«Approved»

Dean
________________________
«__» ___________ 2023

Syllabus
Academic Year 2023 -2024
1. General information
Course title Game development
Degree cycle (level)/ 6B06105- Media Technologies
major
Year, term 3,2
Number of credits 5
Language of English
delivery:
Prerequisites
To start game development in Unity, ensure you have basic
programming skills, particularly in C#, Unity's primary language.
Download and install Unity software, considering your computer
meets hardware requirements. Familiarize yourself with Unity's
official documentation and leverage online tutorials and courses for
comprehensive learning. Gain a fundamental understanding of 3D
mathematics, graphics design, and physics concepts for effective game
development. Additionally, embrace version control, understand game
design fundamentals, cultivate patience, and engage with the Unity
community for valuable insights. Optional considerations include
preparing for mobile development with additional SDKs.

Postrequisites After completing a game development project in Unity, consider

postrequisites to ensure its success and contribute to your growth as a
developer. This includes thorough testing and debugging across
various devices to address any performance issues. Gather user
feedback through beta testing to understand player experiences and
make necessary improvements. Optimize the game for performance by
refining code, textures, and assets for smooth gameplay. Engage in
marketing and promotion strategies, and if releasing commercially,
follow the necessary steps for publishing on platforms like Steam or
app stores. Post-launch, provide ongoing support, integrate analytics
tools for player behavior insights, stay engaged with the gaming
community, address legal considerations, conduct a postmortem
analysis for process improvement, update your portfolio, and reflect on
the project for continuous learning and skill enhancement.
Lecturer(s)/ 1. Aidos Baiburin, Master of Mechanics, senior-lecturer,
Tutor(s) [email protected], Astana IT University.
2. Goals, objectives, and learning outcomes of the course
1. Course This course provides an overview of the fundamental concepts and
description techniques involved in game development. Students will continue
gaining insight into the various aspects of creating games, from design
principles to basic programming and implementation.
2. Course goal(s) The course goals are to introduce students to the fundamental concepts
and skills necessary for game development.
3. Course 1. Introduction to Game Development: Provide students with a
objectives: comprehensive overview of the field of game development.

2. Fundamental Understanding: Enable students to understand the

fundamental concepts and principles of game design and development.

3. Practical Skills: Equip students with practical skills in graphics,

animation, programming, and sound design for games.

4. Creative Expression: Foster creativity in game design and

storytelling.

5. Project Development: Guide students in the development of their

own simple games, applying the knowledge gained throughout the
course.

4. Skills & 1. Game Design Skills:

competences - Understanding of game mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics.
- Ability to design engaging game worlds, levels, and characters.
- Creation of compelling gameplay tasks and puzzles.
2. Graphics and Animation Skills:
- Proficiency in creating basic 2D and 3D graphics.
- Familiarity with graphic design software tools (e.g., Photoshop,
GIMP).
- Knowledge of animation techniques, including sprites and
skeletal animation.
- Implementing visual effects to enhance game visuals.
3. Programming Skills:
- Introduction to programming using a chosen language (e.g.,
C#).
- Ability to work with game engines (e.g., Unity).
- Competence in managing game objects, scenes, and assets.
- Implementing game mechanics and interactions through
coding.
4. Sound Design Skills:
- Understanding of the importance of sound in games.
- Proficiency in creating and editing sound effects.
- Integration of music and sound into the game environment.
- Creating an immersive audio experience in games.
5. Creativity and Problem-Solving:
- Encouragement of creativity in game design and storytelling.
- Ability to brainstorm and develop innovative game concepts.
- Problem-solving skills in addressing technical and design
challenges.
6. Project Management and Collaboration:
- Collaborative teamwork in game development projects.
- Time management and project planning skills.
- Organization and completion of assigned tasks within project
teams.
 7. Presentation and Communication:
- Effective presentation of game development projects.
- Clear communication of design choices and development
progress.
8. Critical Thinking:
- Analytical thinking in evaluating and improving game designs.
- Assessment of the player experience and gameplay balance.
9. Ethical Considerations:
- Awareness of ethical issues in game development, such as
representation and inclusivity.
- Understanding of responsible game monetization practices.
These skills and competences are essential for students to gain a well-
rounded foundation in game development and prepare them for more
advanced courses or entry-level positions in the game industry.
5. Course learning By the end of the course, students should be able to:
outcomes: - Understand the key components of game development,
including design principles, graphics, programming, and sound.
- Analyze different types and genres of games, recognizing their
unique characteristics.
- Apply game design principles to create game worlds,
characters, and engaging gameplay.
- Gain basic programming skills and use game engines to build
simple games.
- Develop sound design expertise for enhancing the gaming
experience.
- Complete a final game development project, showcasing their
practical knowledge and creativity in game development.
6. Methods of - Quizzes;
assessment - Theoretical and practical assessments.
7. Reading list 1. Lecture notes (available on moodle.astanait.edu.kz)
2. UNITY 2018 GAME DEVELOPMENT IN 24 HOURS, SAMS
TEACH YOURSELF, 3rd Edition by MIKE GEIG
3. The Art of Game Design" by Jesse Schell
4. "Unity in Action: Multiplatform Game Development in C#" by Joe
Hocking
5. Online courses for Unity or Unreal Engine basics
6. YouTube channels and blogs of experienced game developers
8. Resources learn.unity.com, UPValenciaX: Introduction to video game development with
Unity | edX

9. Course policy Course and university policies include:

Attendance: Students are expected to attend all scheduled class

sessions with all required reading and supplementary materials.
Readings are to be completed prior to class.

The student won’t obtain additional points for course attendance, but
the attendance is important to pass the course. In case the student is not
able to attend the classes for some reasons, he/she must inform the
dean’s office in advance and the student itself is responsible for
learning all materials, which were given during unattended lessons.
In case if the student did not attend more than 30% of the classes
without any reasonable excuses, the teacher has a right to mark him as
“not graded”, and the student wouldn’t be admitted to the exam. In
other words, students must participate in at least 70% of all class time,
otherwise he/she fails the course.

Preparation for Class: Class participation is a very important part of

the learning process in this course. Although not explicitly grade,
students will be evaluated on the QUALITY of their contributions and
insights. Quality comments possess one or more of the following
properties:
- Offers a different and unique, but relevant, perspective;
- Contributes to moving the discussion and analysis forward;
- Builds on other comments.

Class work: The duration of each lecture and practical lesson is 50

minutes for offline class, and 40 minutes for online class. Students are
expected to complete all readings and assignments ahead of time,
attend class regularly and participate in class discussions. In case of
systemic student’s misconduct, the student would be dispensed from
the classes.

Being late on class: When students come to class late, it can disrupt
the flow of a lecture or discussion, distract other students, impede
learning, and generally erode class morale. Moreover, if left
unchecked, lateness can become chronic and spread throughout the
class. By the policy of this course, students who come late to class for
more than 5 minutes are not allowed to get in to class and
consequently, they will be marked as “absent” for the specific hour.

Attestation I and II: Students with score less than 25% for
Attestation period I or Attestation period II (RK1/RK2) are
automatically failed and should take the course again.

Home work / Assignments: The assignments are designed to acquaint

students with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills required
for the course. The textbook readings will be supplemented with
materials collected from recent professional articles and journals. In
case of using someone’s work (papers, articles, any publications), all
works must be properly cited. Failure to cite work will be resulted as a
cheating from the students and may be a subject of additional
disciplinary measures.

Late assignments: Most assignments will be discussed in class on the

due date, therefore late assignments will not receive credit. It is
expected that all work will be submitted on time. Failure to pass
assignments in on time will result in 0% for the assignment. In other
words, no late submissions are allowed. All gradings are based using a
percentage grading scale.

In the event of some extraordinary event, students should notify the

teacher and request an extension of the deadline. If approved, a new
 date will be given to the student depending upon the circumstances.

Final exam: Combination of quiz and written exam form

Laptops and mobile devices can only be used for classroom purposes
when directed by the teacher. Misuse of laptops or handheld devices
will be considered a breach of discipline and appropriate action will be
initiated by the teacher.

Online lessons can be used in case if there won’t be a chance to make

offline traditional lessons. It must not discourage the interest and
enthusiasm of students. The main software to run the online lessons is
Microsoft Teams for video calls and live webinars, and Moodle
(moodle.astanait.edu.kz) as a Learning Management System. Also,
some alternatives such as Skype or Telegram messenger may be
involved as an additional workaround.

Cheating and plagiarism are defined in the Academic conduct

policies of the university and include:
1. Submitting work that is not your own papers, assignments, or
exams;
2. Copying ideas, words, or graphics from a published or unpublished
source without appropriate citation;
3. Submitting or using falsified data;
4. Submitting the same work for credit in two courses without prior
consent of both instructors.

Any student who is found cheating or plagiarizing on any work for this
course will receive 0 (zero) for that work and further actions will also
be taken regarding academic conduct policies of the university.

Academic Conduct Policies of the university: The full texts of all

the academic conduct code will be posted to the students using
Learning Management System (moodle.astanait.edu.kz).

Contacting the Instructor (Teacher): The easiest and most reliable

way to get in touch with the teacher is by email. Students must feel
free to send email if you have a question related to the course. The
teachers will respond as soon as they can but not always
instantaneously. Besides that, students are also welcomed to arrange a
one-to-one meeting with the teacher by their office during office hours
to discuss the class using both offline and online ways.

3. Course Content
# Abbreviation Meaning
1 TSIS Teacher-supervised independent work
2 SIS Students’ independent work
3 IP Individual project
4 PA Practical assignment
5 LW Laboratory work
6 MCQ Multiple choice quiz
 3.1 Lecture, practical/seminar/laboratory session plans

Lab. sessions
Lectures

Practice
sessions
(H/W)

(H/W)

(H/W)

(H/W)
(H/W)
TSIS
Week

SIS
Course Topic
No

1 Unity Basics: GameObjects, Material, 2 3 2 3 9

Textures, Shaders, Light, Camera and
Scripting
2 Unity and C# Basics: If-Else Statements, 2 3 2 3 9
for loop, while loop. Asset Import, and
User Input
3 Colliders, Triggers, Raycasting 2 3 2 3 9

4 Tilemaps in 2D game. 2 3 2 3 9

5 User interface basics 2 3 2 3 9

Working with prefabs

6 Particle effects 2 3 2 3 9
7 Animation, Animators. 2 3 2 3 9
8 Timeline systems 2 3 2 3 9

9 Development for mobile devices 2 3 2 3 9

10 Optimizing game performance and 2 3 2 3 9

resources
Total hours: 190 20 30 20 30 90

3.2 List of assignments for Student Independent Study

Assignments (topics) for Recommended literature Form of
№ Hours
Independent study and other sources (links) submission
1 2 3 4 5
1 Unity Basics: GameObjects, Corresponding assignments SIS and final
Material, Textures, Shaders, from learn.unity.com project
9
Light, Camera and Scripting defense
(SIS) UNITY 2018 GAME
2 Unity and C# Basics: If-Else DEVELOPMENT IN 24
Statements, Asset Import, 9 HOURS, SAMS TEACH
and User Input (SIS) YOURSELF, 3rd Edition by
3 Colliders, Triggers, MIKE GEIG
Raycasting (SIS) 9

4 Tilemaps in 2D game. (SIS)

9
5 User interface basics
Working with prefabs (SIS) 9

6 Particle effects (SIS) 9

 7 Animation, Animators. (SIS) 9
8 Timeline systems (SIS)
9
9 Development for mobile
9
devices (SIS)
10 One diploma project (Final
9
project)

4. Student performance evaluation system for the course

Period Assignments Number Total
of points
1st attestation Lab assignment 1-2 40 30 100
Knowledge check 10
Mid Term quiz 20
SIS 30
2nd attestation Lab assignment 3-4 40 30 100
Knowledge check 10
End Term quiz 20
Final project 30
Final exam Final quiz 40 100
st nd
Total 0,3*1 Att + 0,3*2 Att + 0,4*Final 100

Achievement level as per course curriculum shall be assessed according to the evaluation
chart adopted by the academic credit system.
Letter Numerical Grade according to the
Percentage
Grade equivalent traditional system
А 4,0 95-100
Excellent
А- 3,67 90-94
В+ 3,33 85-89
В 3,0 80-84
Good
В- 2,67 75-79
С+ 2,33 70-74
С 2,0 65-69
С- 1,67 60-64
D+ 1,33 55-59 Satisfactory
D 1,0 50-54
FX 0 25-49
Fail
F 0 0-24
Based on the specific grade for each assignment, and the final grade, following criteria must be
satisfied:
Grade Criteria to be satisfied
- Work would be worthy of further dissemination under appropriate conditions
- Mastery of advanced methods and techniques at a level beyond that explicitly
taught
- Ability to synthesize and employ in an original way idea from across the subject
90-100 - Outstanding command of critical analysis and judgment
 - Excellent range and depth of attainment of intended outcomes
- Mastery of a wide range of methods and techniques
- Evidence of study and originality of what has been taught
80-89 - Able to display a command of critical analysis and judgement
- Attained all the intended learning outcomes for a unit
- Able to use well a range of methods and techniques to come to conclusions
70-79 - Able to employ critical analysis and judgement
- Some limitations in attainment of learning objectives, but has managed to grasp
most of them
- Able to use most of the methods and techniques taught
- Evidence of study and comprehension of what has been taught but grasp insecure
- Some grasp of the issues and concepts underlying the techniques and material
60-69 taught, but weak and incomplete
- Attainment of only a minority of the learning outcomes
- Able to demonstrate a clear but limited use of some of the basic methods and
techniques taught
- Weak and incomplete grasp of what has been taught
- Deficient understanding of the issues and concepts underlying the techniques and
50-59 material taught
- Attainment of nearly all the intended learning outcomes deficient
- Lack of ability to use at all or the right methods and techniques taught
- Inadequately and incoherently presented
- Wholly deficient grasp of what has been taught
- Lack of understanding of the issues and concepts underlying the techniques and
25-49 material taught
No significant assessable material, absent or assessment missing a must pass
0-24 component

5. Methodological Guidelines
Assessment is administered continuously throughout the course. The students are rated
against their performance in continuous rating administered throughout the semester (60%)
and summative rating done during the examination session (40%), total 100%. Continuous
rating is students’ on-going performance in class and independent work. Class work is assessed
for attendance, laboratory works' defense and in- class assessments.
- TSIS (Teacher Supervised Student Independent Study) -comprises presentation to be
done by students independently and checked by instructor.
- Mid-term and End-term is a review of the topics covered and assessment of
each student's knowledge. The form of the midterm and end term exams is complex.
- Final assessment is a combination of both quiz and written exam to evaluate the
students’ academic performance and professional skills.