Week 1: No blog
Orientation week! No blog. You’re encouraged to read through future blog post prompts to get the gears turning as you begin working next week.
Week 2: Team Values
Part of your process this week is creating a team values statement. Post your finished statement along with a reflection here. Each team member should include their thoughts on at least one item in the values statement -- but it’s okay if more than one person talks about the same thing.
Week 3: Your 10 Brainstormed Concepts
Last week, you brainstormed ten game topics and ultimately narrowed them down to one. Discuss each of the ten concepts here, including why the concept did or did not make the cut.
Week 4: Scope & Production Planning
By now, you should have narrowed your scope and made a production plan for the rest of the summer. This blog post should focus on the process of developing your plan and the conclusions you came to. What did that process look like? What does your production plan look like? What features and mechanics are your priorities, and why?
Week 5: VDD
Share your VDD and walk us through the systems and other elements it defines. Someone reading this blog post should be able to understand the concept and gameplay fully without any other materials. Explore the visual choices you made in developing the document as well as the systems presented within.
Week 6: Marketing & Community Building
Last week, Maggie met with your team to talk about marketing and community building. Has your team put any thought into the concepts presented there? Have you identified a target audience, a release platform, or a marketing strategy? Use this blog post to explore your marketing goals and how you aim to achieve them.
Week 7: Art Direction
At this point in the process, your artist(s) should be well on their way to developing a cohesive art direction for your prototype. This blog post is an opportunity to explore the artistic choices you have pursued and show off your artistic process. Concept art and mood boards -- any visuals you want -- are highly encouraged.
Week 8: Journey to Beta
Your Beta build was due last week. Phew! Use this blog to talk about the process of moving from Alpha to Beta. What changes did you make? What goals did you reach? Was your work true to your development plan? Did you crunch, and if so, what can you do in the future to avoid that?
Week 9: The Final Pitch
Describe your finished project as if you were pitching it to a game studio for publishing or a game journalist for review. Include key mechanics and features, story and tone, polished screenshots, genre, and more in this overview. Sell your game!
Week 10: Postmortem
We’ve reached the end of the program. You’ve worked so hard and come so far. Use this space to talk about what went right, what you’d do differently, and what impeded your progress. What did you learn in our classes? Did you connect with any guest speakers? How will the lens of social justice shape your game development in the future? Each team member should submit AT LEAST 3-5 sentences of reflection.