Study Guide

Objective

After completing the course, the student will be able to:
- Incorporate learning into an electronic gameplay environment
- Capture and utilise appropriate game data to measure and analyse player progress and competency within the intended use case
- Convey and adhere to ethical considerations when designing a serious game environment
- Apply state of the art serious game development methodologies and technologies when building a serious game environment
- Design and implement serious games in a specific domain (e.g. technology industry, well-being, education or tourism) in cooperation with experts from different sectors
- Add learning value to serious games through the incorporation of sound effects and music

Content

- The psychology of behaviour change and how to apply this to serious game development
- Backend system design and development tools
- Analysis techniques and progress monitoring of serious game generated data
- Principles of ethics, compliance and accepted business practices
- Academic literature and other practical expert contributions for building serious game
- Sound selection, editing and scripting for game events
- Executing CDIO principles in a selected domain specified in the course implementation plan

Materials

Project management material prepared by lecturers (MS Teams will be used as the project management platform);
Prior learning skills, notes and materials;
Online resources such as tutorials, manuals, forums and more;
Depending on the project, there may also be existing repositories to use.

All learning material will be shared through the TUAS ItsLearning learner management system.

Teaching methods

Applied prior learning (GDE, IGDT, Gamification and SGs, Advanced UI & UX, and others) for the practical work
CDIO principles in which we encourage students to seek out solutions to development challenges.

Supplementing theoretical knowledge gaps through critically seeking information and lecturer Q&A.

Exam schedules

Since this is a group project that requires multiple weeks of work, there are no retake possibilities.

Also, no extensions for completing the work will be granted.

International connections

This course follows a combined constructivist and instructivist approach:
- Students are expected to apply prior technical knowledge for the development work and seek out and fill their knowledge gaps (teachers and Game Lab engineers will naturally facilitate this process).
- Students will be extensively guided and monitored on the project management.

Student workload

The entire course is dedicated to making a serious game as a group project.
The duration of the course is 11 weeks - final presentation is on 18.5.2023.
Each student is expected to work 270 hours (10 ECTS) in total, or approximately 24 hours per week for the duration of the course.

Content scheduling

Week 1 to 3 of the course: Project introductions + intense project management preparation and work scheduling
Weeks 4 to 9 of the course: Practical project work with weekly sprint sessions
Weeks 10 and 11 of the course: Project wrap-up and customer presentation

Further information

This course will require you to sign IPR transfer documents. These are to ensure that TUAS, if they so wish, can continue your project work after the conclusion of the course.

Evaluation scale

H-5

Assessment methods and criteria

Individual grades are based on the group performance in delivering a serious game according to the customer specifications and technology/technique points (more detail about these technology points will be shared during the course introduction).

The technology/techniques included in the serious game output are determined by the student (grade/7);
The value of the serious game output and your group performance is is evaluated by the teachers (grade/3);
The UI/UX of the serious game output is evaluated by the customer (grade/5);
The novelty and complexity of the serious game output is evaluated by industry experts from TGL (grade/5);
All grades are added and divided by 4 to give the final grade out of 5.

There will be a peer review at the end of the project that could affect individual grades.

Assessment criteria, fail (0)

Peer review indicating that the student contributed little to nothing toward the serious game development or project management activities.
All members of a group will fail the course if the group fails to demonstrate a working serious game prototype.

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1-2)

The demonstration was not complete and offered no new information or approach about the game. The demonstration also showed that little effort was made in building excitement about the game. The demonstration failed to capture the interest of the audience and/or is confusing in what was communicated.

Assessment criteria, good (3-4)

The demonstration offered some new information or approach about the game. The demonstration also showed initial effort was made in building excitement about the game. The demonstrated techniques used were effective in conveying main ideas, but a bit unimaginative.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

The demonstration offered new information or approach about the game. The demonstration also showed strong effort was made in breaking new ground and building excitement about the game. The demonstration was imaginative and effective in conveying ideas to the audience.