Game a Week: Teaching Students to Prototype

In this 2018 GDC talk, game developers and professors Douglas Wilson and Bennett Foddy present a close look at the "Game a Week" model of game education and discuss the challenges involved in successfully running such a class.
Register for GDC: ubm.io/2gk5KTU
Join the GDC mailing list: www.gdconf.com/...
Follow GDC on Twitter: / official_gdc
GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, audio, visual arts, business management, production, online games, and much more. We post a fresh GDC video every day. Subscribe to the channel to stay on top of regular updates, and check out GDC Vault for thousands of more in-depth talks from our archives.

[@kelskye]

This is a really great idea. Wish this was included in my degree, though the tools weren’t mature enough back in the early 2000s.

[@Michael_Raymond]

I wish my game design education had even a sliver of this kind of drive. Instead I spent hours of every class with no work or direction from the teacher and eventually just left because it was a waste of my time.

[@giantarcsfora9279]

Home schooling #1

[@alphattus1503]

Same

[@Stack-12]

That’s how the school system works.

[@koljak9395]

Aah, really grateful for the RMIT syllabus still being available online! I've started a "two games a month" thing a while ago, and am beginning to struggle finding worthwhile themes. And there's this whole lovingly crafted list, bundled with relevant precedents to study! Thanks!

[@koljak9395]

@BetterCallSid It's in the video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4CcgmuFi7ylfKM

[@DaveVanVerdegem]

Here are the links for the syllabus at the end of the video: NYU: drive.google.com/file/d/1DVOq4AHHwGlmsDoQdSJkN85LDE4ey38h/view RMIT: docs.google.com/document/d/1JNLojNIQNwn80043PUJ7ZyYXOjtAI4XHJibvtpe7El4/edit

[@anderstaylor6694]

bump

[@aaroninternet4159]

thanks bud

[@DayDreamer4011]

The RMIT link is an actual gold mine. Thanks so much for posting the link, really appreciated :D

[@justinbuergi9867]

I tried making a game a week for a school project. Ended up in the hospital

[@StefanLopuszanski]

Try a smaller scope then.

[@Noone-we9vb]

Same story

[@akbarwolfram]

😂😅

[@SCSBairsoft]

I'm just still learning... but this is inspirational!

[@Syphorce]

I wonder what was the course load like for these students on top of making a Game a Week. If this was all I had to do, no problem. I couldn't imagine doing this on top of studying calculus and physics.

[@pythonxz]

I was doing projects like this with that kind of course load and a part time job.

[@CubeDeveloper_Games]

this is extremely insightful, lately I've been able to lower my scope and ambition for my indie games which has been the best decisiom ever to be honest, I used to plan extremely complex and ambitious games with multuple gameplay loops, cool terrain generation and such but I always lost motivation after months of development, and I never managed to finish a single project D: so yeah, let's keep our ambitions in check because completing a game is the most important thing, keep on developing guys and don't give up on your projects!

[@peterthegamer9334]

I am Bennit Foddy. And that’s really all we needed to hear no need for introduction Mr. Foddy. You voice alone gives us PTSD😂

[@nopanko]

Is no one going to mention the fact that one of the students names at 20:32 is "T-Dog eXtreme" ?

[@DNH17]

Amazing talk. I wish I could study this and build prototypes. So interesting.

[@Drecon84]

Thank you for this. I got a lot of great things from this for my own prototyping class.

[@dnadhruv]

At 17:30 the prototype made by the professor has sparked my interest quite a bit, but i'm not able to make out how he achieved that effect. Can anyone link to some resources that might help me?

[@daggawagga]

Search for binary space partitioning (BSP) tree. Or raycasting.

[@m4r_art]

"In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take." -Lewis Caroll "You cannot now believe that you will ever feel better. But this is not true. You are sure to be happy again. Knowing this, truly believing it, will make you less miserable now." -Abraham Lincoln

[@raspberry_picker395]

16:53 i like how there's an assassins creed minigame in there

[@m4r_art]

getting over a gdc talk with bennett foddy =)

[@FelisArmis]

Hello! Thank you for a great talk! There is only general course description in NYU course syllabus. Can I see project themes and prompts like in RMIT syllabus?

[@danielholiveira1]

there's no audio?

[@Jayenkai]

Kewl stuff, but don't get hooked, kids.. This stuff can be addictive!

[@pranavgaur660]

Where can I get the link to the curriculum??

[@ZoidbergForPresident]

29:10

[@pranavgaur660]

@@ZoidbergForPresident thanks...Didn't watch the last bit

[@yoyo21926]

ohh. Im working on a prototype right now

[@chriswahl1337]

I don't think I've ever heard "digital games" in-place of "video games". 🤔

[@Grimswoden]

Is this a pitch orrrr

[@wuazo]

t-Dog Extreme

[@ALINAGORI]

out of the subject tip for the students ... don't put your prototype on early access even on itch io

[@7thNoodle]

Why? .__.

[@yonjuunininjin]

Students are not even the majority who are flooding itch. It's kids or hobbyist who just started with game dev who think someone might play their garbage. Apparently, there is enough people who protect those kids/hobbyist, saying if it doesn't hurt you why bother.

[@ALINAGORI]

7thNoodle to make it brief. the negativity factor are higher than the positives , to the limit you might give up finishing your project.

[@7thNoodle]

Ah, I see. So the arguments are the flooding of itch.io, making an non-viable market platform for indies, as well as demotivating developers that are doing progress on current projects, by uploading their alpha, protytpe whatever too soon, thus giving them a false sense of accomplishment and thus ending some indie projects too soon.

[@docill9155]

So in my experience with uploading games too early (I was using Kongregate at the time when I did this), people who play your game might give you helpful feedback to make your game better. However, the visibility of your game tends to decrease the longer it is on the platform. If your game doesn't make a great first impression and isn't re-playable, then it will likely fall into obscurity, even when you update it later. Just remember, your game is most visible when you release it (on itch.io it will appear high in the "new releases" and "free games" categories). If you want the game to gain traction in this period, you need something more than a prototype. Unfortunately, that means getting feedback is pretty difficult. If you're a student, try asking other students and professors for a playtest. Ideally, you do not want your testers to be close friends or family. But take this with a grain of salt, I'm not a particularly successful developer and there are ways to increase visibly of your game.

[@ttarabbia]

+

[@chrisb8667]

Lol the american teaches in australia and the australian teaches in america