Designing Interactive Characters Class - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 165

Teams, separate from guild affiliation, have been established:

n Programming, responsible for implementing gameplay, using a scripting
language. Scripting languages are meant to be used with an existing pro-
gramming language and are much simpler than programming from
scratch.
n Art, responsible for ensuring that all players

' avatars and NPCs are repre-

sented in the final level.
n Writing, responsible for the NPC dialogue.
n Audio, responsible for sound effects and music.
n Production, two producers responsible for seeing that milestones are
met, as well as logistics, such as facilitating teams getting together, and
so on.

On March 8, the team leads reported on goals for the Alpha stage of the final
project. The Alpha was due on April 5.

Alpha

Alphais the phase in software development where testing begins and features are frozen, meaning
that no new features will be added to the game. This is followed by Beta, where all features are
completely implemented, and the focus is on usability testing and bug fixing. The final phase is
GoldenMaster, when the software is ready to be released to consumers.

There were issues in getting the Alpha presentation up and running, but once it
was, there was the tower surrounded by a field with six fountains leading to the
door. All floors were implemented with placeholders until the Game Master
could answer questions about the style in which they should be furnished.

Presentation Quests
The second ongoing activity was the presentation quests on subjects such as 3D
characters (defined on Level 9), character progression, pivotal characters,
stereotypes, and so on. As the central quest progressed, these presentation
quests prepared players for crafting assignments, such as the analyses of
characters both real and unreal, as well as for the midterm boss battle.