Today (well, yesterday, truth be told, as it is currently approaching 2 am) was my Game Design exam. I felt well prepared and I was defending a project that had gone really well, so all in all I had a pretty good feeling about it. On the other hand, Game Design is my thing. It’s inextricably tied to my identity. It’s the one subject I have to ace. It’s like being examined in Being Jonas – it would be incredibly embarrassing to get anything but the best grade.
That’s how I felt, at least. And happily, it went as well as I could’ve expected. I got 12, as did my three group mates. The Danish equivalent of an A+, and it doesn’t get any higher than that.
By way of celebration, here is my individual report about the project 
, in a handy PDF file of 6 pages spiced up with a few screenshots for easier public consumption. You’ll be happy to know that it’s actually written in English this time.
The hand-in consisted of 4 parts:
- The playable game itself.
- Videos of usability testing, playtesting sessions, and a demo playthrough.
- A design document.
- An individual report from each group member.
On top of that, today’s examination had three parts to it:
- A group presentation of 20 minutes.
- An individual presentation of 10 minutes.
- 5 minutes for Q&A.
It’s safe to say it’s the most elaborate exam I’ve ever had to do, but because I basically live and breathe game design, and in no small part thanks to the excellent collaboration in our group and my awesome group mates, I sort of had the home court advantage on this one.
Hopefully this will be enough to soften the inevitable blow to my ego when I get graded on the no doubt dreadful Game Theory paper I turned in before Christmas. But I’ll worry about that when the time comes.
As for the game… our plan is to polish it up, eliminating the remaining interaction issues, add another 30 or so levels to the current 12, code in a proper level progression mechanism, add sound effects, and then publish it on the App Store and see what happens. Rest assured I will pimp it here if we get that far.
Send me an iPhone and I promise to buy it!
Also, hurray for papers written in English! I’ll put it on my list of things to read when I’m not doing other non-reading things.
Cool, Jonas. Post it here and I’ll get it – big fan of your work after TNM.
Lawrence: I don’t even have an iPhone myself – nobody in the group does. Luckily two of the others have an iPod Touch, or we wouldn’t have been able to play our own game
stormbringer: Will do!
Looks quite nice, I’ll definately pirate it and run it on my iPhone simulator
I plan on upgrading to either the new version of the iPhone when it releases in the summer, or some other suitably awesome phone. Better port it to Android and Windows Mobile 7, just to be sure \o/
EER: You are the worst person
Lawrence: I suspect that would be easier said than done, I don’t think Objective C is supported by anybody other than Apple?
I do have an iPhone here for testing purposes, but I have no idea how I woudl get software on that (as it does not contain a sim card and it is not activated). I could just donate money and THEN pirate it (because I have no idea how to get it otherwise), if that makes you feel better.