My senior Game Design 2 class is working on teams on their Capstone projects. The teams are 5-7 students and they have a whole host of things to do beyond just making the game. They are the biggest teams I've allowed for in the 3 years I've been doing this and for the most part, it's going well. The large teams allow thos who never warmed up to programming to use other skills, participate in their group, and make something respectable. 10 out of 11 groups are going well.
Create a functioning game that uses feedback forms for play testing and shows clear iterations based on feedback, have a Github repo that at least 2 people use regularly with many branches and commits, a mood board, a game design document, concept art for at least the player, enemies, weapons, pick ups etc, a story board of the core game loop, a website made in Wix that has a front page with a game play trailer video, a short pitch, screenshots of key points in the game, and hosts the other parts of the planning documents so it acts like a portfolio devlog for the group. Their Economics teacher has them contribute a business and marketing plan for this game and it's company. I'm hoping the senior English teacher will finally take part and have them write up their lore for the game in English class. I've pushed them harder this year to make more and so far it's going well.
I'm on the fence about what to do with my juniors. We started the GDQuest curriculum later than I wanted this year so I was toying with the idea of just working on the curriculum as late as possible but I'm not excited about this. I might do it if I don't come up with something better, but I want them to create something in another context that shows knowledge transfer. I'm thinking of having them build a 2d platformer in Godot that uses a complete tutorial. Even though they don't have to figure much out, I know it will be hard for the students who are chronically absent and really allow the students who show up every day a chance to see how much they learned. I'm really looking for something that says to regular attenders, SEE this is what you can make when you show up every day. I don't expect them to be able to come up with an idea and build it and love what they make after just one year in my class.
Here is the playlist I"m considering. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrIQ1Pnht4mLpggIYQftRtgT_GjaWKA6W
My goal is to give them a week in class, and they can work outside of class if they want, to make this, then challenge them to make a branch in Github and add a few new features. We playtest in class on the finals date and give feedback. I may skip the new features part or make it extra credit depends on how it goes.
I'm really tired of how chronically absent students add MOUNTAINS of extra work for us teachers so I'm trying to step on the gas with the pace so they reconsider whether or not they do Game Design 2. I have AWESOME students, but the absent ones slow everything down to a snails pace.
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Owen Peery k12teacher
SAN FRANCISCO CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-10-2024 13:35
From: Brian Bautista
Subject: Wednesday: Discussion Finals
We are now thoroughly in the Death March to the end of the year.
So what are your Final projects heading into the end?
- My Intro students will be doing a Game Jam for the last week of school that is going to get played by other teachers, admin, community members etc. (they will find that part out the day before).
- My capstone students are doing a final culminating game project that their first big Milestone is coming up at a Game Show on the 20th, but the final version isn't due to be uploaded to play.unity.com until the 28th of May.
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Brian Bautista k12teacher
Citrus Heights CA
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