Game Design Experience

CMPS 20 - Winter 2010
Tuesday-Thursday 18:00 to 19:45
Thimann Lecture Hall 001
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Moodle Class Page


Last Updated: Monday, 15th March

  Final: Tuesday March 16th, 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM
HW# 3 updated
Sample Code for Level Saving and Loading updated
Sample HLSL code updated




Instructor

Arnav Jhala
Jack Baskin School of Engineering, Room 269
email: [mylastname] @ cs [dot] ucsc [dot] edu
Phone: (831) 459-2502
Office Hours: Mondays 3:30 to 5:00 PM.
 Teaching Assistant

David Seagal
drseagal@soe.ucsc.edu
Office Hours: TBA

Sections

Monday : 2 to 3 PM
Wednesday: 6 to 7 PM
Thursday : 12 to 1 PM

Readings
 Schedule and Lectures
 Homeworks and Projects
 Resources

Readings


Programming C# 3.0, 5th Edition, Jesse Liberty, Donald Xie, O'Reilly, 2007.
Learning XNA 3.0, Aaron Reed, O'Reilly, 2008.
XNA Creators Club Online (http://creators.xna.com/en-US)


Schedule and Lectures



Week 1:   Overview, Introduction to C#, XNA Game Studio Express
Jan 5
 Slides [PDF][PPT]
 Notes:
Download and set up Visual Studio and XNA GS
Run samples from creators club website
Go through introductory tutorials in the getting started section
Download and run starter kits

Readings:
Programming C#: Chapters 1, 2, and 3
Learning XNA: Chapter 1
Jan 7
 Slides [PDF][PPT]
 Notes:
Practice use of different data types and constructs discussed in class
Work through example programs in the chapters covered this
week from the Programming C# book

Readings:
Programming C#: Chapters 4 and 9
Week 2:
 C#, XNA introduction Contd...
Jan 12
Slides [PDF][PPT]
I/O in C#, Introduction to Object-Oriented Design
UML representation
Introduction to XNA framework
XNA framework details: Game Loop, Sprites, Basic Sprite Animation

Homework #1 Posted
Jan 14
Slides [PDF][PPT]


 Team Formation: due

Visitor: Kenny Spade from Microsoft (Imagine Cup themes, rules, example games)
XNA Input
Week 3:


Jan 19
Slides [PDF][PPT]
Random Numbers
Menu Handling: Converting Strings to Integers [Example Code]

(Right-click and save the rar file. Use WinRar to decompress)
Code Stub : Arkanoids [rar]
Code Sample: Naive Collision [rar]
Jan 21
Slides [PDF][PPT]
Code Sample: Movement [rar]

Inheritance and polymorphism

Collision Detection
Readings: [Here] and [Here]
DUE: Homework #1
DUE: Team Formation Document

Week 4:

Jan 26
Slides [PPT]

Design Patterns

Readings: Strategy Pattern, Decorator Pattern, Chain of Responsibility

Examples: Delegates, Strategy, Decorator, Chain of Responsibility, Singleton

Refactoring and Bad-Code Smells Readings [Here] and [Here]
Jan 28
Slides [PPT]
Design Patterns Contd...
Week 5:
FEB 1: Deadline for Imagine Cup signup
Feb 2
Slides [PDF][PPT]

  
Teamwork and Team Dynamics
Review of material for mid-term exam (Sample Exam with Answer Key [Here])
Movement:
2D Pathfinding, Movement Representations, Floyd's APSP algorithm, A*
Code Sample: Movement [rar]
Pathfinding Links: [Video][Article][Article][Steering Behaviors][A* Heuristics Article]
Feb 4
Slides [PDF][PPT]
Code Sample: Sound [rar]
Code Sample: 3D [rar][rar]
Code Sample: Texture [rar]

Due Feb 5 at 5 PM : Project Design Document with individual weekly milestones
Week 6:

Feb 9
Mid-Term Exam
Mid-Term Exam (Covering Material from Weeks 1 through 4)
Feb 11



Physics: Movement and Gravity
Code Organization
Week 7:

Feb 16
Slides [PDF][PPT]
Physics Continued...

Link to Nate Rode's tutorials on 2D physics
Link to 2D Physics tutorials in Flash

Rob's Example Game
Feb 18
Slides [PDF][PPT]
Subversion Book
File I/O in C#
GForge Code Repository

Code Sample : Particle Effects
Due: Homework #2 Quadtrees
Week 8:

Feb 23
Slides [PDF][PPT]
Introduction to the Graphics Pipeline
Programmable Shaders
Overview of HLSL and integration in XNA


Due: Technical Design Document
Feb 25
Slides [PDF][PPT]
Transformations Review
Color

Shader Samples
HLSL Example Code
Level Saving Example Code
Level Loading Example Code
Week 9:

Mar 2
Slides [PDF][PPT]


Advanced Topics


Mar 4
Slides [PDF][PPT]
Advanced Topics (Contd...)

Due: Project Playable Prototype and schedule revisions
Week 10

Mar 9
Slides [PDF][PPT]
Final Exam Review
Evaluations

Due: Particle Effects
Mar 11
Slides [PDF][PPT]
Final Exam Review and special section for project help
 

Grading

Grades for the class are determined as follows:

Midterm exam: 15%
Final exam: 15%
Homework: 32% (4 assignments, each worth 8%)
Term project: 38%, broken down as follows (percentages are of final course grade, and sum to 38%)
Team selection: 1%
Game concept document: 5%
Work breakdown and schedule: 3%
Technical design document: 6%
Partially operational game prototype: 7%
Updated schedule: 1%
Final game project: 15%

The term project is a group project with groups of up to 4 students based on the Microsoft Imagine Cup project themes.

Other graded elements of class are performed individually.

Failure to submit a final game project may lead to failure of the entire course.

Homeworks and Projects

Project Related Submissions:
Team Formation
Design Document with individual weekly milestones
Technical design document
Partially operational game prototype
Development schedule revisions
Final Submission

Individal Homework
Hunt the Wumpus
Quadtrees
Particle Effects
3D Camera Controller (Cancelled)


Resources

Patterns in Game Design, Staffan Bjork & Jussi Holopainen, Charles River Media, 2005.