| Texts | Important Dates | Assignments | Syllabus | Lectures | Grading | Links |
Instructor: Dianna Xu , 246A Park Hall, 526-6502
E-Mail: dxu at cs dot brynmawr dot edu
WWW: http://cs.brynmawr.edu/~dxu
Lecture Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays,
11:30 am to 1:00 pm
Room: Park 232
Office hour: Tuesday 1-2pm, Friday 1-2pm
Lab
| Lab Policy: | Labs and lectures will often be exchangable in this course, depending on how the course and projects progress. Attendence of labs is mandatory. |
|---|---|
| Lab Hours: | Friday 2-4 |
| Lab Room: | PC Lab Room 231 (Science Building) or 232 |
| Availability: | The labs are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.There are times that 231 is reserved for other classes. |
| Textbooks: |
| Gameplay and Design by Kevin Oxland, 2004 from Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-321-20467-0. |
|---|---|---|
| All your old Java, C++ and OpenGL textbooks will come in handy as well. | ||
| Software: |
| We will be using the Java as well as C++, OpenGL and a variety of other programming languages and tools. The labs/projects will use the Linux OS most of the time, however, sometimes Windows will also be used. |
January 18 : First lecture
April 28: Last lecture
Project: Last day of exam
| Week | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1 | Intro to game design, history of video games. |
| 2 | Game genres, game audience and team building, game ideas |
| 3 | Storying telling, player motivation, game play, game rules |
| 4 | Game boundaries, Game play elements and mechanics (interactivity) |
| 5 | Cocept presentations, Enviroment design, world design |
| 6 | Game Engine |
| 7 | Feedbacks, rewards and punishments, game balancing |
| 8 | Spring Break! |
| 9 | Game AI |
| 10 | feedbacks punishments and game balancing |
| 11 | presentations |
| 12 | Interface Design, control schemes (movements & item manipulation) |
| 13 | Networks and Multiplayer |
| 14 | Alpha test of group project. Educating the player, training, play testing and game tuning |
| 15 | Final wrap up |
Jan 27: Game ideas, core idea and theme
Read: Chapter 3 and 4
Read: Chapter 5, 18 and 19 (18 & 19 are on the implementation side)
Feb 3: Game motivation, game rules
Read: Chapter 6 & 7 (util page 100, before game boundaries)
Read: Chapter 7 till the end. chapter 12
Feb 10 : Graphics Design
Feb 15: Present your designs
Read: Design/concept document of the other group
Feb 17: Environment design
Read: Chapter 9
Feb 21: Game engines, Animation, Collison Detection, Hack Quake2
Feb 23: Class cancelled, I am out of town
Read: Please research your game engine as well as modelling/texturing tool options. Make a decision soon based on your best judgement and group concensus.
March 1: class cancelled, I am out of town
Read: Please research your game engine as well as modelling/texturing tool options. Make a decision soon based on your best judgement and group concensus.
March 3: Group presentations
Read: Interim report from the other group
spring break!
March 15 : slack class, catch up
Read:
March 17: Game AI
Read:
March 22 : feedbacks, rewards and punishment
Read: chapter 8, 13
March 24: Game balancing
Read: chapter 16
March 29 : Interim reports and presentations
Read:
March 31: Quake demos, TBA
Read:
April 5: Lighting and materials
Read:
April 7 : Interface, movement control, sound
Read: chapter 15
April 12: networks and networked games
Read:
April 14: TBA
Read:
April 19: Evaluation and play testing, player education
Read: chapter 10
April 21:
Read:
April 25: Alpha release!
April 27: TBA
Read:
All graded work will receive a score out of 100. Guidelines of letter grades corresponding to lab/exam score levels will be given during the semester. At the end of the semester, a total score (to which the corresponding final grade is assigned) will be calculated from a weighted average of all scores according to the following weights:
| Presentation | 15% | |
| Group project: | 25% | |
| Labs/Assignments/Writeups: | 60% | |
| Total: | 100% |
In this course, gaming projects will be graded on how well you accomplished your goal and demostrated your skills in the following areas (in no particular order)