CIS 300: Introduction to Computer Game Design

Communications Lab 3
Concept Document Preparation

Due: Tuesday, February 12 at 11:59pm

The focus of today's lab is to develop the concept document for your game. While this communication lab is due next Tuesday, that does not mean that your final concept document is due at time. Instead, the goal is for you to develop a first draft of your concept document so that we can discuss your efforts in the communication lab next week. Your final communication lab is due the following Saturday as Assignment 2.

In making a concept document, remember that it is not a treatise. It is more like an ad or resume. Appendix A of your textbook (Rollings & Adams) gives a good picture of making the concept document. It should be easy to read, punchy, clear, and direct. Remember, in the real world, this document would have to counter the short attention spans of publishers!

During the communication lab, you will be paired with another group to compare your designs. This will help you learn from other students, as well as help you communicate your vision more clearly. This will be the format for most of the remaining communication labs in the class.

Swap Proposals

The first part of the communication lab with take place entirely in class. You should finish this completely in class, and the file that you produce should not be modified outside the communication lab. You should simply submit what you finished in class.

For this communication lab, you will be working together with your group. At the beginning of the class, the instructors will pair up the groups. Each group will be handed the initial proposal that the other group submitted last Saturday. From this proposal your group should do the following:

  1. Spend 5 minutes reading the proposal
  2. Using this proposal spend 15 minutes creating (as a group) an Outline of a concept document for their game. Use the scheme from the appendix in your textbook (the High Concept Document):
    High Concept Statement
    A short statement of the core vision of your game.
    Features
    A bulleted list of the key features of the game
    Overview
    Summarizes the important traits of the game. May include Player Motivation, Genre, Target Player, Competition, Unique Selling points, Platform, and (most importantly) Design Goals
    Additional Details
    Story, characters, music, or anything else interesting
  3. Exchange the outline that you made in step (2) with the other group.
  4. Spend another 5 minutes spend reading what the other group wrote about your game.
  5. Spend 20 minutes discussing these documents, 10 minutes for each group.

Take notes about what the other group said about your game, but return them the concept document at the end of class. They will need to submit this outline to CMS for the commmunication lab.

Concept Document Draft

This part of the communication lab will take place outside of class. You should write a first draft of your concept document. The document should follow the outline above and be at least 3 pages. Again, see page 574 of your textbook for an example ("Street Footbal").

While this is not a final draft of your concept document, it does consitute the final proposal for your game (beyond what you submitted in your group charter). If the staff rejects this proposal, your group can no longer receive an A for your project grade. However, if we did not comment negatively on your group charter submission in Assignment 1, then your proposal will not be rejected; this is simple a "last chance" for groups that we considered a problem in Assignment 1. If you are concerned about the proposal being rejected, you may wish to talk to the course staff.

Submission

For this communication lab, you have two files to submit. The first file is the outline that you made for the other group; it should be titled outline. The second file should be the concept document draft for your own group; it should be titled Concept document. These files may either be a text file (txt), a Microsoft Word file (doc), or a PDF file (pdf).

Due Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 11:59pm