Syllabus - Foundations of Interactive Game Design - Winter 2008

Last modified: 1/13/2008

Week 1: Overview of course, XNA Game Studio Express

January 8:
Course overview, difference between CS 20 and CS 80K, overview of XNA Game Studio Express

Week 2: Overview of course, XNA Game Studio Express

January 15:
Repeat of first week, due to low turnout (confusion over whether discussion section meets first week)
Course overview, difference between CS 20 and CS 80K, introduction to XNA Game Studio Express
Read: Chapter 1 (Overview of XNA), Chapter 2 (Setting up your Development PC), and Chapter 3 (Using Visual C# Express 2005) in XNA Game Studio Express

Week 3: Introduction to C# (part 1)

January 22:
Classes, methods, simple types, constants, visibility, assignment, conditionals, comments
Read: Chapter 1 (C# and the .NET Framework), Chapter 2 (Getting Started: "Hello World"), and Chapter 3 (C# Language Fundamentals) in Programming C#

Week 4: Introduction to C# (part 2)

January 29:
Properties, arrays, looping constructs (for, foreach)
Read: Chapter 4 (Classes and Objects), and Chapter 9 (Arrays, Indexers, and Collections) from pp. 176-206 in Programming C#

Week 5: Drawing sprites

February 5:
Main game loop, sprites, textures, operations on sprites, sprite batch
Read: Chapter 4 (Using XNA Graphics for Basic 2D) in XNA Game Studio Express

Week 6: Input

February 12:
Controller input, keyboard input
Read: Chapter 7 (Using XNA Input for Controllers) and Chapter 8 (Using XNA Input for Keyboards) in XNA Game Studio Express

Week 7: Collision detection

February 19:
Pixel comparing collision detection, quadtree data structure, use of quadtrees for collision detection
Read: Chapter 28 (Pixel-Perfect Collision Detection) in XNA Game Studio Express

Week 8: Sound

February 26:
Introduction to XACT
Read: Chapter 10 (Using XNA Audio) in XNA Game Studio Express

Week 9: UML Class diagrams, Strategy pattern, C# delegates

March 4:
Simple UML class diagrams, strategy design pattern, C# delegate construct

Week 10: Particle Systems

March 11:
A simple particle system in XNA
Read: Chapter 22 (Particle System) in XNA Game Studio Express