Games Development

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• test and advance your ideas in a practical and critical context appropriate to your discipline.
• confidently use a range of technical skills to realise your Vertical Slice;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• effectively utilise academic resources and apply appropriate methodologies to your practice.
• articulate and summarise your critical reflection of the project;
• develop and manage your contribution to a sustained team project;

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• knowledge gained from a range of sources and contexts to advance your team project;
• how to identify a teamwork role and the characteristics of its practical application;
• experimental methods to advance your discipline-specific ideas.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• interpret an idea or motivating concept into a self-designed team project;
• evaluate your teamwork role in relation to its professional contexts.
• analyse and produce your practical work through sustained engagement and critical awareness of your ideas;
• select appropriate tools in order to support the develop of a ‘Vertical Slice’;

Developing from the module Games Design, you will consider and vote for a Games Design Document that will be taken forward into Development as a “Vertical Slice”.

You will pitch and take on a specific role in the production of the “Vertical Slice”. The module operation is like a professional Games Studio, with staff taking on key roles as Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) and students as creative leads in teams that engage in weekly sprints, using processes such as Agile and Kanban methodologies in a robust and industry approach utilising related tools.

You will assemble a portfolio of work that demonstrates your experimental process, the products of your testing and examples of work which creatively address the concerns and ambitions of the “Vertical Slice”. You will produce a “Vertical Slice” suitable for professional presentation within the Game Industry.

You will keep detailed process documentation throughout the module which will contain notes, mapping of ideas, recording examples of experimentation, and commentary on your work as it progresses with reflection on how you utilise information about the contemporary context and your team role. For example as an illustrated blog and the associated materials.

Teaching methods include:

• talks;
• weekly Sprints;
• tutorials;
• group critiques;
• workshops inductions;
• supporting material distributed via virtual learning environments (VLE) such as Blackboard, Panopto and Bob National.

Learning activities include:

• review and revision of material provided in lectures and VLE’s;
• process documentation;
• workshops;
• using, comparing and evaluating specialist resources for Games Design & Art;
• team work;
• discussion;
• weekly Sprints;
• various Tutorial Activities;
• peer group learning;
• Academic Skills Hub;
• self assessment.

Relationship between the teaching, learning and assessment methods and the planned learning outcomes

In this module learning and teaching activities focus on helping you to direct your exploration and investigation of your ideas.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Portfolio Development

• Assessment Type: Formative
• Feedback: Formative feedback is given during the module, which can be verbal or written, contributing to the written summative feedback given at the end of the module
• Final Assessment: No
• Group Work: No

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.