Side Quest (10 cr)

Evaluation scale

0-5

Content scheduling

The student is personally in charge of setting the weekly working hours towards the project completion and making sure that the project can be worked on among other studies and personal responsibilities.

Objective

The object of the Side Quest is to take your game development and related superpowers and put them into practice! The Side Quest is either a personal project directed for deepening your skill set or a customer-oriented project – in each case the endgame is to add a meaningful enhancement into your professional portfolio.

The object is to recognize your existing skill-set and think of your future practical training and job-seeking: What kind of competences will you want to showcase in your portfolio? What are the areas of your expertise you would like to practice and dive deeper into?

Course competences
Operating in a workplace: You understand the complexity of changing working life and your own resilience in changing working life situations.
Proactive development: You can work in projects in cooperation with actors of different fields.
Cross-disciplinary competence in games: You can apply skills and knowledge in a special field of game production, development or design, or other field of study with link to digital games
Game production competence: You can produce content for a game project and can work with the tools in meaningful and systematic way.

The learning objectives of the course:
After completing the course, you will have a better understanding of your own work placement goals. You will also learn how to define clear-cut goals and a suitable scope for a development project. You will also strengthen your superpowers required for producing the project as well as learn about organizing and documenting your own work.

Content

In the Side Quest you will plan, execute, report and self-evaluate a project of your choice. The project should be related to your own superpowers and competences related to the goals of the BIT degree programme. The project can be a personal or a customer-oriented project. The course will be credited on the basis of how many working-hours you do towards the completion of the project. You can also conduct multiple projects for the course, as long as you have credits left on the course.

Location and time

Nonstop, independent of time or place.

Materials

Student chooses relevant sources of additional information, depending on the topic of the project. Instructions for planning and reporting are found in Moodle.

Teaching methods

In the Side Quest, the student will conduct an individual project in the field of their own superpower, to enhance their portfolio. The project may be conducted for a client, or to deepen the student’s own knowledge in a game development related topic.
The Side Quest project must be related to game industry core competences, but the content of the project is not limited to only game projects. For example, if the students core skills are related to graphic design, a graphic design project related to marketing materials can be accepted. Similarly, if the students core skills are related to programming, a non-gaming related software project can be accepted. If the student is unsure if their project idea fits the course, they can contact the teacher in charge, who will guide with selecting suitable project content.
Enrolment to the course is non-stop, and the project may be started at any point. There is no individual guidance for students during about the implementation of the project – the students are expected to have basic project management skills, as well as basic studies in the field of the project.

Guidance for the Side Quest is given by the following methods:
- Online info sessions: Autumn / Spring:
- Assignments: Project Plan and Project Report
- Project Presentation: A written blog post about the project in the course Moodle

Employer connections

The objective of the project is to add to the student’s portfolio material and aid the student in their job-seeking for Practical Training and work after graduation. The project can also be conducted for a client. Therefore, the student must acquaint themselves with what kind of products the companies in the field are producing, and how their own portfolio will reflect the working-life.

Exam schedules

There is no exam on the course.

Completion alternatives

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 three primary ways: accreditation (replacement or inclusion), recognition of informal learning and studification. More precise info: Jamk Degree Regulations, section 17.

Student workload

The Side Quest credits will be tracked based on the used hours for the project. 1 ECTS equals 27 hours of work. Therefore, 10 ECTS = 270 hours of work.

Accepted projects should be at least 5 ECTS in length, i.e. 135 hours of work. For shorter projects, the students must contact the course teacher before starting the project.

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

The assessment is based on learning objectives and quality, and self-evaluation by the student. The learning outcomes are assessed in relation to the objectives set in the project plan.

Qualifications

Although this course can take on new technical or content-related skills, you must still have basic understanding of project management, game business, and the advanced understanding of the technologies you select.

Further information

The Side Quest course is evaluated as Pass/Fail, the student will receive a passing mark when the project has been completed, and all the necessary documentation and assignments have been delivered. There is a high emphasis on self-evaluation.