School of Arts and Creative Technologies

Assessment Brief

MODULE: Media Production for Interactive Environments TFT00018I

ASSESSMENT TITLE: Summative Assessment ASSESSMENT DATES:

SET: Semester 1, Week 5

HAND-IN: 12 noon on Thursday 23rd of January 2025 (Semester 1, Week 14)

THE BRIEF

For this assessment, you must create a scene from an experience that is set in a 3D interactive virtual environment.

The kind of experience that you create a scene from is up to you. For example, you may choose to create, but are not limited to:

●  A scene from an adventure game where the player must solve a puzzle

●  A scene from a walking simulator that tells a short chapter of a longer story

●  A scene that forms part of interactive art experience set in a 3D world

The scene that you create should take around five minutes for a ‘typical’ user to complete the first time it is experienced.

You  must  also  write  a  2,500-word  report  describing  your  environment  and  the experience that is set within it.

This assessment is worth 100% of the total marks for this module.

GUIDANCE: THE SCENE

Your scene MUST be implemented using the Unity game engine. You MUST use Unity versionLTS Release 2022.3.33f1, which is the Unity version installed in the ACT labs. Using a different Unity version will mean there is a possibility that we will not be able to open and run your files. If we are unable to do that, we cannot mark the project and we will have to give it a zero mark.

You must write and include at least one script. when implementing your scene (and you may choose to include more). All scripts must be written in the C# language.

While the scene must be implemented in Unity, you are allowed to include assets that you have created in other software packages (e.g. 3D models that you have created in Maya).

As noted in the brief, your scene should take around five minutes for a ‘typical’ user to complete the first time it is experienced. In line with this guidance, you may wish to create a scene that represents a subsection of a hypothetical longer experience (e.g.  a  single   level  from  a  game  that  would  have  further  levels  if  released). However, in this case, your submission should still offer the user a complete and polished experience (e.g. including a menu, onboarding guidance, a defined end).

GUIDANCE: THE REPORT

Your report must include the following sections:

Background: Give the background to situate the rationale in creating your environment and experience. For example, your report might describe:

●  Why did you choose to create this particular environment and user experience?

●  What other environments provided inspiration for your project?

●  What is the purpose of this experience?

●  Who might it be used by?

●  In what situation is it meant to be experienced? (e.g. an art exhibition)

Description of Experience: Provide a description of a typical user’s experience of interacting with your environment (e.g. a walkthrough).

Description of Technical Implementation: You must give a detailed and precise description  of  your  technical  approach  for  implementing  your  environment  (e.g. lighting, sound, physics,AI).

Reflection: Discuss the success of your experience from both a user-experience and technical perspective. For example, you might reflect upon:

●  What were the challenges of creating your experience?

●  Which parts do you feel work well and which didn’t? Why did they work or not?

●  How could you develop your environment further?

You are allowed a 10% leeway on the word count in either direction (i.e. 250 words over or under is acceptable). This length limit excludes all appendices. Write the total word count clearly at the end of the report. Note that over- or under-writing beyond the limits of the leeway may incur mark deductions.

Use either Times New Roman in font size 12 or Arial in font size 11.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Your submission must include the following components:

Note  that  you   MUST  submit   a  standalone  build  of  your  environment  in addition to the complete Unity project. A standalone build is a file that allows your scene to be run outside of Unity. This will enable the marker to experience your environment exactly as you intended it to be. When creating your standalone build, please configure it using the “PC, Mac & Linux Standalone” option with the “Target Platform” set to “MacOS” and “Architecture” set to “Intel 64-bit + Apple silicon” . You should test your standalone build runs as expected on one of the computers in TFTI/016 before making your submission. This will ensure that your marker has access  to  a  computer  upon  which  your  work  has  been  tested.  For  more information on how to create a standalone build of your project, please seethis page in the Unity manual.

Please  read  the Very   Important  Points  to   Note  for  the  Submission  of  All Assessments   document   —   which   includes   important   information   on   the appropriate time to start submission, how to check your files, what to do if there are problems with submission etc. Please access the file with your University of York login.

USE OF EXTERNAL SOURCES AND ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT

All work submitted for assessment must be the student's own and all sources must be acknowledged and referenced, as set out in your Course Handbook and/or this assessment brief, to avoid academic misconduct. Students may not submit the same work or part of the same work for assessment twice.

All sources in your report should be cited using the Harvard referencing system format. You may refer tothis referencing guide from the University of York. For finding  out the correct format for citing non-standard sources (e.g. computer games)this Harvard referencing guide from Anglia Ruskin University Library may also be helpful.

The   scene   must   be   your   own   work.    If   elements   of   the   design   or implementation  of your scene (e.g., the concept, the layout, the gameplay mechanic, a solution to a challenging technical problem) are based upon the work  of others,  you  should  indicate  this  in  an  appropriate section of your report with references.

If you include code written by other people in the scripts submitted as part of your Unity project, you must reference this in the source by including a block comment at the top of the file describing where the code came from, e.g.:

/**

*  This  script.  is  based  upon  an  example  from  the  Unity  Script.

Reference *

* Author: Unity Technologies (author name unknown)

* Location: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/AudioSource.html

* Accessed: 20/10/2021 */

Additionally, if a script includes some code that is written by you and some code that is written by others, you should include inline comments that clearly indicate which parts are your own work and which aren’t.

// I added these three lines to set the volume based on a slider

AudioSource a = GetComponent<AudioSource>();

Slider s = GetComponent<Slider>();

a.volume = s.GetValue();

// My modification ends

You are allowed to include assets that you have not created yourself in your scene (e.g.  3D  models  downloaded  from the  internet or the  Unity asset store).  If you choose to do this, you must clearly indicate that these assets are not your own work by including an appendix to your report that provides details of each of these assets in the following format. Text in this appendix will not be included in the word count of your report.