January 18 Assignment

Due: January 25:

NOTE THAT YOUR MUST(!!!!) meet with your area instructor before the 25th to review your job propoosal (see below)

1. Your first priority is to apply for a job. To that end you must create a job application which should include the following:

• Name, email address
• Job title
• Brief paragraph describing your role in the game development process
• Skill sets: (a) present skill set, (b) those skills you will need to master during the semester. For the latter present a time line for mastery.
• Computing resources necessary for the job: software, hardware, equipment (e.g. sound recording). Where is this available (in lab, your own, needs to be purchased).
• Deliverables: those assets, code or documentation you will provide. These should include tentative delivery dates
• Communication network: who do you report to, who do you work with both in your area and across areas (use job titles, not individual names)

Review your job description with your area instructor (Ault: art/writing, Nakra: sound, Wolz: tech) and then email your MS word document to Wolz by Tuesday Jan 24 12:00 pm EST. You will be expected to make a 5 minute presentation on your job in class on the 25th.

2. In class you volunteered for an "interest area." Presumably you and your group began to define a development time line for that area and a resource concerns list. As a group you are responsible for presenting your time line on the 25th. You will have about 20 minutes for the presentation. As a group please be prepared to do this efficiently.

3. In order to get the production pipeline up and running we are skipping around the course textbook. For next week please read chapters 9 - 12. Yes this is a lot of reading, and yes most of this is simple common sense. Read it. You will in particular need chapter 12 for your job application.

4. Journaling/final report: Every week you will get a short reflective writing assignment. If you do this diligently your final report which will constittute a significant portion of your grade will only require you to do some simple editing. To keep you honest, you will be asked to submit your weekly journal to your area instructor by Tuesday noon of each week via email. You will not be graded on content, but your instructor may return comments to you, or your comments may provide fodder for the next week's discussion period.

Journal questions for week 1:

1. Briefly describe what motivated you to take this course. What do you expect to get out of the course. What do you expect to contribute to the course. If you were in the Fall games course comment on why you want to continue.

2. Identify what an "FPS" is. (OK if you weren't in the Fall course you are at a disadvantage here. Go look it up on the internet.) Given the story we've developed, do you think this counts as an FPS. Why did we make the decision to keep this as a single player game for the time being?

3. Rollings and Morris talk about roles and divisions as well as the software factory. Comment on how you think the class can be organized along these lines. If you think the R&M model won't work for us, explain why.

4. Having either helped develop or having slogged through the documentation developed last semester idenfity what you think are our strong points as a development team. What are our weaknesses. What do you think we are missing?

5. What other concerns, ideas, insights do you have to share with us that may help focus future sessions. ("none" is not an acceptable answer here.)