Dissertation proposal

Student Name                                  

Patryk Swacinski

Proposed Dissertation Title:

Producing 2D Mobile Phone Games that are Easy to Learn and Hard to Master.

Brief Outline of Work:

My dissertation is based on learning C# throughout the process of developing and iterating a number of digital prototypes in Unity. My objective is to keep each prototype optimised and bug free, to demonstrate that I have learnt to program in C# effectively.

My prototypes will aim to follow the principles of Bushnell's law which states "All best games are easy to learn and hard to master". Quoting Gamasutra, this type of games is: ‘addicting; one people want to play over and over again once they've started, and in which starting is smooth and easy’ (link to the article in the bibliography).

This project will take me out of my comfort zone given the fact I have currently no experience in programming in C#. I will also have to perform a thorough research covering Bushnell’s law in order to be able to create artefacts which follow his philosophy.

Below I’ve listed down the steps that I’ll be undertaking throughout the project.

Step 1 – Research

Throughout the first six weeks I am going to undertake research to find out exactly what Bushnell’s theory means, looking at the readings and articles that explain what makes a game easy to learn and what makes a game hard to master. I will then perform a comparison between games that follow those principles to ones that don’t. Doing this will help me draw a conclusion that will prepare me for the practical work.

Step 2 – Design

After completing research work, I will design my first prototype making sure that I follow the information I have learnt throughout the undertaken theory. Given the fact that there is a high market for twitch based mobile phone games, showing examples like Tippy Tap getting 2 million downloads (source:https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ tippy-tap/id853590523?mt=8) , or Flappy Bird with over 50 million downloads before it was taken down (source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26114364) , I will be aiming towards creating games that will test player timing and reaction skills.

Step 3 - Development

After designing my game, I will work with the Unity2D engine to digitalise it. Since I want to be particularly marked based on how effectively my C# knowledge develops, I will put full focus on programming. This means that I will not pay any attention on artwork, using place holders alternatively. As soon as the prototype is finished I will transfer it onto an Android device to get it ready for play testing.

Step 4 – Playtest

After completing the prototype I will get my family, friends, and people from the course to play it through. I will then give them a questionnaire to fill out asking them how easy to learn and how hard to master they found the game. Judging by the feedback I’ll decide whether any iterations are required.

Step 5 – Iterate

If the received feedback will state that my prototype is not easy to learn, or not hard to master, I will implement the requested iterations and repeat the play testing process until the players agree that the game successfully represents the principles of Bushnell’s philosophy.

Step 6 – Summarise

Once player feedback will demonstrate that my prototype achieved the aim of successfully representing Bushnell’s Law, I’ll summarise the development process, highlighting design and code related issues I have found on my way, and how I dealt with them so that they can be avoided during the development of my next prototype.

Step 7 – Start over with a new prototype

The amount of prototypes that I will complete by the end of the year will vary between one to three, depending on how long each development as well as iteration processes will take. Although my timeline estimates completing two prototypes, if the iteration process takes longer than expected I will end up finishing one prototype. Alternatively, if I have overestimated the timeline, and as an example - coding will require much less time than previously calculated, by May I will have three working prototypes.

Rationale For The Project.

I’m hoping that this project will demonstrate that having learnt a powerful design principle I can create addicting games. Furthermore, after going through the development and iteration processes of each prototype, I will learn new C# techniques, giving me the experience in the area that I wanted to achieve since I came to this course.

Additionally given the fact that I will gain skills like having the experience in game development with Unity 2D, launching a title on iOS, or being able to code in C#, I will open doors to many work opportunities. A detailed research, showing job offers which highlight particular requirements which I will gain after completing this dissertation, can be found on my blog.

Link: http://cgdpsd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/job-offers.html

Annotated Bibliography:

Below I’ve listed down a number of books and hyperlinks that will help me throughout the project.

	Reference:	Category	Description:
1	M. Tim Jones, Game Design - Theory & Practice, Second Edition, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2010	Bushnell’s law research	Has a chapter called ‘What players want’ which has useful information regarding making games easy to learn.
2	Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Shreiber, Challenges For Game Designers, Delmar Publishing, 2008	Bushnell’s law research	Talks about techniques that can be used to challenge players which will be useful for learning how to make games difficult to master.
3	Francois Dominic Laramee, Game Design Perspectives, Charles River Media, 2002	Bushnell’s law research	Has a chapter called ‘Balancing challenge without frustrating players’ which will be good for learning tuning which prevents from making the game too difficult to master.
4	Gamasutra: Persuasive Games: Familiarity, Habituation, and Catchiness [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature  /132369/persuasive_games_familiarity_. php?page=1 [Accessed 7th Aug 2014]	Bushnell’s law research	Gamasutra has its own article dedicated for breaking down what makes a game easy to learn and hard to master.
5	Thomas Finnegan, Unity Android Game Development by Example - Beginner's Guide, Packt Publishing, 2013	Creating Android games	This book will teach me how to transfer my prototypes onto an Android device.
6	Claudio Scolastici, Mobile Game Design, Packt Publishing Limited, 2013	Mobile game design	This book is written by two highly experienced industry professionals to give real insights and valuable advice on creating games for mobile phones.
7	Unity Scripts [ONLINE] Available at: https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modu les/beginner/scripting. [Accessed 25 Oct 2014]	Learning C#	Official Unity tutorials will introduce me to the syntax used by Unity.
8	C# Scripting Tutorials for Unity [ONLINE] Available at: http://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/r unner/. [Accessed 25th Oct 2014]	Learning C#	A runner tutorial, will prove useful when learning code considering I’ll be making similar games to this.
9	Make Pong game with Unity 2D [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.awesomeincu.com/tutorials/ unity-pong/. [Accessed 15th Sep 2014]	Learning C#	A written Unity C# tutorial for creating Pong, will teach me how to create a very simple 2D game in Unity.
10	Finally, an interactive tutorial series that WILL teach you C# for Unity3D [ONLINE] Available at: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/finally -an-interactive-tutorial-series-that-will- teach-you-c-for-unity3d.175410/.  [Accessed 28th Aug 2014]	Learning C#	Video tutorials that will teach me how to create a shooter. Having followed that I will have a better understanding of the C# functions and syntax.

Project Timeline and Milestone Deliverables 2014_15:-

2014 - 2015	Year Long
22 - 26 Sept	Induction
29 Sept - 3 Oct	Week 1	Post dissertation thoughts, Post about Game mechanics used for touch screen devices
6 - 10 Oct	Week 2	Post about what makes a game easy to learn, Research and post job offers
13 - 17 Oct	Week 3	Post about the dissertation timeline and marking criteria
20 - 14 Oct	Week 4	Post about what makes a game hard to master
27 - 31 Oct	Week 5	Submit the proposal
3 - 7 Nov	Week 6	FRIDAY 7TH NOVEMBER 4:00 PM FINAL SUBMISSION FOR PROJECT PROPOSAL Post about four types of games
10 - 14 Nov	Week 7	Learn the basics of C# by following the Pong guide
17 - 21 Nov	Week 8	Start designing prototype #1
24 - 28 Nov	Week 9	Knowing what prototype #1 is going to require develop a more detailed timeline Start developing prototype #1 (will be more detailed once the game’s designed)
1 - 5 Dec	Week 10	Prototype #1 development process (will be more detailed once the game’s designed)
8 - 12 Dec	Week 11	Prototype #1 development process
15 - 19 Dec	Week 12	Publish prototype #1 on a smartphone Get people to playtest prototype #1 Start iterating prototype #1 (will be more detailed once the game’s play tested)
22 - 26 Dec	Christmas
29 Dec - 2 Jan
5 - 9 Jan
19 - 23 Jan	Week 13	Prepare for the seminar presentation DISSERTATION SEMINAR PROJECT PRESENTATIONS DATES TIMES TBC Prototype #1 iteration process
26 - 30 Jan	Week 14	Prototype #1 iteration process
2 - 6 Feb	Week 15	Prototype #1 iteration process Summarise prototype #1
9 - 13 Feb	Week 16	Start designing prototype #2
16 - 20 Feb	Week 17	Start developing prototype #2
23 - 27 Feb	Week 18	Prototype #2 development process
2 - 6 Mar	Week 19	Prototype #2 development process
9 - 13 Mar	Week 20	Publish prototype #2 on a smartphone Get people to playtest prototype #2 Start iterating prototype #2
16 - 20 Mar	Week 21	Prototype #2 iteration process
23 - 27 Mar	Week 22	Prototype #2 iteration process
30 Mar - 3 Apr	Easter
6 - 10 Apr
13 - 17 Apr
20 - 24 Apr	Week 23	Prototype #2 iteration process Summarise prototype #2
27 Apr - 1 May	Week 24	Evaluate the dissertation project
4 - 8 Ma		Submit the dissertation FRIDAY 8TH MAY 4:00PM FINAL SUBMISSION OF DISSERTATION ARTEFACT AND BLOG