Alpha submission focuses on the completeness of your game and the implementation of high-priority features. Think of it as a rough draft. We are looking for a demonstration of your game’s features and gameplay. Visuals, sound, and minor mechanics do not have to be finalized. Additionally, we want groups to update their design documents to reflect the changes made to the game so far.

Documentation: 6 Points

Groups must update their summaries, vision canvas, and technical design documents to reflect feedback given from Discovery and the first mid-project meeting. It should also include any changes to design made throughout the project.

Implementation: 24 Points

Groups must implement at least a majority of their core features. Some minor bugs are allowed but the game must be playable. The gameplay provided in the Alpha submission must give the player an idea of what the final game will play like.

Final Submission (50 points)

Due date: 11:59 PM May 7th

Your final project submission. A version of your game with at least all the high priority features done and in a fully playable state. The deliverables for your final submission are the code for the project and a video walking us through the work you have completed. You should also submit an updated version of your discovery documents with any changes you might have made since alpha.

You will be graded on:

Completion of High Priority Features (25 points)
0 points	25 points
Team completed fewer high priority features than there are members in the group.	Team completed all high priority features. OR Team completed the overwhelming majority of high priority features; features that are incomplete have justified design reasons for their omission.

Gameplay & Difficulty (10 points)	Fulfillment of Vision (2.5 points)
0 points	0 points
Gameplay lacks appropriate complexity and challenge; end goals and fail states are ill-defined or inappropriate to the genre.	Delivered game is completely different from the designed proposed in the final submissions’ Vision Canvas and Summary. Gameplay and mood do not match the genre and intended feel.
10 points	2.5 points
Gameplay is engaging and appropriate for the genre. Challenges within the game require mastery of skill to overcome. Goals and fail states are well-defined and obvious.	Delivered game largely aligns with the proposal in the final submission’s Vision Canvas and Summary. Changes to game are reasonable and justified, such as being due to severe technical issues, availability of assets, etc.

Level Design (2.5 points)	Visuals (2.5 points)	Sound (2.5 points)	Technical Elements (5 points)
0 points	0 points	0 points	0 points
Levels are inappropriate for the gameplay and genre, and hinders gameplay.	Visuals are incoherent, do not clearly represent the game and its mechanics, or are otherwise painful to look at.	The game lacks sound completely. OR Game’s sounds are inappropriate for the game genre and sound mixing is of poor quality as to make gameplay difficult or painful.	Game has numerous bugs that prevent the user from playing the game, either through inconsistent behavior or crashing the game.
2.5 points	2.5 points	2.5 points	5 points
Levels are appropriate for the genre, visually appropriate, and add challenge and complexity to the gameplay.	Visuals are coherent, appropriate, and players can understand mechanics and game state simply through observing the current screen.	The game includes sounds which are appropriate for the genre and gameplay instance. Included sounds serve a gameplay or experience purpos	Game has no significant bugs or technical issues

Peer Evaluation (5 points)

Due date: 11:59 PM May 7th

The peer evaluation has two components to it:

Each student’s own submission of the evaluation form.
Feedback of student received from groupmates.

Students who submit the peer evaluation form receive 5 points for this section, those who do not receive no points. Based on the response of the student’s groupmates, students will receive a modified amount on their total final project grade. If group members conflict on the contributions of a student, we may reach out to individual members of the group to ask for more information.

Total final project grade will be modified in the following ways:

All groupmates state this student did not contribute to the project and did not communicate with the group	All groupmates state that this student did not contribute sufficiently, either by not taking on enough work, or not completing all assigned tasks, but communicated with the group.	All groupmates state that this student completed their assigned tasks, worked well with the group, or went above and beyond in their work.
Student will receive no credit for final project	Student can receive a maximum of 70% for final project.	Student can receive full credit for final project

Submission Instructions

Hand-in will be done on Canvas. You will be expected to upload the following:

A link to a git repo or drive/box folder containing your project code. It should be possible to build your game in Unreal using the submitted code.
A short video up to 10 minutes long (can be much shorter) showing your game and demonstrating all the required features. Your video ideally should be a screen capture with brief narration by you pointing out the features as they appear in the game.

Some good options for video capture software are:

If recording narration is problematic (e.g. you lack a microphone) you can skip that part. Please only resort to capturing video using your phone if you have tried one of the above methods and just could not get it to work.

On Canvas you should put the link to your code in the Comment box and then upload a video file using the Upload Media tab.

Canvas Upload

Name	Points	Description
Discovery	10	A short description/summary of your project, a high level vision canvas, and a technical design document.
Meetings	5	You will be meeting with your project mentor twice...you need to prepare and attend.
Alpha	30	The alpha should be a version of your game with at least the core gameplay completed and playable.
Final Submission	50	A version of your game with at least all the high priority features done and in a fully playable state.
Peer Evaluation	5	You need to submit peer evaluations of your teammates. In addition, if you do not actively and equitably participate in the project work your total project grade will be significantly reduced.
Total	100

Course Project: The Final Boss