COMP150 Game Design LESSON #5: Team Improvement Day! & Unity 3D for 2D Games

COMP150 Game Design

LESSON #5: Team Improvement Day!& Unity 3D for 2D Games

TODAY:1. Building Productive Teams:

Working Well vs Working Worse.

2. Prototype Share

3. Mid-semester Course Review

4. Scheduling and Planning

5. Unity Day #2: Intro to 2D Game Dev: Sprites

How We Work Well

My Five-Year-Old:People Are More Important Than Toys!

Your project is your people. It is not the game itself.

What matters is building trust, compassion, and enthusiasm for your working relationship.

How We Work Well

COMMUNICATION:

1. Daily contact: emails or meetings2. Address issues before they become problems3. Document Your Pipeline4. Optimize Your Teammates

How We Work Well1. Daily contact: emails or meetings:QUESTION: What do you know about “Agile” and “Scrum”?

How We Work Well1. Daily contact: emails or meetings:• Agile is a time-boxed, iterative approach to

software delivery that builds software incrementally from the start of the project, instead of trying to deliver it all at once near the end. Agile works by breaking projects down into little bits of user functionality called User Stories (features customers want), prioritizing them, and then continuously delivering them in short cycles called Iterations (short periods for team to build working software to deliver top User Stories).

How We Work Well1. Daily contact: emails or meetings:• Scrum is an Agile framework for completing complex

projects, to improve teamwork, communications, and speed.

The Scrum framework:1. Backlog: Team creates prioritized wishlist.2. Team Planning = pulling top chunks from Backlog and

deciding how to implement those pieces.3. Sprint: Team spends time “heads down” to complete work.4. Daily Scrum: Team meets daily to assess progress.5. ScrumMaster keeps the team focused on its goal.6. At Sprint end work should be “shippable:” ready to playtest.7. Sprint ends with a sprint review and retrospective.8. Next sprint: choose next chunk and begin working again.

How We Work Well2. Address issues before they become problems:• I-Messages: avoid defensiveness and distracting

assumptions by owning the effects of issues.

I-Messages Conversation Formula:1. Thank the person for meeting with me.2. Let them know in simplest terms what I am

experiencing, and how it is affecting me.3. Ask them if they are aware of this.4. Discuss the issue further, collaborating on a

solution.

How We Work Well2. Address issues before they become problems:• I-Messages: avoid defensiveness and distracting

assumptions by owning the effects of issues.

How We Work Well2. Address issues before they become problems:• I-Messages Conversation Formula:1. Thank the person for meeting with me.2. Let them know in simplest terms what I am experiencing,

and how it is affecting me.3. Ask them if they are aware of this.4. Discuss the issue further, collaborating on a solution.

PAIRED EXERCISE:

RED HERRING #1:

“Your work is always late”

How We Work Well2. Address issues before they become problems:• I-Messages Conversation Formula:1. Thank the person for meeting with me.2. Let them know in simplest terms what I am experiencing,

and how it is affecting me.3. Ask them if they are aware of this.4. Discuss the issue further, collaborating on a solution.

PAIRED EXERCISE:

RED HERRING #2:

“Your art/audio/code is terrible.”

How We Work Well3. Document Your Pipeline• Bill Polson, Pipeline Expert at Pixar Studios:



Document all your best practices / worst assumptions:1. FILES: names, versions, share/store, project-adding.2. COMMUNICATION: How and when?3. TECH KNOWLEDGE: Like how 2d/3d textures must

be power-of-two square (256x256, 2048x2048, etc).4. WEEKLY TEAM DEADLINES: with enough time before

Friday to integrate and test!

How We Work Well4. Optimize Your Teammates:• Good Meeting Facilitation:

The facilitator Has 5 Main Jobs:• 1. State the purpose/ goals of the meeting: "This

meeting is to make a decision on [ x ]"• 2. Keep the meeting on track (bring digressions back

to the purpose).• 3. Regularly make sure each member participates.• 4. Keep calm and connected (by taking notes).• 5. Repeat key points and close the discussion with a

summary of what was said.

How We Work Well4. Optimize Your Teammates:• “5 Love Languages”:


PREMISE: People are most productive when supported in their primary appreciation “language,” 1-2 of these:• Words of Praise• Quality Time• Acts of Service• Gifts• Touch


QUESTION: How can these apply to the workplace?• Words of Praise:• Quality Time• Acts of Service• Gifts• Touch


QUESTION: How can these apply to the workplace?• Words of Praise: Praise specific examples of work. • Quality Time: Meet socially: play games, have meals.• Acts of Service: Do parts of the work they would

have to do, or help them do their work.• Gifts: Low cost, casual. Coffee, etc.• Touch: No touch in workspace, but see to room

temperature and chair comfort, etc.

How We Work Well4. Optimize Your Teammates:• “5 Love Languages”:Words of Praise, Quality Time, Acts of Service, Gifts, Touch

MEET WITH YOUR TEAM: Choose facilitator!Discuss our primary Appreciation Languages and your past experiences working in teams or in workplaces: what went well, what did you wish went differently.

How We Work WorseFESTERING:

• Don’t Let Issues Be! • Issues don’t clear up by themselves. The

more complex the projects, the more opportunity for mistakes, misunderstandings, and unresolved conflicts to be devastating. Use this course as an opportunity to practice forthrightness (it is much harder in “real world” jobs!).

How We Work WorseTRIANGULATION:

• Witchunt (Mafia): Make a big floor circle!1. Facilitator hands out secret playing cards. 2. FaceCards = Witch, Ace = Prophet, NumCard = Villager3. 1st Night: Witches see each other, prophet gets a stab.4. 1st day: Facilitator is dead! “Find a witch”: point to a player

and raise hand. Argue, counter-argue. Point/Raise hand to join vote. Majority kills/ends day. Dead say “Blood/Brains.”

5. 2nd Night: Witches unanimously kill a player, Prophet attempts discovery.

6. 2nd Day: Witch-killed player dead, majority vote to kill witch.7. Continue until all witches dead or witches# = villagers#.

TEAM PRODUCTION KEY ADVICE• "Get everyone's email & phone #s programmed in your phone."• "You have to meet together EVERY week outside class to get this done."• "Get your naming/version convention right and stick to it."• “Show each other new work early each week."• "Type a concise Design Document . Test and update weekly."• "Ask how you can help each other more."• "Be good to each other, even when you don't want to."• "Be sure everyone posts their most updated work to the shared drive."• "Be sure to CC everyone on emails. Follow up when you send materials to

people to be sure they got it and know what to do with it."• "Keep your sense of humor."• "Trade off work, every week/every other, to get new eyes on issues."• "Learn to not procrastinate. Your team is depending on you."• “Don’t know something important to production? Learn it early!”• “Be flexible. Don’t keep doing what isn’t working. Try something new.”• "Try to step up your game every week."

PROTOTYPE SHARE

• Each Team Choose Another Team to Partner: Break into smaller pairs and show each other your prototypes! Discuss what features you prototyped and how your game developed from testing.

MID-SEMESTER COURSE EVAL

Yay!

Comp 150 Game DesignFridays, 9am-11:50amHalligan Hall Room 102Teacher: Jason Wiser

TA: Mike Shah

Production Scheduling: Course Milestones

• Due Week 5: Paper Prototypes: “Fun”• Due Week 6: Digital Prototypes: “Quantity.”• Due Week 7: Full Playable Prototypes: “User Clarity.”• Due Week 9: Revised prototypes: “Fun.” • Due Week 12: Beta Complete: Art and Audio locked.• Due Week 14: Alpha Complete: Levels done, bugs

fixed.• Final Presentations: Playable Game and completed.

Marketing materials: Trailer, Website, Press Release, Icon, and Marketing Plan.

Due Next Week:HOMEWORK #5: Final Game, 1st Digital Prototype TEAMS: 1. Continue testing with paper prototypes and Revise

Design Documents.2. Set-up online repository, naming system, and

document Asset Pipeline. 3. Divide Unity3D production work evenly.4. Work this week to pull together initial DIGITAL

PROTOTYPE of basic interactions and core game features! Use only simple placeholder art.

ALSO Read Schell pp 97-112 (Audience chapter) and research solutions to Unity features you want in your game.

Unity Day #2: Intro to 2D Game DevBasics of 2D:• Hit 2D button above Scene for flat view.• Set PNG art to “Sprites” and set “Order in Layer.” Higher

numbers = closer to camera.• Use only 2D Physics (Rigidbody 2D, Box Collider 2D)

Painting Backgrounds: PNGs, quality 24• Standard Display: 1280x720, 72ppi. Paint 2x for HD/retina. • Set PNG art to “Sprites” and set “Order in Layer.” Higher

numbers = closer to camera.• Export layers: FG, MG, BG, with empty areas.• Scrolling: at least 3 original screens, tiling ends.• 2D Platformer: include obvious “platforms.”

Unity Day #2: Intro to 2D Game Dev

Unity Day #2: Intro to 2D Game Dev

Have a Productive Week!

And don’t forget to email us with questions:

Instructor: JASON [email protected]

Available an hour after class and daily email.

TA: MIKE [email protected]

Lab hours: Wednesdays 4:30-5:45