Introduction

The University of Utah is the number one undergraduate public institution for Game Development in the world, and offers a unique year long capstone for the undergraduate students’ final year. In this capstone, students are put in teams of around 30 members with the goal of creating a video game that will be published by the end of the year. With teams having multiple disciplines and fast paced deadlines, this capstone is meant to simulate an industry-level game development pipeline. This year, six of the eight capstone teams were gracious enough to provide me with information for this piece. This capstone program cultivates many skills that are applicable to the games industry, however I believe there are some improvements that can be made to make it more effective.  

The Blueprint

This Capstone is a two-semester-long course that starts with an ideation and prototyping phase. During the first phase, students pitch their original game ideas, and from those, 16 are selected to move forward. In the next phase, students are divided into 16 teams to rapidly prototype their game ideas. They then go on to present their prototypes, and from there, the faculty would pick eight final teams whose projects would go into full development. The students who were on teams that were not selected would be redistributed among the other teams that did advance.

This leads to the official pipeline for the final games, which would include five stages: Pre-production, Alpha, Beta, Gold, and Live Ops where each stage is around four weeks. During the Pre-production stage, teams will plan out the scope of the game, brainstorm design ideas, and have a rough production timeline. The Alpha stage is where the game is at an early testing phase where the core gameplay mechanics are present but still contain bugs and unpolished assets but serve as the foundation for the rest of production. During the Beta stage, the game is nearly complete with the game mechanics finalized, art assets refined, and the team focusing on polishing and bug fixes.

During the Gold stage, the game is near publication. For this Capstone, the Gold deadline was pushed forward to ensure all the games were ready to launch on Steam. At this stage, the game must be fully functional, have no game-breaking bugs, and all art assets would be polished and added to the game. A new addition to this year’s Capstone is the LiveOps stage. After the early access launch, the teams monitor player feedback and make improvements to their game. This includes fixing lingering bugs, adjusting gameplay balance, and potentially adding new features to enhance the player experience and ensure the game continues to thrive after release.

Level Up

This course provides students with a studio-like experience unlike any other university. Team sizes are in the 30s which allows for students to work with people in other disciplines. The fast paced stages are a good representation of what working in a studio would be like, with deadlines around every corner and many people to coordinate with. Additionally, this program has connections to industry level professionals who occasionally drop in to see these games and provide quality feedback that most universities don’t get. One of the biggest issues in previous years was that some of the games did not even publish and to solve that issue, this year they made sure games were on Steam before Spring break. Though unappealing at first, it ended up being a great way to make sure all games were finalized. This also gave teams an extra month to edit their games based on feedback they received from players including fixing bugs and adding more content. 

Sync Up

Most students in this program have worked in groups of nine in previous courses to create games, which makes working with 30 people a huge jump. This creates a large issue when it comes to communication and people being on the same page. Everyone on a team thinks differently regarding their vision or direction for the game, so it is vital that everyone is on the same wavelength if they want to achieve this goal. A common strategy for this includes having teams split by disciplines with one lead and one producer per subteam. The main goal of the leads is to make sure everyone understands the vision of the game and is aware of the progress that other subteams have made. They keep other leads in the loop through reports so that the work can continue smoothly. The producers help schedule meetings and create deadlines so everyone knows their assigned tasks and designated time to complete them. Another way to make sure everyone is on the same page is to have detailed documentation regarding the game’s art style, narrative, mechanics, and environment. This way, if a team member is confused about anything, they can refer to the design documents before asking their leads, thereby clarifying their questions and completing their task. When proper communication doesn’t happen, it can lead to problems such as missed deadlines, inconsistent vision for the game, duplicating work, and an overall lower quality for the final game.

Pivot

Adaptability is essential in game development. A common theme in interviews with the capstone teams was how unexpected challenges are inevitable. Problems such as people not contributing, the scope of the project being too large, or having mismatched disciplines for projects will always be present. For example, if a team is developing a 2D platformer game but only has 3D artists, the team must either adjust the game style to fit the team they have or train the 3D artists in 2D art. Regardless of the way a team attempts to solve a problem, adaptability is essential when it comes to overcoming obstacles and meeting the goals of the project.

Next Patch

Although the University of Utah’s capstone program has a lot of qualities that make it one of the most unique programs in the world, there are some changes that could make the course even better. One of the teams I have met with addressed how the program is designed for students to fail. Having very short deadlines, teams with disciplines that might not fit the game’s vision, and having to balance a full game with three to four other classes validate this concern. There was not really a method as to how the games were matched to the students, so having a 2D game with only 3D artists seemed a little worrisome. Another issue that was met was the number of people in teams that can just get by without doing work. After talking with these teams, it seemed on average five people per team were not contributing and still found ways to pass the class and get credit for the game. A way to solve this issue would be to have consistent check ups between the teams to make sure everyone is contributing in order to fully get credit for the project. 

Conclusion

The University of Utah’s Capstone Program stands out compared to the other game development programs in the world by providing an immersive, fast-paced, industry-mimicking environment. Although it fosters collaboration, communication, and adaptability, there should be changes made in areas such as timeline flexibility and team composition. By learning and iterating every year, this program can better equip students to tackle the challenges of the gaming industry. 

Play the Games!

Thank you all to the teams that helped me with this article!

Here’s the link to their Steam pages:

Hermes’ Runner: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3536730/Hermes_Runner/ 

Dinos TD: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3533920/Dinos_TD/ 

BeamDown: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3466230/Beamdown/ 

Tiny Sheriff: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3566060/Tiny_Sheriff/

Just the Boss fights: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3572440/Just_the_Boss_Fights/ 

Clay Beats: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3492920/Clay_Beats/