Milestone 5 — Game Build (Published Game)
GAME 1303 · Week 15 — Tuesday, December 1 · Published playable build · 25 points
The deliverable
Your finished game, built, published, and playable by a stranger who has never met you and cannot ask you questions.
This is a quarter of your course grade — more than every exercise combined. It is graded on what a player experiences, not on effort, intention, or what you meant to build.
Requirements
| # | Requirement |
|---|---|
| 1 | Published to a public URL — itch.io unless arranged otherwise. Not a zip in Canvas alone. |
| 2 | Playable start to finish — title screen through to a win state, without instructions from you |
| 3 | All five screens working (Milestone 4) |
| 4 | Your core mechanic central to play (Milestone 2) |
| 5 | At least one complete level built from your map (Milestone 3), fully playable |
| 6 | Audio — at least background music and three distinct sound effects |
| 7 | Your own art throughout, or credited licensed assets |
| 8 | No console errors, no soft-locks, no crashes in normal play |
| 9 | Build notes submitted alongside |
Publishing
itch.io is the default. It's free, it hosts WebGL directly in the browser, and it takes about twenty minutes the first time.
| Section | Recommended target | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 001 — Unity 6.x | WebGL, playable in browser | Highest chance of actually being played. Windows standalone acceptable. |
| 002 — Unreal 5.8 | Windows packaged build, zipped and uploaded | Set as downloadable on the itch page |
| VR (either) | Quest .apk or PC-VR build, uploaded as download | Include sideloading instructions in your build notes |
Your itch page needs: title, the hook from your one sheet, at least three screenshots, controls, and your name.
Build in Week 13. Not Week 15. The first build of any project surfaces problems that never appear in the editor — missing references, broken paths, WebGL-incompatible code, wrong input bindings. Students who build early fix these calmly; students who build the night before submit something broken.
Build notes
A short document, submitted with the build:
- Link to the published game
- Controls, complete
- How to reach the win state — the intended path, so it can be verified
- Known bugs, honestly listed
- Third-party assets and their licenses
- AI disclosure, matching your GDD
- Build target and version — engine version, platform, headset if VR
Listing a known bug costs you nothing. Hiding one that gets found costs you polish points.
Rubric — 25 points
| Criterion | Pts | Met when |
|---|---|---|
| Completeness | 8 | Playable start to finish; a player reaches a win state unaided; no soft-locks or crashes |
| Core mechanic | 5 | The primary verb works, is tuned, and is central to play rather than incidental |
| Level design | 4 | At least one complete level with working gating, pacing, and checkpointing |
| Screens and UI | 3 | All five screens present, navigable both directions, HUD live and readable |
| Audio and feedback | 2 | Music plus three or more SFX; actions have visible and audible response |
| Published and documented | 3 | Live public URL, page presented properly, build notes complete and accurate |
The 8 completeness points are the ones to protect. A short, simple game that a stranger can finish scores higher than an ambitious one that stops at the second room. If you are behind in Week 13, cut content until what remains is finishable — that is the correct decision, and it is worth more points than anything else you could do with the time.
Common failure modes
- Built for the first time on the due date. The most reliable way to lose completeness points.
- Editor-only project submitted. Ungradeable.
- No win state. Play continues until the player gives up. Costs completeness heavily.
- Soft-lock. Player falls out of the world, or into a room with no exit, with no restart reachable.
- Missing audio. Two points, frequently forgotten entirely, and the cheapest points in the rubric.
- WebGL-incompatible features. Test the actual WebGL build, not the editor.
- Unlisted third-party assets. Integrity issue, not just a points issue.
- A game only the author can finish. If you have to explain the controls, a stranger cannot play it. Put the controls on the title screen.
The week before
In Week 14 you run Ex 10 — Test & Iterate and put your game in front of three testers. Everything they get stuck on is something the grader will get stuck on. Fix those things first, in priority order, and leave the polish you'd rather be doing until after.
The last honest question to ask yourself in Week 14: can someone finish this without me in the room? If no, that is the only thing worth working on.