Curricula

Objectives

Objectives (goals):
The objective of this course is to understand the differences between mobile and other game development. The student will learn basics of developing mobile games with game engine middleware and optimize it for a variety of mobile devices.

This course familiarizes you with building and optimizing your games to mobile environments.

Learning outcomes:
After completing this course, you will understand the special requirements for mobile games development and practical technical skills on developing them.

Course competences:
Game production competence
Software engineering competence

Content

Have you ever wanted to make your game run a mobile platform?

Mobile games market has skyrocketed to a massive industry and most of us have played some mobile games. They are often smaller in scope than traditional desktop games and therefore faster to develop. However, mobile games also have their own special needs to take in account in development.

The course will focus on developing mobile games with selected game engine middleware. We will learn to create games of our own and optimize it for a variety of mobile devices.

Learning materials and recommended literature

This field describes the public learning material that is required for passing the course.

Learning material:
- Teacher's written materials
- Lecture materials (Slides and in the learning environment)
- Databases (in the learning environment)
- Materials related to implementation (in the learning environment)
- Extra reading materials can be found from the web and Books24x7
- Tutorial materials can be found from the web and YouTube (or the course database)

Practicalities and used tools:
- A Version Control System (VCS) compatible with the game engine (e.g. Git, GitHub as the location)
- A game engine (e.g. Unity / Unreal Engine / Godot...)
- Integrated Development Environment (IDE) related to the game engine (e.g. Visual Studio / JetBrains...)
- A programming language related to the game engine (e.g. C# / C++...)

Some tool related public learning materials:
- Microsoft. (2024). C# programming guide [Documentation website]. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/
- Unity Technologies. (2024a). Unity - Manual [Documentation website]. https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/index.html
- Unity Technologies. (2024b). Unity - Scripting API [Application Programming Interface website]. https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/index.html

Teaching methods

This field describes the methods of teaching and learning used in the implementation and how student guidance will be arranged.

A blended model:
The primary mode of delivery is a combination of activities in-class on campus, and in specific cases on-line.
However, if the COVID-19 or other similar situation requires the learning will be supported by on-line activities.

The activities will deepen the learning in the following possible ways:
- Theoretical lectures and testing
- Individual and possible group work (implementation)
- Individual and possible group exercises, learning tasks (assignments) and reflection
- Guidance in the form of guided demos and end result reviews (also help with challenges)

The course activities can also contain:
- Project-based learning
- Flipped learning (learning about the topic before theory lectures)
- Knowledge tests
- Topic specific focus teaching
- Topic specific research
- Database use for challenges/problems/tutorials (problem based learning)

Participation to possible on-line activities:
- Zoom is used for on-line activities
- Requires a working webcam, headphones and microphone
- If one or more of the following are missing, the participation can be declined

Artificial intelligence (AI) usage:
- The use of AI and AI-assisted tools is permitted and recommended
- Pure copying (plagiarism) is still prohibited and will result in appropriate penalties

Official communication channels:
- Teams (primary) and email
- Course news (forum)
- DiscordApp / WhatsApp / other comms are prohibited from the faculty members
- The sessions can be recorded and the links added to the workspace (recording permission will always be requested from the participants beforehand)

Practical training and working life connections

This field describes connections to working life and practical training.

The course might have visiting lecturers (game industry experts), and possibly an excursion (virtual or physical).

The possible course project will mimic real-life project experiences.

Exam dates and retake possibilities

This field indicates the date and time of the actual exam and all retake opportunities.

There will be no exam on this course! (unless the teacher for the course changes)
- Every student reserves a 30 min evaluation slot, where they will show their end results (portfolio) to verify the skills and knowledge required to pass the course
- The evaluation will be carried out with 1-on-1 conversations together with the course teacher(s)
- The reservation of the evaluation slots will be made possible through the learning platform

The date and time of the evaluation:
- From mid December to January
- Exact dates and the chances to retakes are announced during the course

Alternative completion methods

This field describes the alternative completion methods for the course.

You have the right to apply for recognition of your studies if you have prior learning (e.g. university studies completed elsewhere) that can be accredited towards the degree you are currently completing.

The recognition of prior learning is possible in the following ways:
- Accreditation of higher education studies (replacement or inclusion)
- Recognition of informal learning

More precise info:
- JAMK Degree Regulations, section 17
- https://www.jamk.fi/en/for-students/degree-student/recognition-of-prior-learning-and-experience

Student workload

This section describes the learning assignments and the time needed for completing them and the student’s other scheduling.

The workload of 5 credits is 135 hours. The load is distributed the following way:
- 55 hours of guided in-class activities
- 80 hours of independent work

This is roughly the following hour amounts:
~55 hours: In-class activities (Lectures, testing and implementation in demo)
~35 hours: Tasks (weekly and other), module assignments, and preparing for lectures
~30 hours: End product work
~15 hours: Portfolio preparations (for evaluation purposes)

Content scheduling

This section describes the scheduling of the course. Meaning what happens every week (rhythm, timing, weekly tasks, mandatory parts of the implementation)?

The course consists of 5 modules:
- Modules are 3-5 weeks long
- Every module is mandatory and has weekly in-class activities and independent work
- At the end of each module, there is a mandatory module assignment that checks the student's progress and module-related understanding and skills
- Detailed module contents will be available in the learning environment

The course starts with a 3 week long module. The module focuses on the course introduction, setting up the tools and environments as well as taking the first dive into the course topic. By the end to the 1st module every student must have fill the following criteria:
- Participated to all of the course in-class activities (marked participation)
- Returned the module assignment that has been accepted
- If 1 or more of the criteria is not filled, the student will be considered as inactive / withdrawn from the course (according to Jamk course resource requirements)

Weekly scheduling:
~4 hours per week for mandatory in-class activities (theory, testing, and implementation in demo) -> Possibly in 2 separate sessions
~4-6 hours per week of independent work relating to the tasks (weekly and other), module assignments, preparing for the lectures, and end product work (everything should further the student's end product)

This means that you should reserve ~8-10 hours of working time every week for this course!

The course also expects every student to have an end product to show by the end of the course:
- The end product demonstrates the student's understanding and skills related to the topics of the course
- The course ends with a final end result presentations in December

Evaluation scale

0-5

Evaluation criteria, satisfactory (1-2)

Sufficient (1): You have basic knowledge of mobile game development. You know the steps to set up a development environment for building your game to one mobile platform and to make a simple game to run into it.

Satisfactory (2): You are capable of setting up a development environment for building your game to one mobile platform and are able to make a simple game to run in it. The game scales barely to multiple different mobile devices.

Evaluation criteria, good (3-4)

Good (3): You are capable of setting up and analyzing a development environment for building your game to one mobile platform and are able to make a simple game to run in the platform. The game scales nicely to multiple different mobile devices. You are also able to use some of the mobile device specific debugging and profiling tools to analyze your game during the development.

Very Good (4): You are capable of setting up and analyzing a development environment for building your game to one mobile platform and are able to make a complex game to run in the platform. The game scales well to multiple different mobile devices. You are also able to use advanced mobile device specific debugging and profiling tools to analyze and optimize your game during the development. You are skilled with main optimization tricks to make more complex games run on high performance.

Evaluation criteria, excellent (5)

Excellent (5): You are capable of setting up and analyzing a development environment for building your game to one mobile platform and are able to make a complex game to run in the platform. The game scales easily to multiple different mobile devices. You are also able to use advanced mobile device specific debugging and profiling tools to analyze and optimize your game during the development. You are skilled with main optimization tricks to make more complex games run on high performance and can evaluate different optimization ways. You are also capable of taking advantage of some mobile device specific special functionalities.

Prerequisites

You need to posses advanced skills in game programming and game engines and therefore this course is not for you are not familiar with modern game development.