Course Overview
From MySLife DAS Wiki
|
The MySLife Game/Sim Design and Development Course
What We Will Do in the Course
- Use the Curriculum that is presented here on our community Wiki to learn Game Design and Development.
- Post and share our Assignments and Games on the Wiki to get feedback and help each other learn.
- Collaborate with each other and with Game Development experts using the wiki Group Discussion page.
- Write in our own Blogs to reflect on the game making process and to discuss games and other topics of interest to the community.
- Utilize the MySLife 'Starter Kit' Website, with all its Resources, Tutorials, and Game and Sim Examples.
- Publish our Flash games and sims on the MySLife website as other students have done.
How To Use the Course Curriculum
- Look in the Navigation column (at left) and you will see the three Curriculum Units: Getting Started, Game Design, Game Development.
- Each Unit contains a set of Topics. Each Topic contains Assignments for you to complete.
- Each Assignment helps you to create a part for your own original game.
- Go through the Units and Topics in order.
- By the end of the Course you will create an original game in Flash and publish it online!
Topic Assignments
Review the Course Units by reading the short descriptions below. Click on the links to visit the topic pages.
Getting Started Unit
Getting Started is a very short orientation unit that introduces you to the course structure, helps you to set up your own Profile and Blog, and presents your rights and responsibilities as a member of this online learning community.
- Course Overview - (This page!) An introduction to the course, its tools and its learning units.
- Create Your Profile - START the course by creating your Wiki account and designing a cool, personalized User Profile page.
- Creating your blog - Learn how to create a blog at blogger.com and start blogging.
- Participants Guidelines - Review and discuss the basic safety and etiquette guidelines for using this wiki and social network.
Game/Sim Design Unit - Design and present a Science Game or Simulation idea in Flash
In the Game Design unit you will conceive and design an original game or simulation about a science topic that is of interest to you. Using Flash text, drawing and animation techniques, you will create an interactive demo of your game concept. There are many ways to demo a game concept; this unit focuses on highly visual, narrative presentations with simple interactivity.
Game/Sim Design Topics:
- Playing to Learn: Play and review games for social change. Gather ideas for designing your own Social Issue Game.
- Social Issue Games: Learn about games for social change and pick a social issue topic for your own game.
- Imagining Your Game: Write your game idea in Flash and create your first Flash movie using Flash text tools.
- Paper Prototyping: Create a paper prototype for your game idea and learn how to playtest an interactive project.
- Planning Your Game: Create a detailed game design plan.
- Drawing in Flash: Use the Flash drawing tools in order to draw the scenes from your paper prototype in Flash.
- Adding Navigation: Make interactive buttons in Flash that to navigate between your game scenes.
- Adding Animation: Create Flash animations to make your game characters move.
- Adding Sound: Import and add sounds effects to your game demo.
- Adding Interaction: Add interaction to your game with keyboard controlled movement.
- Assembling The Game: Combine scenes created by different people into a single Flash file.
- Presenting Your Game: It’s time to show off your game idea in Flash! Learn how to present your game design professionally.
Game Development Unit - Develop your social change game idea into a fully playable game!
The Game Development unit is where you will take your game concept demo and develop it into a complete, playable game. No two games are exactly alike, so you will develop a customized Development Plan based on the specific features of your game. You will use this unit as a library of game resources to pick and learn from.
Game Development Topics:
- Development Plan: Plan the development of your game based on the topics from this unit.
- Intro to ActionScript: A brief introduction to Flash ActionScript 2.0
- Programming Practices: Learn proper coding practice and coding in the main timeline.
- Learning from Others: Work with other students' source files.
- Finding Solutions:Search the web for information and solutions for implementing your game functionality.
- Moving on a Path: Use motion guides to animate a character along a line.
- Special Effects: Add cool special effects to text and graphics.
- Scrolling Background: Learn how to make a scrolling background that gives the illusion of moving through a scene.
- Score Keeping: Add score keeping functionality to your game.
- Collision Detection: Detect when two objects collide or occupy the same space at the same time.
- Sound Effects: Learn to control and manipulate sound in ActionScript.
- Timer: Add a timer with ActionScript.
- Character Effects: Change a character's appearance, create fade effects and more.
- Drag and Drop: Learn how to drag and drop a movie clip using the mouse and ActionScript.
- Platforms: Add platforms to your game and have a character jump on them.
- Running, Jumping, etc.: Change character behavior/actions (make then run, jump, climb) with ActionScript.
- Coding "Enemies": Move and control your game "enemies" with ActionScript.
- Testing and Debugging: Playtest (debug) your game and then find and fix any "bugs" or errors.
- Publishing Your Game: Set up Your Game page and submit your game to be published on MyGLife.org.
