Welcome!


Welcome!

This site showcases the thesis capstone projects for the Full Sail Mobile Gaming Master of Science program. Students completing the program post their end of program project self evaluation here examining what went right and what went wrong during production.

The site provides examples of all completed projects, without regard to the quality of work. Final faculty evaluation of your project is separate from your postmortem. It is a place to share student work and start dialogue with faculty about completed and upcoming projects.

If you are adding a postmortem for a completed project to this blog, please do your best to provide a meaningful meta-level evaluation of your project. This helps students currently in the program have a better understanding of the critical points related to independent production, game development and design and project management. The template for the blog content and instructions can be found in the first post from July 2014.

Thank You,
MGMS Faculty

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Capstone Game Post Mortem Template

Capstone Game Post Mortem: (The Name of Your Game)

Game Summary: (Sub Heading - Centered)

Author (Minor Heading)

Your name (Normal)

Title

What is the title of the game?

Genre

Identify the most appropriate categorization for your game.

Platform(s)

What is the mobile platform for this game?

Revenue model

Will you be releasing your game for free or for a small charge? If for free, briefly summarize your plan to monetize the game; if for charge, list your intended price.

Development tools/Language

What development tools or programming language do you intend to use to develop the game? Do you plan on working with 3rd party APIs or other tools?

Game audience

Who is your intended audience or demographic for this game? Provide a short player description that includes age range, gender, player-type (from Bartle or Vandenberghe), and any other relevant characteristics that you have considered.

Team

If you worked with a team or contracted others to help you design and develop your capstone project, provide names and work assignments for each member.

Copyright/Reference

Provide the reference for your game and a brief statement of copyright.

 

Backstory:

Sound Bite

Synthesize your game proposal as a sound bite in 20 words or less. This should sound good and be something you might hear as a voice-over for a commercial or trailer. Check out http://socialtriggers.com/sound-bites-traffic/ as a starting point. Test this out with a couple people from your demographic group to make sure it works.
Examples:
·It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman..
·From the TV series Friends describing Joey’s role on a TV drama called Mac & Cheese: "One's a hard-bitten detective, one's a robot. They Fight Crime!"
·Plant Liberation II: In a world of potted houseplants, one woman will embark on a journey and fight for the liberation of them all, and this time it’s personal!

Executive Summary

This is your elevator pitch. Expand on your game a little more, explaining what it is in a short paragraph of a couple sentences. This should alert players to the game genre, and major gameplay elements. Make sure to indirectly address: What is novel or different about your game? Why should players play it? Express this in 3-4 sentences maximum.

Inspiration

What was the inspiration for your game? What were your motivators or drivers to develop this game? What was the context for the game?

Ideal

If everything had gone perfectly according to plan, what would your game have looked like? Provide a brief description of the ideal you hoped to achieve initially with your capstone project.

 

The Critique: What went right…

Where possible be sure to include artifacts from the game or it’s development to exemplify and substantiate the written text.

Design & Aesthetics

Evaluate the merits of the design document(s), mechanics, balancing, graphics, audio, narrative, UI screens, UI controls, etc.

Project Management

Evaluate the merits of the project scope, planning, preproduction, Agile/Scrum, choice of tools, timing, sprints, etc.

Development

Evaluate the merits of the code structure/architecture, documentation, challenges, choice of AI/algorithms, databases, network functionality, engine/code choice, etc.

Testing

Evaluate the merits of the testing you conducted: debugging, Q&A, usability, play-testing, unit tests, etc.

Business Model/Plan

Evaluate the merits of the revenue model you chose (For Pay/Fremium), Lite/Full Version, and other business aspects: In App Store, In Game Economy, etc. You can also evaluate your intended marketing plan or strategy if you have one.

Other

Evaluate the merits of any additional elements that may have played a role in the outcome of your capstone project that were beneficial to you or a point of success not indicated above.

 

The Critique: What went wrong…

Where possible be sure to include artifacts from the game or it’s development to exemplify and substantiate the written text.

Design & Aesthetics

Evaluate challenges or problems attributable to the design document(s), mechanics, balancing, graphics, audio, narrative, UI screens, UI controls, etc.

Project Management

Evaluate challenges or problems attributable to the project scope, planning, preproduction, Agile/Scrum, choice of tools, timing, sprints, etc.

Development

Evaluate challenges or problems attributable to the code structure/architecture, documentation, challenges, choice of AI/algorithms, databases, network functionality, engine/code choice, etc.

Testing

Evaluate challenges or problems attributable to the testing you conducted: debugging, Q&A, usability, play-testing, unit tests, etc.

Business Model/Plan

Evaluate challenges or problems attributable to the revenue model you chose (For Pay/Fremium), Lite/Full Version, and other business aspects: In App Store, In Game Economy, etc. You can also evaluate your intended marketing plan or strategy if you have one.

Other

Evaluate challenges or problems attributable to any additional elements that may have played a role in the outcome of your capstone project that were detrimental to you or a point of failure not indicated above.

 

Summary:

Wrap up your evaluation. Some questions to consider for this section are:
How did the final version of your project differ from your initial ideal? Was it better or worse? What design and development trade-offs did you need to make? Where do you intend to take the project from here? What is still left to do, and how long will it take you accomplish your goal? What did you learn along the way? What take-aways do you have from the experience? What would you do differently if you had the opportunity to redo the project or to start over? What was the high point of the project? What was the low point of the project? Do you plan on releasing your game? What are your plans for the future?

 

References

Please list any references you referred to in this post mortem. This can include textbooks, academic articles, player-type descriptions, asset locations, or any other outside source material. Be sure to include the reference to your game in the list. Be sure to include your game as a reference with proper APA citation.

Capstone Post Mortem Instructions


Readings
Atwood, J. (2007) Game Development Postmortems at
This article is a bit dated but has some good suggestions. Not all of the links are current though.
High-Level Project Goal
This month you will put together a final evaluation of your game and present your final project to the faculty for review and critique.
Your post mortem has 3 parts: A written project evaluation document addressing the merits of your project including success and failure points; a visual presentation based off the written document using presentation software (PPT, Keynote, Prezi, etc); and the oral delivery of the presentation to the faculty with question and answer.
Assignment
Part 1: Written Documentation:
You will produce a final self-evaluation critique of your capstone project called a post mortem. The document should be written in APA format and address all of the elements listed below (an editable template is provided to help you complete this).
A brief description of each section is included in the template. If you are having difficulty completing any of the sections, or if you believe a section does not apply to your game, please reach out to your instructor for assistance. You should plan to spend at least 3-4 hours each week over 3 weeks working on the written proposal for a total of between 9-12 total hours, assuming that you have a finished capstone project and have considered many of the topics below already in the discussion posts that accompany this class. Keep in mind that if parts of your project are incomplete, your completion time may be significantly greater.
Capstone Post Mortem body content:
Game Summary:
Title
Genre
Platform(s)
Revenue model
Development tools/Language
Game audience
Team
Copyright/Reference
Backstory:
Sound Bite
Executive Summary
Inspiration
Ideal
The Critique: What went right
Design & Aesthetics
Project Management
Development
Testing
Business Model/Plan
Other
The Critique: What went wrong
Design & Aesthetics
Project Management
Development
Testing
Business Model/Plan
Other
Summary:
References:

Sample Post Mortem Documents and Additional Resources:
PacMan Post Mortem Presented by: Toru Iwatani – Tokyo Polytechnic
Mobile Game Postmortem Ngame’s Chop Suey Kung Fu Presented by: Matt Kelland
Postmortem Trearch’s 2002: Spider-Man Presented by Jamie Fristrom
Postmortem Q-Games’ Pixeljunk 4am Presented by Rowan Parker
Various other selections of Postmortems from Gamesutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/postmortem/
GDC Vault Classic Game Postmortem: Pitfall Presented by David Crane
GDC Vault Classic Game Postmortem: Doom Presented by John Romero and Tom Hall
GDC Vault Classic Game Postmortem: Myst Presented by Robyn Miller
Note
Students retain ownership rights to student-projects completed as part of an educational program at Full Sail University. However as part of enrollment Full Sail University does have the right to use student projects for marketing purposes to demonstrate student accomplishments. If you have concerns that your project may be chosen to highlight activities within the MGMS program or game studies for promotional purposes, please discuss these with your instructor or the program manager.