Weekly Assignments

Assignments are released weekly and must be submitted via Canvas in the form of a voice-over video that does not exceed five minutes in length.
At this time there are no guaranteed late days for assignments. Zero credit can be earned if not submitted by deadline. 
Our Canvas page: Canvas: https://canvas.stanford.edu/courses/73441

Week One: Creating Your First Unity Game

As lecturer Stephen Lim has explained, even the largest games can often be explained in terms of how their surprising simple core mechanic is executed. For our first assignment you will create a small Unity game that focuses on a simple mechanic.​

Week Two: “Juicing” Your Unity Game

​​Lecturer Stone Librande has explained the value of capturing your game’s design within a single page. In this assignment you will be creating your first original game in Unity and creating a one-page design that details your creation. In this assignment you will watch the seminal “Juice it or Lose it” online lecture. Then you will “Juice” the tutorial game of Assignment One in order to make it into a new game. In creating this new game you will also create a one-page design.

Week Three: Engineering Dual Purpose Design

As Jonathan Blow explained in class, great design is a tangible goal we can engineer towards. Multi purpose mechanics are a fundamental tool for creating meaningful decisions within a game and fostering player agency. For this assignment, you will create the prototype of a  game which includes one or more examples of how a feature serves multiple purposes. Additionally, we will be learning how to use 3D models and character controllers to create a game from a wide array of possible genres.​

Week Four: Diegetic Art

As Lee Petty described, a game’s art is more than a visual or aural representation of the content. It often serves to relay its own set of information to the player. For this assignment you will dive deep into understanding diegetic art and the great impact it can have on the player’s suspension of disbelief. You will create a prototype 2D game and then incorporate a few examples of diegetic art within the game.

Week Five: Midterm

This midterm assignment will require student teams to submit a prototype of their game. This prototype will first require a proposal approval from the teaching staff.

Week Six: Makin’ Stuff Look Good in Unity

As Dan Moran illustrated in lecture, technical art is an opportunity to combine programming and design skills. In this assignment you will learn how to create your first shaders in Unity. Then you design and implement an original shader for use in your team project. You will also provide an update covering this week’s progress on your team project as well as an outline of what you will accomplish by Week Seven.

Week Seven: Environmental Storytelling

Sean Vanaman explained how a compelling story could drive the adventure of games such as Firewatch or Tacoma. However not every game has room for dialogue or a clear narrative. In this assignment, you will explore the discipline of environmental storytelling which can accomplish many of the same things without the use of talking actors.

Week Eight: Game Trailer Storytelling

The first thing most players will see about your game is your trailer. A trailer is a opportunity to focus your audience on what makes your game interesting. A great trailer ensures that it is also not the last thing players see about your game. A great trailer tells a story the draws potential players into your game. In this assignment your team will create a trailer for your game.

Final Project

After your midterm your team has worked hard on developing your game to its current state. You’ve added new features including shaders and environmental storytelling. You’ve collected a lot of feedback from friends on how to make the game better; and you have incorporated those improvements, with ample juice, into your final project. Your final project is shipping your game for everyone to see the awesome work you have accomplished!