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
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 1 - 2026
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).
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
Assessment Overview
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.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
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 Coordinator
Using the examples of commercial games that have been developed by Unity IDE can further help students gain a better experience.
Include a list of commercial games representing different genres that have been developed using Unity IDE.
- Design and implement a mobile game
- Detail the challenges in developing mobile apps requiring heavy use of hardware resources
- Apply an agile methodology in the development of software
- 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 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 - First Nations Knowledges | ||||
| 9 - 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 | 9 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 20% | |||||||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 30% | |||||||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 30% | |||||||||
| 4 - Portfolio - 20% | |||||||||
Textbooks
Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours
- 4th Edition (2021)
- Authors: Mike Geig
- Sams
- ISBN: 9780137445158
- Binding: Paperback
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Zoom (both microphone and webcam capability)
- Unity 2022.3.14f1 LTS
- Visual Studio 2022
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
s.azad@cqu.edu.au
Week 1
Begin Date: 09 Mar 2026Module/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: 16 Mar 2026Module/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: 23 Mar 2026Module/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: 30 Mar 2026Module/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: 06 Apr 2026Module/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
Week 6
Begin Date: 13 Apr 2026Module/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
Practical Assignment 1 Due: Week 6 Friday (17 Apr 2026) 11:45 pm AEST
Vacation Week
Begin Date: 20 Apr 2026Module/Topic
Mid-term Break
Chapter
Catch-up if behind. Relax and refresh.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Portfolio continues
Week 7
Begin Date: 27 Apr 2026Module/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: 04 May 2026Module/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: 11 May 2026Module/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: 18 May 2026Module/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: 25 May 2026Module/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 (29 May 2026) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 12
Begin Date: 01 Jun 2026Module/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
Exam Week
Begin Date: 08 Jun 2026Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Vacation/Exam Week
Begin Date: 15 Jun 2026Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Contact information for Dr Salahuddin Azad: Email: s.azad@cqu.edu.au; Office: Level 6, 120 Spencer Street, Melbourne Vic 3000; P +61 3 9616 0680 | X 50680.
If you have any queries, please email me and I will get back to you within one business day or so. For an individual discussion, please ring me during business hours (or leave a message if I am not in) and I will return your call as soon as possible.
1 Practical Assessment
In this assignment, 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 knowledge from the first ten chapters of the textbook.
AI Assessment Scale - AI Planning
You may use Al for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.
Week 6 Friday (17 Apr 2026) 11:45 pm AEST
The assignment must be submitted to Moodle by the above due date and time.
Week 8 Friday (8 May 2026)
Feedback will be provided within 2 weeks of submission.
- 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.
- Design and implement a mobile game
- Apply an agile methodology in the development of software
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
2 Practical Assessment
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 lessons
- Adopting 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.
AI Assessment Scale - AI Planning
You may use Al for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.
Week 11 Friday (29 May 2026) 11:45 pm AEST
The assignment must be submitted to Moodle by the above due date and time.
Exam Week Friday (12 June 2026)
Feedback will be provided within 2 weeks of submission.
- The game clearly and successfully demonstrates the desired game features.
- The game uses visual and auditory resources appropriately.
- The game code is well written and shows competency in Unity.
- Recommendations for improvements provided.
- Design and implement a mobile game
- Apply an agile methodology in the development of software
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Self-management
3 Written Assessment
In this assignment, you are required to write a report explaining the features, techniques and resources used in the game that you have successfully implemented in Practical Assignment 2, according to the design proposed 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 the features, techniques and resources used in the game. The presentations will take place in Week 11 and Week 12. The exact schedule of the presentation sessions will be notified by the unit coordinator and tutors.
AI Assessment Scale - AI Planning
You may use Al for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.
Week 12 Friday (5 June 2026) 11:45 pm AEST
The report and the PowerPoint presentation must be submitted to Moodle by the above due date and time. This assessment is exempted from the 72-hour submission grace period and must be completed by the stated submission date/time.
Feedback will be provided on the date of certification of grades.
- The report is well written and provides a clear description of all major features, techniques and resources.
- The game runs on a mobile device or emulator successfully without any major issues.
- The PowerPoint presentation demonstrates all major features, techniques and resources.
- 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.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Self-management
4 Portfolio
For this assignment, you are required to maintain a portfolio documenting your mobile game development learning. 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.
Demonstrations
From Week 3 to Week 10, you are expected to add one new mobile game concept to your portfolio each week, 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 a web player. Alternatively, you can provide screenshots and/or video clips of your demonstrations embedded in the portfolio. You may be asked to demonstrate your work to your local tutor or unit coordinator.
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 documentations 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 it. Your bibliography is expected to contain at least 24 useful references - you should try to add roughly two to three per week.
AI Assessment Scale - AI Planning
You may use Al for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.
Exam Week Monday (8 June 2026) 11:45 pm AEST
You are required to complete one portfolio item per week from Week 3 to Week 10 and submit the whole assignment to Moodle by the above due date and time.
Feedback will be provided on the date of certification of grades.
- 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 providing some insights into the resources - resources are categorised and rated by their content, quality, usefulness and ease of use.
- 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.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Self-management
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?
