Student Clubs/Organization/Into Reality

International Game Developers Association

In my experience observing new students I have seen a common trend; many students come in expecting to make games that compare with multimillion dollar budget top line games. Who is to blame them though, that is the type of game that they play! Every time I hear "I want to make an MMO/RPG/FPS/Engine" I cringe. So here are some ways I have found with getting students to create games.

[edit] The Student: A Study

The student has a lot on his/her plate. A typical student with a full course load and extra curricular programs has very little time to spend on their own projects, even if they didn't want time to unwind or go drinking. If they have a part time job or a work study they have even less time. Given a college student has an average of 8 hours a week to work on a project, which I feel is a very generous estimate, they need to turn out a game with less time than a part time job.

[edit] The Rules

• Use other peoples stuff!
  • There are so many assets out there for you to use, free models, open source engines, open source audio. Do not make anything new that you don't have to! Using the halflife engine? Start making your game using the ingame textures and characters, because up to 4 trained professional artists took 2 full weeks to make a regular enemy. This would equate to nearly an entire semesters worth of work! (Rough estimate).
• Use 2D!
  • There are many cases that 3D is necessary, but 3D is extremely complex, go with 2D any time you can. You can even use 2D in things like 1st person shooters, think Doom. Do 3D models add much to Doom that the mechanics change entirely? I assert that they do not. 2D is much simpler, use it whenever possible.
• Use Examples!
  • Students need examples. They want to make an MMO? Show them [www.kingdomofloathing.com/ Kingdom of Loathing], done by one person. Or direct them to the student showcase of the IGF where they even tell how long each game took and how many people they had. Another great example is the Experimental Gameplay Project, everything here was done by 1 person in 1 week.
• Small teams!
  • Online Teams has a lot of good information on teams so I won't reiterate too much. Keep teams small, no more than 5 people, preferably 2 or 3. More people means more overhead and more planning.
• Do it!
  • I see students making huge game design documents, grandeur plans, and meetings galore; this is wrong. GDD's and other documentation are tools for communication to upper management, clients, publishers, and huge teams. If you follow the previous rule you shouldn't have large teams, and if you are a student, you probably will not have any of the other items mentioned. You should document ---something--- but that should be a)Mission Statement, b)Goal and objectives, c) a short description of the game and list of team members. This should be no more than 2 pages.
• Limit Projects
  • No one can see the future, but for students they know when they are going home for break and that in 6 months, they will have all new classes with many new classmates. Make your goals no more than a semester in length, when the semester is up, re-evaluate the idea.
• Goal length
  • You should have goals set for every week or two, if your goals are longer than that you will loose steam.