IMGD 1001: The Game Development Process
Project 3: Prepare a Game Treatment

Due dates:

NOTE: This is a group assignment and only one member of each group should turn in the project.

Background

In this assignment, your project group will be responsible for writing and presenting a treatment document for a game of your own design, in the genre of your choice. You will be required to think about design decisions, develop your ideas to a substantial level of detail, and express those ideas clearly in writing and images.

Objectives

The assignment has three objectives:

  1. Write a game treatment
  2. Turn in a copy of your treatment
  3. Present a summary of your treatment in class

Details

1. Write a game treatment

As you develop your treatment, consider what you have learned about Flash/Flixel so far, and how comfortable your team is with using it. You will actually be building the prototype you describe in your treatment, so be honest about your abilities and ruthlessly realistic about what you think you can do in just a few weeks!

You are not being graded on the majesty or ambition of your game in this assignment. You are being graded on the clarity and completeness of the presentation. Even a very simple game is okay as long as it is thoroughly described.

Required elements

Your treatment must contain the following elements in the following order:

  1. The name of your team, along with the names and WPI logins of every member of your team.
  2. The title of your game.
  3. A one-sentence tagline. This tagline should capture the essential "promise" of your game, and get readers excited about playing it.
  4. Summary. This should be an attention-grabbing paragraph about the setting and gameplay, along with a bulleted list of interesting game features.
  5. World/setting description. This section should describe the setting and agents of your game. For a narrative-style game, this means some backstory for the world, descriptions of the characters and their roles they will play, and descriptions of any other important artifacts in the game world. For a non-narrative game, such as a puzzle or arcade game, describe the playing surface, and the objects that will interact on that surface.
  6. Gameplay description. This section should include a walkthrough of what a typical gameplay session might be like. It must be illustrated with at least two game screen mockups. The mockups don't have to be beautiful -- pencil sketches are enough -- but they do need to show major UI elements and support your gameplay description.
  7. Production details. The production details should describe the duties of each team member, how they will accomplish the development of the prototype, and what the production timeline will look like. The final prototype will be due on Saturday, October 9th, so plan accordingly.

Clearly label each element of your document so we can find them easily when grading.

Feel free to supplement your treatment with any of the following optional elements:

Your treatment must be at least 10 full pages long (11 point font, 1.5 line spacing, 1 inch margins), not counting the title page (if any). Those specifications will required about 4000 words not including any pictures. However, your 10 pages can (and, in fact, will) include a mix of text and images. The exact proportion of text to images isn't important, but you must clearly provide all of the required elements listed above.

Please don't pad your treatment with extra-large illustrations or lots of white space in order to meet the 10-page expectation. We can tell and you will lose points for doing this.

You might read other treatment documents (note, exact content/sectinos may differ from yours).

2. Turn in a copy of your treatment

When your treatment document is ready, print a copy and bring it to class on the day it is due.

Also, turn in your document electronically. Name the document (.doc, .pdf ...): 

  groupname.doc
where "lastname" is your last name and x is the number of the tutorial being submitted (2, 3 or 4). So if your group name is Garage Dudes and you are submitting a Word document the filename would be: 
  GarageDudes.doc

You will use the Web-based TurnIn facility to submit your work.

Note: only one person per group should turn in the groups document!

3. Present a summary of your treatment in class

Your team will present a 3-4 minute summary of your treatment to the class on Friday, September 17th.

The way you present the treatment is entirely up to you. You can just stand up and talk, use Powerpoint slides, make a game trailer, even use pantomime or interpretive dance.

You can choose one member of your team to do the presentation, or split it up among two or more members. Arrange in advance which parts of the presentation will be given by each team member.

You can, if you wish, bring a laptop to class with your presentation materials already preloaded, and we will hook your machine into the projector. Or you can bring your materials on a USB key for installation on the podium computer. In any case, test your prototype and presentation materials in advance to make sure they work properly. Embarrassing things can happen when the technology does not work.

Whatever format you choose and whoever does the speaking, the most important tip is to practice. Know what will be said, by whom, and when. You can practice your presentation about 10 times in an hour. There is no excuse for not having a well-rehearsed talk!

These presentations are an important part of the class experience. Please take them seriously.

Grading

100-90. The treatment more than satisfies the length and content requirements of the project. All required elements (noted above) are present, complete and detailed. The document is well organized and highly readable. Additional graphical elements (logos, sketches) enhance the document. The in-class presentation is well-rehearsed, unusually clear, informative and/or entertaining.

89-80. The treatment satisfies the length and content requirements of the project. All required elements are present and complete. The document is well organized. The in-class presentation is rehearsed, clear and informative.

79-70. The treatment minimally satisfies the requirements of the project. All required elements are present, but incomplete or inadequate. The document is somewhat organized, but difficult to read in places. The in-class presentation is not fully rehearsed, somewhat unclear or perfunctory.

69-60. The treatment falls short of the length and content requirements in a few places. Some of the required elements are missing, or do not include meaningful information. The document is poorly organized and/or difficult to read. The in-class presentation is poorly rehearsed, unclear or perfunctory.

59-0. The treatment does not satisfy the length and content requirements. Required elements are missing or incomplete. The document is disorganized and difficult to read. The in-class presentation is unrehearsed or inarticulate.

Back to course page.