Background

I was in charge of designing the curriculum for and executing Game World’s first-ever 2 week Unity Bootcamp with a team of 6 teens aged 13-17. I needed to create a 2 week production timeline to mentor a team of teens through creating a 2D Unity prototype. They were all returners to the Game Worlds Camp, and I was able to gain insight from the Game Worlds admin about their abilities and personalities to tailor the Bootcamp to the team. Because this Bootcamp was meant for advanced campers from the weekly Game Worlds Camps in the Construct3 game engine, the expectations for this team’s deliverables were higher. I decided to put them through a thorough game development pipeline using Git/Github for collaboration, production template files for project management, playtesting documentation for finding insights, and teaching them professional development skills, on top of learning Unity. Most of the team did not have or had limited experience with Unity and Git/Github, so I prioritized creating slide decks and tutorials on these tools and setting up documents to streamline their production process so that they could focus on learning Unity and Git/Github.

PREPARATION

I began preparing for the Bootcamp with drafting a syllabus, which underwent several iterations with the Game Worlds admin. From previous game dev experiences, I understood that having the appropriate resources to stay organized and on the same page with your team was essential. Using knowledge of game development from making my own games and knowledge of education from my experiences as a Teaching Assistant and as a student, I was determined to communicate clear goals and project guidelines for the team and create templates needed to streamline game production. Scope was a huge challenge, where the Game Worlds admin and I constantly asked questions of whether the deliverables were possible within that day/week/full Bootcamp.

Version 1 of the syllabus was developed in February, which was a skeleton outline of general game dev topics the team would follow along through lectures and tutorials. Version 2 of the syllabus was developed and approved in March, which was a more detailed syllabus that guided them through the development of my own game design. Since Version 2 was approved, I then created the Welcome to Unity Bootcamp slide deck and Production Template Files displayed below for the team to use during production. I also created a slide deck on Setting Up the Game (Project Management, Unity, Git/Github overviews) and another on Debugging and Documentation to get everyone on the same page about all the working parts as best I could.

However, after experiencing one of Game World’s weekly camps in Construct 3 as a Lab Leader before the start of the Bootcamp, I realized that I needed to adapt the day-to-day schedule to that of the Camp’s and incorporate breathing room for the team’s learning, brain breaks, dynamics, and bug fixing. Even more, I wanted the team to develop a game that they actually want to develop, and Version 2 couldn’t provide that guarantee. Sai proposed giving them the option to translate one of their Game Worlds winning games from Construct3 into Unity, which was a great solution and nod to our scope. I then wrote Version 3 (aka the Final) of the syllabus to reflect these changes. To further keep us on track, I then crafted an initial planned production timeline in Google Sheets that I could work with as we hit roadblocks and made progress. These preparations helped the team and myself out immensely during the execution of the Bootcamp.