Course Assignments

Here you will find detailed information on your assignments.  I’ll make every effort to ensure that homework/project requirements are posted before the work is assigned.    If you need extra time, let me know at least 48 hours in advance for smaller assignments, 4 days in advance for larger projects.

Response directions:

Post directions: click the (+) sign next to the class title, and make a new post;

title it “[Your Name] – Week [X] Response – [Article/App Name/Response Title]”
For example – “Corey Bertelsen – Week 1 Response – Just-a-Line”

Also, add a category with your name.  If your post is in regards to a group project, you can include multiple categories.

Adding Categories to your post

Assignment 1: Intro to MR/AR/VR

READ this article from the Guardian

EXPERIENCE something in AR, VR, or MR

RESPOND on the main page

By THURSDAY, 09/02, 8PM:
Write 2-3 paragraphs responding to both the reading and the app you experienced in VR/AR/MR.  Here’s a few questions to get you started:

  • In your Openlab portfolio, briefly document an immersive experience that you really enjoy/has impacted you (+/-10 lines).
  • Create GitHub & Unity3D accounts if you don’t already have one.

Additional readings and resources (completely optional):

Assignment 2:

By THURSDAY, 09/09, 8PM:

  • Download and install Unity (Follow the same procedure I showed you last week) if not already done. Create a scene in Unity and change the camera’s skybox for a solid color. Add a plane, a cube, a sphere and assign different materials to them. Take screenshots of your scene and post on your portfolio.
  • To go further (optional): do you know how to use a custom skybox? Import and set up your own skybox.

Assignment 3:

By THURSDAY, 09/23, 8PM:

Create a scene in Unity 3D, create a terrain with grass, mountains, trees & grass, import a custom skybox. Add a structure you’ve built using Probuilder. Add a cube that changes colors when you click on it. Add post effects to the camera and post screenshots of your scene on your portfolio. Briefly explain the look/atmosphere you’ve tried to achieve (10 lines max).

 

Assignment 4:

By THURSDAY, 09/30, 8PM:

WATCH: At least ONE of the following GDC talks about VR and game pitches:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5a5VIdjiJA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDZQWOJbdzc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTtr45y7P0

RESPOND: with 2-3 paragraphs – what was interesting or surprising about the talk that you watched?  If you watched the VR talks – is there anything in particular that you want to incorporate into your own work?  If you watched the pitch talk – what “common mistakes” are you most worried about?  Which of these rules do you think should be bent or broken?

  • Add a character controller to your scene. Create a custom particles systems (special effects, rain, snow, fog, galaxy, etc.). Take screenshots of your scene and post on your portfolio.

Create a pitch deck for an XR project. 

As a creator you encounter each of these kinds of people, who all can have significant sway over the design direction of your project.  When creating/showcasing/pitching your work, you will need to consider how it can appeal multiple stakeholders, without letting any one of them compromise your vision.

Press – I’m looking for an interesting story to cover, something that’s new, original, or otherwise has an interesting background.  What are people trying to make, do, or say in VR?

Commercial Investor/Publisher – VR may be on the decline but the right set of experiences can bring it back up. I want to be known as the person who “saved VR,” so I’m building a portfolio of revolutionary VR experiences and platforms.

Arts&Culture Nonprofit – We’ve funded some prize-winning VR projects in the past, and are always on the lookout for emerging tech experiences that tell new stories, uses tech artistically, or can broaden the appeal of VR.  We want something that we can put in our gallery/museum/annual showcase of emerging tech artists.

Power User – I tried VR 3 years ago and took out a second mortgage/saved my allowance/worked another job so that I could afford the latest GPU every cycle.  I’m already sold on VR, what I want is a great game, and I’ve played many.

New User – I use apps like this, but VR kind of scares me – the bulky headsets, the weird controllers, all the wires, and it seems really isolating.  How user-friendly is this going to be?

Assignment 5:

Read through your some of your classmate’s pitch decks here.  As one of the following roles (DO NOT play as yourself!), what game interests you the most and why? come up with a few questions to ask the person pitching the game.

 

ADDITIONALLY, for those of you with VR setups, you can begin testing VR apps and taking notes on what you like and don’t like about various VR experiences.

 

Assignment 6: 

Untapped – create a list of recopies and ingredients. Build classes to hold data for each recipe. When all ingredients are added and then fire an event. 

Archery – Finish the target script, add animations, Enemy AI, game manager. 

Quasar – Add enemy AI, scoring system, game manager. 

Song Spot – Create class structure of songs, artists, album, playlist, and music player. 

NOTE : Since there were some issues committing to a shared GitHub repo, you can create your own repo for each project and share that instead. I will use the existing one to add hints and scripts to each project so be sure to check the class repo. This will make it easier to make commits, but it will be harder to merge in the end. 

 

Final Project Presentation :

Final presentations are due on the final day of class 12/16/21.

Every team will be given 30min to present.

Presentations should include a PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Things to include are concept, game mechanics, what scripts you implemented and your reasoning.

You should include screen shots and be able to do a playthrough demo.