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TSA Reference

Video Game Design MS

Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Rules
    1. General
    2. Submission & Interview
    3. Grading
  3. Competing
    1. Process
    2. Tools
    3. Documentation
    4. Interviews
  4. Additional Tips
  5. Examples
  6. Additional Resources

Overview

Teams compete in creating a video game. Judges will grade the game based on a variety of factors such as overall appeal, creativity, and technical difficulty. Semi-finalists will then be interviewed by judges. The team with the most points wins.

Rules

General

  • Team size must be 2-6
  • One team per chapter participates nationally

Submission & Interview

Teams submit a PDF with documentation and a link to the game.

The PDF with the game documentation contains the following documents in order:

  • Cover page, 1 page
  • Copyright checklist, 1 page, must be signed
  • Hand-written storyboard, as needed
  • Purpose and description, 2 pages
  • Plan of work log, as needed, must be signed
  • Permission letters, as needed if applicable

Submission:

  • The link to the game must be playable in browser
  • There is no theme for video game design, you may make the game about anything you wish
  • The game must be playable for at least 3 minutes long (5 point deduction for breaking)
  • Game instructions must be clear to the judges
  • The game must be playable to the 3rd level
  • The game must be appropriate for everyone
  • The game must be the original work of the team unless otherwise indicated in the copyright checklist and permission forms, if applicable, are provided
  • Although TSA general rules section F regulation 5 bans any references to weapons, the rule is rarely enforced in video game design
  • You can’t make the judges pay to play your game (obviously)

Interview:

  • The amount of team members in an interview is highly variable. Some regional competitions might want all members. State and national level competitions might want 1-2 representatives for the team. Check competition updates and with your advisor to make sure you send the correct amount of people to interview

Grading

Points for video game design are split between three categories, documentation, game design, and semifinal interview.

Documentation (20 points):

  • Game directions and control functions (10 points). How clear your explanation is and how well it matches with the game
  • Storyboard (10 points). How complete, concise, and neat the storyboard is and how well it captures the flow of the game

Game design (80 points):

Criteria Max Points Description
Creativity and artisanship 20 points As title suggests
Technical skill 20 points Originality and evidence of artistic and programming excellence
Storyline/flow of the game 10 points How well events transition from one scene to the next presenting a cohesive narrative
Overall appeal 30 points Is your game fun?

Semifinal interview (60 points):

Criteria Max Points Description
Organization 10 points How easily the explanation of the game is to follow
Knowledge 20 points How well you understand your own project
Articulation 10 points How clear and concise your explanation is
Team participation 10 points How evenly people in the team contribute to the interview
Delivery 10 points Speaking skills, posture, eye contact, and many other norms that impact professionalism and clarity

Competing

Process

Once you have a team assembled, before you do any kind of work including meetings and brainstorming, make sure you have a plan of work log to record how everyone in the team contributed. You may use the PDF provided by TSA, though it is not required if you have all the fields filled in and the format is similar.

Have meetings with everyone in the team to discuss and decide how you will make your game (what engine/tool for example you will use) and to brainstorm what your game will be about. Be sure to record meetings in the plan of work log along with any other type of work. Also make sure that everyone in the meeting contributes and those who didn’t attend the meeting are caught up with everything.

It is recommended you start with a game mechanic and make the minimum viable product (MVP) to test out. The MVP should at the very least be somewhat engaging. Don’t waste your time trying to add more than the bare necessity. The MVP doesn’t even need to be made in the engine of your choice, you can use paper models if applicable.

Once your minimum viable product is good, move onto developing the rest of your story and flow of the game. When you have a good idea of what you want the game to look like, create your storyboard.

Keep working on the game. Test it constantly not just for bugs but for how engaging it is. Have people who didn’t work on the game try it out and don’t give them any instructions, just observe how they interact with the game. Your game should provide ample instructions to the player and be very easy for you, the developer.

Tools

  • Google Drive - A cloud file storage service to help manage files (documentation, meeting notes, asset backups, etc)
  • Dochub - A pdf manager to help make your documentation
  • Discord - An app used for communication
  • Slack - An alternative to discord (though Discord is recommended)
  • Scratch - The most popular language used for video game design MS to make games
  • Unity - A far more advanced game engine popular for video game design HS
  • Pixilart - An online pixel art tool
  • Piskel - An alternative to Pixilart
  • Aseprite - The professional alternative to Pixilart though Aseprite costs money unless you compile the project on their Github page
  • Beepbox - Music and SFX

Documentation

Highschool documentation is expected to be highly formal. However, at the middle school level, some judges may actually prefer more creative documentation such as inserting screenshots into the purpose and description or coloring the storyboard and formatting it like a comic strip. Ask around and if you can’t decide, just play it safe and make the documentation formal. Official TSA forms page here.

Cover page:

Storyboard:

Purpose & description:

Plan of work log:

  • Pages as needed
  • Official template.
  • You may make your own plan of work log template provided it includes all the necessary information
  • Be highly detailed with many notes

Permission letters:

  • Pages as needed if applicable meaning that if you didn’t import any assets and the project is entirely your team’s work, you do not need permission letters
  • You do not need permission letters for the program you used like Scratch, Unity, Aseprite, Pixilart, etc
  • A form with confirmation from the original creator that you may use their work

Interviews

Preparation:

  • Determine who is going to the interview, it is often two
  • Make sure each person in the interview has a role. For example, one person covers questions on programming while another person covers questions on game design and art
  • Practice a lot and take notes for things to remember (but don’t take those notes to the actual interview you need to remember everything)

Example questions:

  • Why should I play your game? Tip: talk about what makes your game special and engaging
  • Why did you pick this art style or engine/tool?
  • What is your game about? Tip: first describe the mechanics and inspiration then the story around the game
  • What did you learn from making your game?
  • What issues did you facing making your game?
  • What would you change for next time / how would you improve your game?

Additional Tips

  • Make sure you’re formally dressed for video game design interviews
  • If you can’t decide what language or game engine you want to use, just pick Scratch. It’s beginner friendly getting you up and running in a shorter amount of time
  • Have a very limited scope for your game then expand - it is better to have a game that is minimal but functional than one that is bloated and broken
  • It is better to have more artists than coders because art typically takes longer. Having many coders can be difficult to manage especially with Scratch which isn’t built for collaboration
  • To organize files in Google Drive, make one folder shared with everyone in the team. Within the shared folder make a documentation, project files, and backup folder

Examples

Additional Resources

  • Scratch Wiki - Learn how to use Scratch
  • No Starch Press - A publishing company that makes good books on coding with Scratch. Borrow one from your local library
  • Extra Credits - A YouTube channel on game design and now history, mythology, and sci-fi. The older videos may be more helpful for learning the fundamentals
  • Game Maker’s Toolkit - A YouTube channel on game design by a game critic
  • Brackeys - A YouTube channel on game design and programming in Unity