LESSON #8: Prototype Playtesting, Working Well, & Introduction to 3D Art Asset Production DGMD E-70 Principles of Game Design

LESSON #8: Prototype Playtesting, Working Well, & Introduction to 3D

Art Asset Production

DGMD E-70 Principles of Game Design

TODAY:1. Paper Prototype Testing/Sharing.

2. Building Productive Teams: Working Well vs Working Worse.

3. Introduction to 3D Asset Production: Autodesk Maya for basic 3D Object Modeling.

PART 1: PROTOTYPE SHARE

• Each Team Send ½ people to playtest other team prototypes

• 20 Minutes: Break into mixed groups and play each other your paper prototypes!

• Discuss features you prototyped and how your game developed from testing. New Players: – What are the VERBS of play? – What is most fun about the current prototype? – Where were you excited or confused? – How can they improve progress or achievement?

PART 1: PROTOTYPE SHARE

TEAM MEETING (15 minutes):1. Convene at your team table to discuss

observations.

2. Discuss Production goals for the next week (revise design and attempt primary

functionality in Unity, potentially influenced by tester experience/ observations) and

divide work equitably.

Part 2: How We Work Well

My Five-Year-Old:People Are More Important Than Toys!

Your project is your people. It is not the game itself.

What matters is building trust, compassion, and enthusiasm for your working relationship.

Part 2: How We Work Well

COMMUNICATION:

1. Daily contact: emails or meetings2. Address issues before they become problems3. Document Your Pipeline4. Optimize Your Teammates

Part 2: How We Work Well1. Daily contact: emails or meetings:QUESTION: What do you know about “Agile” and “Scrum”?

Part 2: How We Work Well1. Daily contact: emails or meetings:• Agile is a time-boxed, iterative approach to

software delivery that builds software incrementally from the start of the project, instead of trying to deliver it all at once near the end. Agile works by breaking projects down into little bits of user functionality called User Stories (features customers want), prioritizing them, and then continuously delivering them in short cycles called Iterations (short periods for team to build working software to deliver top User Stories).

Part 2: How We Work Well1. Daily contact: emails or meetings:• Scrum is an Agile framework for completing complex

projects, to improve teamwork, communications, and speed.

The Scrum framework:1. Backlog: Team creates prioritized wishlist.2. Team Planning = pulling top chunks from Backlog and

deciding how to implement those pieces.3. Sprint: Team spends time “heads down” to complete work.4. Daily Scrum: Team meets daily to assess progress.5. ScrumMaster keeps the team focused on its goal.6. At Sprint end work should be “shippable:” ready to playtest.7. Sprint ends with a sprint review and retrospective.8. Next sprint: choose next chunk and begin working again.

Part 2: How We Work Well2. Address issues before they become problems:• I-Messages: avoid defensiveness and distracting

assumptions by owning the effects of issues.

I-Messages Conversation Formula:1. Thank the person for meeting with me.2. Let them know in simplest terms what I am

experiencing, and how it is affecting me.3. Ask them if they are aware of this.4. Discuss the issue further, collaborating on a

solution.

Part 2: How We Work Well2. Address issues before they become problems:• I-Messages: avoid defensiveness and distracting

assumptions by owning the effects of issues.

Part 2: How We Work Well2. Address issues before they become problems:• I-Messages Conversation Formula:1. Thank the person for meeting with me.2. Let them know in simplest terms what I am experiencing,

and how it is affecting me.3. Ask them if they are aware of this.4. Discuss the issue further, collaborating on a solution.

PAIRED EXERCISE:

RED HERRING #1:

“Your work is always late”

Part 2: How We Work Well2. Address issues before they become problems:• I-Messages Conversation Formula:1. Thank the person for meeting with me.2. Let them know in simplest terms what I am experiencing,

and how it is affecting me.3. Ask them if they are aware of this.4. Discuss the issue further, collaborating on a solution.

PAIRED EXERCISE:

RED HERRING #2:

“Your art/audio/code is terrible.”

Part 2: How We Work Well3. Document Your Pipeline• Bill Polson, Pipeline Expert at Pixar Studios:



Document all your best practices / worst assumptions:1. FILES: names, versions, share/store, project-adding.2. COMMUNICATION: How and when?3. TECH KNOWLEDGE: Like how 2d/3d textures must

be power-of-two square (256x256, 2048x2048, etc).4. WEEKLY TEAM DEADLINES: with enough time before

Friday to integrate and test!

Part 2: How We Work Well4. Optimize Your Teammates:• Good Meeting Facilitation:

The facilitator Has 5 Main Jobs:• 1. State the purpose/ goals of the meeting: "This

meeting is to make a decision on [ x ]"• 2. Keep the meeting on track (bring digressions back

to the purpose).• 3. Regularly make sure each member participates.• 4. Keep calm and connected (by taking notes).• 5. Repeat key points and close the discussion with a

summary of what was said.

Part 2: How We Work Well4. Optimize Your Teammates:• “5 Love Languages”:


PREMISE: People are most productive when supported in their primary appreciation “language,” 1-2 of these:• Words of Praise• Quality Time• Acts of Service• Gifts• Touch


QUESTION: How can these apply to the workplace?• Words of Praise:• Quality Time• Acts of Service• Gifts• Touch


QUESTION: How can these apply to the workplace?• Words of Praise: Praise specific examples of work. • Quality Time: Meet socially: play games, have meals.• Acts of Service: Do parts of the work they would

have to do, or help them do their work.• Gifts: Low cost, casual. Coffee, etc.• Touch: No touch in workspace, but see to room

temperature and chair comfort, etc.

Part 2: How We Work Well4. Optimize Your Teammates:• “5 Love Languages”:Words of Praise, Quality Time, Acts of Service, Gifts, Touch

MEET WITH YOUR TEAM: Choose facilitator!Discuss our primary Appreciation Languages and your past experiences working in teams or in workplaces: what went well, what did you wish went differently.

Part 2: How We Work WorseFESTERING:

• Don’t Let Issues Be! • Issues don’t clear up by themselves. The

more complex the projects, the more opportunity for mistakes, misunderstandings, and unresolved conflicts to be devastating. Use this course as an opportunity to practice forthrightness (it is much harder in “real world” jobs!).

Part 2: How We Work WorseTRIANGULATION:

• Witchunt (Mafia): Make a big floor circle!1. Facilitator hands out secret playing cards. 2. FaceCards = Witch, Ace = Prophet, NumCard = Villager3. 1st Night: Witches see each other, prophet gets a stab.4. 1st day: Facilitator is dead! “Find a witch”: point to a player

and raise hand. Argue, counter-argue. Point/Raise hand to join vote. Majority kills/ends day. Dead say “Blood/Brains.”

5. 2nd Night: Witches unanimously kill a player, Prophet attempts discovery.

6. 2nd Day: Witch-killed player dead, majority vote to kill witch.7. Continue until all witches dead or witches# = villagers#.

• "Get everyone's email & phone #s programmed in your phone."• "You have to meet together EVERY week outside class to get this done."• "Get your naming/version convention right and stick to it."• “Show each other new work early each week."• "Type a concise Design Document . Test and update weekly."• "Ask how you can help each other more."• "Be good to each other, even when you don't want to."• "Be sure everyone posts their most updated work to the shared drive."• "Be sure to CC everyone on emails. Follow up when you send materials to people

to be sure they got it and know what to do with it."• "Keep your sense of humor."• "Trade off work, every week/every other, to get new eyes on issues."• "Learn to not procrastinate. Your team is depending on you."• “Don’t know something important to production? Learn it early!”• “Be flexible. Don’t keep doing what isn’t working. Try something new.”• "Try to step up your game every week."

Part 2: Team Success Key Advice

PART 3: Digital Art Production1. Autodesk Maya (free with .EDU email at

students.autodesk.com). Character, prop, environment modeling, surfacing, rigging, and animation.

2. Adobe Photoshop (CS2 available free on windows/bootcamp. Otherwise monthly charge). Use a tablet (recommend Wacom Bamboo). Character sprites, background art, and VFX sprites: painting and photo manipulation. Also consider Sai or Gimp.

Maya: 3D Art Production: Interface

Maya: 3D Art Production: Interface

Maya: 3D Art Production: Channel Box

Maya: 3D Art Production: Modeling Tools

Maya: 3D Art Production: Hypershade #1



Maya: 3D Art Basics:• Be sure you are in the Polygons Module! Tape spacebar to switch views.• Create a Primitive from the Polygon shelf or a Mesh Tools/Create Poly• Set Channel Box inputs parameters for initial dimensions and divisions• Apply modeling Transforms and Tools to get desired shape:

– Transforms (w=move, e=rotate, r=scale or select in LeftSide column) in both Object Mode and Component levels (Vertices, Edges, Faces). Gizmos, Uniform vs non-uniform scale.

– RightClickHold on object to choose Component Mode or Object Mode.– Modeling Toolkit panel: Multicut, Extrude, Connect, Bevel, Bridge,

Target Weld. See parameters below and hit [Enter] to commit a change.– Mesh menu: Extract, Combine, Fill Hole, Boolean– Edit Mesh menu: Merge Components, Edge/Collapse– Selecting: DoubleClick an edge for a Loop, [Shift]+click an adjacent face

for a Ring, [Shift]+[>]/[<] to increase or decrease a face selection.

Maya: 3D Art Production: Chair• Make a Cube (from the Polygons Shelf). • In Channel Box open Inputs, set size to 10x 2 x 10, subdivisions

to 3 x 1 x 3. This will be the seat.• Spacebar for Top view. RightClickHold Cube to choose Vertex

Component Mode. Select around middle two columns, hit [R] for Scale, and non-uniform scale apart. Do same with middle two rows, until corners squares are small.

• Spacebar for Persp view. RightClickHold Cube for Face Component Mode, select bottom four corners.

• Open Modeling Toolkit. Choose Extrude and pull down geometry for four legs. Select two adjacent corners on the top and Extrude twice for the back support. Select the inner faces on the upper extrusion and hit Bridge to complete the back.

Production Scheduling: Course Milestones

• Due Week 8: Paper Prototypes: “Fun”• Due Week 9: Digital Prototypes: “Quantity.”• Due Week 11: Full Playable Prototypes: “User Clarity.”• Due Week 12: Revised prototypes: “Fun.” • Due Week 14: Prototype Complete: Multiple levels

populated, bugs fixed, full Art and Audio.• Final Presentations: Playable Game and Marketing

materials: Trailer, Website, Press Release, Icon.

Due Next Week:HOMEWORK #8: Final Game, 1st Digital Prototype! Teams:1. Continue testing with paper prototypes and Revise

Design Documents. Set-up online repository, naming system, and document Asset Pipeline.

2. Divide Unity production work evenly.3. Work this week to pull together initial DIGITAL

PROTOTYPE of basic interactions and core game features! Use only simple placeholder art.

Individually: Progress Report #1: Submit typed page: What you agreed to produce, what you accomplished, self-evaluation/related screenshots.

Have a Productive Week!

And don’t forget to email us with questions:

Instructor: JASON [email protected]

Available an hour after class and daily email.

Unity TF: Julia [email protected]

Lab hours: Thursdays 7-7:40, daily by email

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]