COMP222 2025 Second CA Assignment

Individual Coursework

Implement a game using an existing game engine

Assignment 2 (of 2)

Weighting: 15%

Deadline: 10am on Thursday, 8th May. Standard UoL late penalties apply

Submission on Canvas:

Submit 3 files.

•         A video – typically up to 5 minutes long which shows your game in action. The production values are not important, but it should include the aspects of your game  that demonstrate meeting the marking criteria (below). You may annotate the video with voice or subtitles to highlight key areas, but this is not required.

•         A zip file that contains the project source for your game. This should contain the code that you developed for the game.

•         A 1-2 page pdf report – details below. There is no word limit for this, but it should be a short summary of how you made the individual aspects of the game. This may be longer if you have made extensive use of 3rd party assets.

Learning outcomes assessed

2. An appreciation of the fundamental concepts associated with game development: game physics, game artificial intelligence, content generation;

3. The ability to implement a simple game using an existing game engine

Implement a simple game, of your choice, using a game engine such as Unity, Unreal, Godot, JMonkeyEngine.

The game does not have to be extremely complex, it is recognised that this assignment accounts for 15% of the module total.

However, the game should contain certain aspects, which are detailed below.

If you wish to submit a game that does not contain any one of these aspects, such as game physics, then you should request this before submission, by email, so that you can receive  appropriate advice.

A suggested game is an implementation of the sport of Curling, which will be used in the examples below. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling (There is no need to keep strictly to the rules for any game).

Other suitable examples are:

Mini Golf – Take turns to hit a ball, avoiding obstacles, into a hole.

Simple Car Race – Drive a car object around a course, or obstacles, to reach a goal.

Hurdle Race – Run and jump over obstacles along a course.

Ball Drop Puzzle – Drop a ball into a series of ramps and other objects to reach a target.

Some of these games will have extensive tutorials available online. If you follow these, you must declare this as an asset used – andyou should make substantial changes to make your own contribution clear.

The marking criteria below will give concrete examples using Curling, but it is not a requirement to follow for this assignment. In each case, there is a minimal example of what would be acceptable for at least a 50% mark, and examples of other features that could be  implemented to achieve higher marks.

Marking Criteria

The aspects required, and the marks awarded for each are as follows.

Scene / environment 15%

The game should take place in some World, that is visible to the player. This can be generated by code or by using the design tools within the game engine. In a Curling game, this will minimally consist of an Ice Sheet, 4 walls surrounding it, and a number of Curling ‘stones’.    This could additionally include other aspects such as appropriate textures, an arena, visible players, crowd, lighting effects, electronic scoreboard, etc.

Interaction 20%

There must be some way for the player to control the game. In the simplest form, this could  be to react in a pre-determined way when a key is pressed, but more advanced controls are  preferrable. E.g., these could include using the mouse movements to simulate the sliding of the Stone, the ‘curling’ of the stone to make the path bend, and the various moving and Sweeping actions used in curling.

Physics 25%

The game should behave in some ‘realistic’ way, including motion, friction, and collisions. For Curling, a minimal example would require the stone to move and slow down after release, and to bounce from the edges of the rink. More complex physics might include ‘curling’ the stone, sweeping to reduce friction, and complex multi-body collisions between the stones. The game of curling is largely 2-dimensional, so you may want to be creative to enable complex 3-dimensional movement; dropping the stones onto the ice would give a simple demonstration.

Structure 20%

The gameplay should follow some structure. The game will start, follow some path depending on the user input, and come to an end at some point. There may be a scoring mechanism, different levels, or different paths to take during the game. In Curling, players should take it in turns to each play a ‘stone’ until there are none left - and the correct scoring rules followed. A more complex structure could involve playing multiple ‘ends’, following rules for ties, and a tournament structure where multiple teams can take part. You can include splash screens or menu systems.

Extra / Creativity 20%

There are 2 options that you can choose from. You can either concentrate on good game design principles and creativity, or on advanced technical aspects. Your report should contain a section describing which of these you have chosen.

Option 1: Game design

Describe a number of design principles that you have followed – explain where the  principle has come from (lecture notes, books, articles), and what you did in your game design to meet this principle. This will be hard to do well with a simple curling game, and other game types would offer more scope.

Option 2: Technical proficiency

These can be in any form. – advance physics, game structure, AI, etc. Your report should highlight any advanced aspects that you have implemented. This could include using game assets, such as a Physics engine, but you should also develop a reasonable amount of your own code.

Report

Description

Your report should briefly describe the aspects that you have implemented for each of the 5 Marking Criteria. This can be in the form. of bullet points and does not need extensive description.

Instructions

If necessary, give a paragraph explaining how to play your game and what controls would be used. This is not required if all instructions are described in the game video.

Assets

Your report should also Give a List all Assets that you used in creating your game, with a note or URL to explain where they came from.

Assets include any Textures, 3D models, behaviour scripts. Please state if you created them yourself, and whether any AI assistance was used (including advanced auto-complete features, such as Github CoPilot).

If you have followed any online tutorials then you MUST include the URL.

Any use of Assets that are used, but not declared, may be classed as academic misconduct.

Notes.

1.        You do not need to use professional game assets as these do not form. part of the marking criteria.

2.        The quality of your code will be marked (e.g.; class structure, clear functions, naming conventions, representation of game state), but the game you create is more important.

3.        You must submit a viewable video of your game; if we cannot view the video on

submission, due to insufficient permissions for example, then you may not get a mark higher than 50%.

4.        Your game does not need to include any AI, as this has been assessed separately. Novel AI techniques may still be awarded marks under “Technical proficiency”.

5.        Please include advance visible warnings if any content of your game could be shocking or offensive.

6.        Do not leave it until the last minute to submit videos.  Processing and upload can take some time, and anything uploaded after the deadline will automatically be considered as late, and penalties will be applied.