Beta and Final Game Clarification

Here's just a recap from the early part of today's lecture regarding the grading and expectations for the upcoming beta deliverable (April 5th) and final game deliverable (April 21st exam date).

The Beta is worth 25 percent of your grade and should be a functional version of your game with all art assets, sound assets etc. to be in reasonable condition. This version of your game should be entirely FEATURE COMPLETE. It shouldn't be missing anything that you had intended to design for. The break-down of the 25% Beta is as follows:
Art-5% (all art assets in place, even if not final, are represented by reasonable temporary graphics)
Sound-5% (all sound assets in place, even if not final, are represented by reasonable temporary sound)
General Game Design-10% (does it have an opening game sequence explaining how to play, is there a clear scoring mechanism or win condition, are your design goals met, are your mechanics in place and easily accessible to a player, do those mechanics fluidly and appropriately interact with the other elements of your game. Keep in mind, perfect game-balancing is NOT required for the beta)
Level of Bugginess-5% (there may be a few nagging bugs here, the fewer, the higher of this percentage you maintain. There may NOT be any crash-bugs. Type A crash bugs will result in the loss of this entire percentage)

We will be comparing what you've set out in your design document, to what it is that you end up handing into us. So keep the lines of communication open with us so that we know what to expect in terms of cuts in scope etc. If we still think you're going to deliver 10 levels, and you hand in 1 level...you're setting yourself up for disappointment unless you've let us know in advance of your design changes. Cuts are ok and sometimes entirely necessary--but if we don't know about them, you'll be judged on your last milestone/GDD update submission.

The break-down of the 10% Final is not entirely as detailed nor complicated as the beta, but it looks for the same things--just better. We're looking for polish.
Your art should be complete and finalized, your sound should be exceptional and your game mechanics and balancing should be in tip-top shape. Your product should engage the player and close the 'magic circle' and it should be bug-FREE. If you have bugs, you've already poked a hole in your magic circle--strike one against your game. So make sure the end-product is tight on all fronts.

And again, as a rule of thumb for each of these deadlines: meet your scope. Any team that has not met their 'X' and has as not sufficiently achieved their stated design goals with be met with scrutiny.

So on that grave tone....good luck! :)