CQUniversity Unit Profile
COIT20271 Mobile Game Development
Mobile Game Development
All details in this unit profile for COIT20271 have been officially approved by CQUniversity and represent a learning partnership between the University and you (our student).
The information will not be changed unless absolutely necessary and any change will be clearly indicated by an approved correction included in the profile.
General Information

Overview

In this unit, you will learn how to develop a mobile game using an agile methodology and device agnostic software tools. You will look at using 3D models and sound assets to develop this game, as well as techniques for good game development. This development process highlights, in particular, the impact that limited computing resources and wireless communication speeds have on the development of games. You will also conduct research on what makes a good game, supported by relevant gaming theories.

Details

Career Level: Postgraduate
Unit Level: Level 9
Credit Points: 6
Student Contribution Band: 8
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load: 0.125

Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-Requisite: COIT20268 Responsive Web Design.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Offerings For Term 2 - 2024

Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Class and Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Class Timetable

Bundaberg, Cairns, Emerald, Gladstone, Mackay, Rockhampton, Townsville
Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney

Assessment Overview

1. Practical Assessment
Weighting: 20%
2. Practical Assessment
Weighting: 30%
3. Written Assessment
Weighting: 30%
4. Portfolio
Weighting: 20%

Assessment Grading

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.

Previous Student Feedback

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Feedback from Unit evaluation

Feedback

The hands-on approach in the textbook and labs helped students learn how to develop mobile games from scratch.

Recommendation

Continue using a hands-on approach to teach how to develop mobile games from scratch.

Feedback from Unit evaluation

Feedback

Need more clarity about the portfolio assessment.

Recommendation

Latest developments will be incorporated from the recently published textbook and updated supporting materials.

Feedback from Unit coordinator's reflection

Feedback

The learning materials of this unit need to be redeveloped.

Recommendation

A new prescribed textbook will be introduced and the lecture and tutorial materials will be updated.

Unit Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
  1. Design and implement a mobile game
  2. Detail the challenges in developing mobile apps requiring heavy use of hardware resources
  3. Apply an agile methodology in the development of software
  4. Critically assess the user interface design on different platforms, with different hardware affordances.

Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is in use in over 100 countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles.

ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile at https://www.acs.org.au/professionalrecognition/mysfia-b2c.html

This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA. The SFIA code is included:

  • Systems Design (DESN)
  • System Integration (SINT)
  • Programming/Software Development (PROG)
  • Testing (TEST)
  • Applications Support (ASUP).

Alignment of Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Graduate Attributes
N/A Level
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Professional Level
Advanced Level

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes

Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Practical Assessment - 20%
2 - Practical Assessment - 30%
3 - Written Assessment - 30%
4 - Portfolio - 20%

Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes

Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Knowledge
2 - Communication
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills
4 - Research
5 - Self-management
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility
7 - Leadership
8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes

Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 - Practical Assessment - 20%
2 - Practical Assessment - 30%
3 - Written Assessment - 30%
4 - Portfolio - 20%
Textbooks and Resources

Textbooks

Prescribed

Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

4th Edition (2021)
Authors: Mike Geig
Sams
ISBN: 9780137445158
Binding: Paperback
Supplementary

Unity in Action

Edition: 2nd (2018)
Authors: Joseph Hocking
Manning
Shelter Island Shelter Island , New York , United States
ISBN: 9781617294969
Binding: Paperback

IT Resources

You will need access to the following IT resources:
  • CQUniversity Student Email
  • Internet
  • Unit Website (Moodle)
  • Zoom (both microphone and webcam capability)
  • Unity 2021.2.17
Referencing Style

All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)

For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.

Teaching Contacts
Andrew Chiou Unit Coordinator
a.chiou@cqu.edu.au
Schedule
Week 1 Begin Date: 08 Jul 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 1: Introduction to Unity

Topic 2: Game Objects

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

Chapters 1 & 2

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 2 Begin Date: 15 Jul 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 3: Models, Materials, and Textures

Topic 4: Terrain and Environments

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

Chapters 3 & 4

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 3 Begin Date: 22 Jul 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 5: Lights and Cameras

Topic 6: Game 1 - Amazing Racer

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

Chapters 5 & 6

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 4 Begin Date: 29 Jul 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 7: Scripting, Part 1

Topic 8: Scripting, Part 2

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

Chapters 7 & 8

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio starts

Week 5 Begin Date: 05 Aug 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 9: Collision

Topic 10: Game 2 - Chaos Ball

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

Chapters 9 & 10

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio continues


Practical Assignment 1 Due: Week 5 Friday (9 Aug 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Vacation Week Begin Date: 12 Aug 2024

Module/Topic

Mid-term Break

Chapter

Catch-up if behind. Relax and refresh.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio continues

Week 6 Begin Date: 19 Aug 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 11: Prefabs

Topic 12: 2D Game Tools

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

Chapters 11 & 12

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio continues

Week 7 Begin Date: 26 Aug 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 13: 2D Tilemap

Topic 14: User Interfaces

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

Chapters 13 & 14

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio continues

Week 8 Begin Date: 02 Sep 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 15: Game 3 - Captain Blaster

Topic 16: Particle Systems

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

Chapters 15 & 16

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio continues

Week 9 Begin Date: 09 Sep 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 17: Animations

Topic 18: Animators

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24

Chapters 17 & 18

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio continues

Week 10 Begin Date: 16 Sep 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 19:Timeline

Topic 20: Game 4 - Gauntlet Runner

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

Chapters 19 & 20

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio continues

Week 11 Begin Date: 23 Sep 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 21: Audio

Topic 22: Mobile Development

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

  Chapters 21 & 22

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio completes


Practical Assignment 2 Due: Week 11 Friday (27 Sept 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 12 Begin Date: 30 Sep 2024

Module/Topic

Topic 23: Polish and Deploy

Topic 24: Wrap-up

Chapter

Mike Greig, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

Chapters 23 & 24

Events and Submissions/Topic

Mobile Game Development Report Due: Week 12 Friday (4 Oct 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Review/Exam Week Begin Date: 07 Oct 2024

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Exam Week Begin Date: 14 Oct 2024

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Portfolio Due: Exam Week Monday (14 Oct 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Assessment Tasks

1 Practical Assessment

Assessment Title
Practical Assignment 1

Task Description

You are required to submit a design and interface prototype for a simple 3D Unity game for Android mobile devices. This should include documentation of the game concept and design details, as well as the beginning of a Unity project that implements some sample interface and game mechanics for your game to give an idea of how the game will run. Your submission should demonstrate the application of the knowledge from the first ten chapters of the textbook.


Assessment Due Date

Week 5 Friday (9 Aug 2024) 11:45 pm AEST

The assignment must be submitted to Moodle by the above due date and time.


Return Date to Students

Feedback will be provided within 2 weeks of submission.


Weighting
20%

Assessment Criteria

  • Game has clear play instructions and an end goal.
  • Game interface is well designed and suitable for the game.
  • Game design shows creativity and original thinking.


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Submission Instructions
The entire Unity project should be submitted in a format that can be executed by the marker in an emulator or on an Android phone. Include your report as a Word document.

assessmentOutcome
  • Design and implement a mobile game
  • Apply an agile methodology in the development of software


assessmentGradAttribute
  • Knowledge
  • Cognitive, technical and creative skills
  • Self-management

2 Practical Assessment

Assessment Title
Practical Assignment 2

Task Description

This assignment is a continuation of Practical Assignment 1.  You are required to implement and playtest a simple 3D Unity game for Android mobile devices as per the design developed in Practical Assignment 1.

Design and implementation

The game is based on the game concept that you have provided in Practical Assignment 1.

As the game is for mobile devices, your implementation should demonstrate a competent knowledge of the following:

  • Mobile game interfacing i.e., the use of mobile touch screen, device orientation, sensors and GUI
  • Exploring and using legal sources of graphics, sounds and 2D/3D models
  • Applying the overall concepts from the first ten weeks of lesssons
  • Include intermediate and advanced techniques, such as those used in the creation of Game 3: Captain Blaster and Game 4: Gauntlet Runner.


Playtesting

Your game should be playtested by two of your friends. You should write a report that includes your observations during the playtesting, your playtesters’ comments and your ideas for improving the game.


Assessment Due Date

Week 11 Friday (27 Sept 2024) 11:45 pm AEST

The assignment must be submitted to Moodle by the above due date and time.


Return Date to Students

Feedback will be provided within 2 weeks of submission.


Weighting
30%

Assessment Criteria

  • Game clearly and successfully demonstrates the desired game features.
  • Game uses visual and auditory resources appropriately.
  • Game code is well written and shows competency in Unity.
  • Recommendations for improvements provided.

 


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Submission Instructions
The entire Unity project should be submitted in a format that can be executed by the marker in an emulator or on an Android phone. Your playtest report should be a PDF or Word document.

assessmentOutcome
  • Design and implement a mobile game
  • Apply an agile methodology in the development of software


assessmentGradAttribute
  • Knowledge
  • Cognitive, technical and creative skills
  • Self-management

3 Written Assessment

Assessment Title
Mobile Game Development Report

Task Description

In the assignment, you are also required to write a report explaining your demonstration and the game elements that you have successfully implemented in Practical Assignment 2, according to the design in Practical Assignment 1. As a guideline, the main body of the report should be approximately 1500 words. Your report is expected to include at least two peer reviewed scholarly articles/papers.


You are also required to deliver a presentation based on the report. The presentation will include a live demonstration of the game in a mobile device or emulator and a PowerPoint presentation on game features, techniques and resources used in the game. The presentations will take place in Week 11 and 12. The exact schedule of the presentation sessions will notified by the unit coordinator and tutors.


Assessment Due Date

Week 12 Friday (4 Oct 2024) 11:45 pm AEST

The report and the PowerPoint presentation must be submitted to Moodle by the above due date and time.


Return Date to Students

Feedback will be provided on the date of certification of grades.


Weighting
30%

Assessment Criteria

  • Report is well written and provides a clear rationale for the implemented game features and relationship to the original game (if any).
  • The game runs on a mobile device or emulator successfully without any major issues.
  • The PowerPoint presentation demonstrates all major features, techniques and resources.

 


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Submission Instructions
You should submit the report in a Word or PDF document and the PowerPoint presentation in a .ppt or .pptx file.

assessmentOutcome
  • Detail the challenges in developing mobile apps requiring heavy use of hardware resources
  • Critically assess the user interface design on different platforms, with different hardware affordances.


assessmentGradAttribute
  • Knowledge
  • Communication
  • Cognitive, technical and creative skills
  • Research
  • Self-management

4 Portfolio

Assessment Title
Portfolio

Task Description

Your portfolio is for your future reference. The portfolio will contain two sections: demonstrations and bibliography. The demonstrations section will showcase the mobile game concepts that you have mastered in this unit. The bibliography section will contain a list of references of the learning resources that you have found useful.

CQU Portfolio
Your portfolio should be constructed in CQU Portfolio which is available on the Moodle unit site.

Demonstrations
From Week 3 to Week 10, each week you are expected to add one new mobile game concept to your portfolio with your most impressive demonstration of the concept. For each concept, you should write a short discussion to show how the concept is used in a gaming context. Where possible, your demonstration should be built to run on the web player. Alternatively, you must provide screenshots and/or video clips of your demonstrations embedded in the portfolio. You may be asked to demonstrate your work to your local lecturer and/or tutor.

The textbook hands-on exercises and online Unity tutorials are good resources for this task. As you complete the textbook exercises and tutorials, record and document your work for demonstration. Bonus marks will be given for innovative demonstrations of newly learned concepts.

Bibliography

As you learn mobile game development, you will access extracurricular materials such as the Unity website, YouTube videos, help documentation and books. When you find a useful resource, you should add a reference to it to the bibliography section along with a short discussion of the resource which also justifies the inclusion of the resource. Your bibliography is expected to contain at least 24 useful references - you should try to add roughly two to three per week.


Assessment Due Date

Exam Week Monday (14 Oct 2024) 11:45 pm AEST

You are required to complete one portfolio item per week from Week 3 to Week 10. You need to submit a secret URL to your CQU Portfolio page or collection by the above due date and time.


Return Date to Students

Feedback will be provided on the date of certification of grades.


Weighting
20%

Assessment Criteria

  • Demonstrations are of high quality with well written code. Work of a high distinction standard would be expected to demonstrate newly learned concepts in new and innovative gaming contexts.
  • Bibliography references point to quality or rare resources, the reference discussions should provide some insights into the resources. Categorise and rate the resources by their content, quality, usefulness and ease of use.


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Submission Instructions
You should submit a Word or PDF document containing a secret URL to your CQU Portfolio page or collection.

assessmentOutcome
  • Detail the challenges in developing mobile apps requiring heavy use of hardware resources
  • Critically assess the user interface design on different platforms, with different hardware affordances.


assessmentGradAttribute
  • Knowledge
  • Communication
  • Self-management

Academic Integrity Statement

As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.

Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.

When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.

Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.

As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.

What is a breach of academic integrity?

A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.

Why is academic integrity important?

A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.

Where can I get assistance?

For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.

What can you do to act with integrity?