Sustainability

Demo Day: Slides Due:

May 12th In Class May 9th, 23:55 via Moodle

Overview
Before you begin: Read this entire document and consider how you might want to split up work.

Let’s continue our design process! This second design sprint will force you to engage with three
aspects of the design process:
1. Sketching the storyline (using paper prototype)
2. Defining Application Flow (game logic)
3. Game Prototyping (using Buildbox)

Sustainability
Sustainability is “the long-term viability of a community, set of social institutions, or societal practice.”
[Encyclopædia Britannica]. It is considered to have three pillars: the environmental, economic and social
dimensions. The United Nations presented 17 Global Goals with 169 targets that all UN Member States
have agreed to work towards achieving by the year 2030 1 . In this assignment, we will focus on:
Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

In this design sprint, you will design a mobile game to support this goal. Your task is to design a game
that can help people understand this goal, notice their own consumption patterns, or improve their
habits towards goal 12.

Goal
The goal of this assignment is to first sketch a storyline using paper prototypes (as is common in the
early stage of the UI design), to then define an application flow that will be used as game logic, and
finally develop a mobile game prototype using a code-free mobile game development tool.

You will first sketch different storylines that will implement your idea. You will then select the best of
these designs to help you define an application flow. Finally, you will develop a mobile game
prototype which follows the chosen application flow as game logic. You will then test your app with
participants.
1
https://www.who.int/health-topics/sustainable-development-goals#tab=tab_3
Project Requirements
1. Ideation.
Think about the topic and what it inspires for you and those around you. Discuss with your team
potential goals and steps for your game and map it into a storyline. There should be at least
three levels before the game ends. Note: At this stage, the storyline should not say how to play
the game, but instead say what the user will do in the game.
2. Design Exploration.
Sketches: Pick your favorite idea for the game and sketch a storyboard on paper showing the
storyline (i.e., application flow or game logic) for each level of the game, for a total of three
storyboards that show (visually) how the tasks will be performed. Make sure these are self-
explanatory with any additional notes annotating the storyboard to explain. Take photographs
of these UI Storyboards for your presentation.
3. Prototype.
You will use the Buildbox game prototyping tool to create an interactive game prototype of
your mobile application. Your prototype should “implement” the three levels of your game and
you should now be making your design work with the actual target constraints (e.g., size of
device and built-in controls/widgets) of a real mobile platform (e.g., iPhone, Android phone).
Not all functionalities need to be fully implemented. For example, applications requiring large
databases of information or social networks can instead have a sufficient number of hard-
coded data points or screenshots for supporting the game.
You have a short period of time to complete this prototype, so you should plan for an
achievable goal. Focus on the user experience and not the underlying implementation.
You will likely have to make some difficult decisions!
4. Test it!
Find at least three (3) participants to play through your game.
Testing Procedures
• Each participant should be able to navigate through all 3 levels of the game.
• Keep participant names confidential in your logs (use the “participant number” instead).
• Given the COVID-19 situation, we will be flexible with finding participants.
• See assignment 1 for additional information.
5. Film a video of your mobile game prototype
Make a video of your mobile game prototype with the following requirements:
• Under 2 minutes;
• Contains your names on the first and last image of the video;
• Add the name of the class in the description.

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Resources
How to make a game with no art or music skills
https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-make-a-game-with-no-art-or-music-skills-2415a21b19eb
Buildbox Tutorials
https://www.buildbox.com/tutorials-buildbox3/
https://www.youtube.com/user/GameAcademyCom

Buildbox Sharing and Release

Sharing: https://www.buildbox.com/buildbox-3-4-4-update-global-sharing-via-buildbox-export-node-
improvements-and-more/
Acceptance Criteria:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kScJNhF_38yDavvZbpNeMAC__d_JOPvzAOlvL332mMg/edit

Deliverables
There are two sets of deliverables with this assignment.

1. Prototype
a. Prototype URL: You will need to share your prototype using the Global sharing via Buildbox
World export (see link above). Note that it may take a couple of days for Buildbox to review
your game before a URL can be generated, so do not wait until the last minute.

b. Your prototype must be ready to be demonstrated and tested in class. If your prototype is
not working on the due date, you will get a zero on this assignment.

2. Presentation Slides
Your slides must be designed in Google slides and will be submitted as a pdf.

Do not embed the videos on the slides, instead link to YouTube (or other video sharing platform).

See the grading guidelines for information on how to structure the content.

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Presentation Guidelines
The presentation will be graded as part of the assignment. Come prepared! Use images liberally and
try to keep the text on the slides brief. One to two members of your team – preferably people who did
not speak last time – will make an 8-minute presentation (with 2 additional minutes for questions). The
grades for each of these components are explained in more detail below. The presentation should
follow this outline with separate sections for the top-level items. Note that the slide numbers are just
suggestions, so feel free to use more slides as needed or change the order.

1. Title, each team member’s name (first name plus last initial), affiliation
2. Value Proposition and Game Overview (1 slide)
The value proposition should concisely convey what customers get out of your product in a short
phrase (e.g., stripe.com “Payment infrastructure for the Internet”). Your game overview should
be a concise statement (1-3 sentences) of how your game tackles FOMO and a brief description
of your proposed solution.
3. Sketches (1-3 slides)
Show images of your storyboard sketches and describe your design choices.
4. Game (3 slides)
Describe the three levels of your game. They should capture the core value proposition of your
project and address the problem of FOMO. You can include a link to your game video.
5. Game Testing (2 slides)
a. Methodology (Participants: demographics, recruitment; Procedure)
b. What did you learn / change as a result?
6. Prototype overview (1-3 slides)
a. Limitations/tradeoffs of the current prototype (what was left out of the prototype &
why)
b. Any Wizard of Oz techniques required to make it work
c. Hard-coded features and why required

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Grading Criteria
(Note that the points are for guidance only, your group will be graded as:
Excellent, Very good, Good, Satisfactory, Passing, Failed)

Prototype Grading Criteria

___ Quality of interface implementation of the interactive mobile game prototype
Is the game prototype of good quality and well thought through? (25 points)
Is the prototype aesthetically pleasing? (25 points)
Can a user go through 3 levels of the game? (50 points)

Presentation Slides Grading Criteria

___ Selected Application Flow: How was the game designed? Is the rationale for designing it fit with
the Sustainability topic? (20 points)

___ Paper prototype: Are the paper prototypes appropriately describing the application flow? Were
appropriate low-fi techniques/style used? (20 points)

___ Levels: Did you provide coverage of functionalities in the three levels of the game? Was it clear
how a user can go from one level to another? (30 points)

___ Experiment: Are all the procedures explained in a sound manner (e.g., participants, location,
method)? Were the results given in sufficient detail to understand what occurred? Were there
suggested improvements sound & follow from the results? (20 points)