Instructor: Dr. John F. Santore
Phone: 508-531-2226
Office: Science Center 333
E-Mail: jsantore@bridgew.edu
Instructor Web Page: http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jsantore/
Course Web Page:
http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jsantore/Fall2021/GameDes/
Office Hours for Fall 2021:
Monday: 5:00-5:50 (before the grad class)
Tuesday: 11am-noon
Thursday: noon-1pm
Friday: 10-11am
or by appointment
I also
will take appointments if you cannot make my other
office hours, however, I generally have meetings and
work prepared for a day or two ahead so plan on about 48
hours from the time I get your request to us being able
to meet.
Course Description:
In this course we will look at the whole life cycle of
game development. We will focus on 2D games, avoiding some
of the implementation details that hinder the development of
3D games. Students will begin with sketching out ideas,
implement 2D graphics-based games. Students will experiment
with 2D game concepts like scrolling, tiled maps and
creating the illusion of infinite space. We will look at
game Artificial Intelligence including pathing and goal
selection. Students will also explore issues of art
selection for games, including copyright issues and
intellectual property.
Course Outcomes:
By the end of the course each student
should:
-
be
able to implement basic 2d techniques like
tiling, parallax and others
-
understand
the intellectual property laws associated with
game development and design.
-
understand
and implement the client server and secure server
techniques needed for a multiplayer game
-
understand
and implement some basic game AI
-
understand
the various game publication and target venues and
the strengths and weaknesses of each.
- demonstrate
an understanding of the formal elements of game design
and how they can be used in designing your own games.
Textbooks:
| Required
Textbook: |
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| Title: |
The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses
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Authors:
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Jesse
Schnell |
ISBN
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978-1466598645
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Class Requirements and grading:
Programming projects: 30%
Game Development projects 25%
Exams: 35% (one midterm @15% and one final @20%)
Everything else (quizzes, participation, homeworks etc):
10%
Game Programming Projects:
This is a
computer science course in game development. We will
write a number of game and game-like programs starting
from simple toys and working up to more complex games.
All programming projects are to be done individually
unless otherwise indicated on the assignment page.
Game
Development Projects:
This class will
also require you to work through some more theoretical
exercizes in game development. This part of the course
will require writing, analsis, and perhaps even some
cutting and pasting (with like scissers and glue now a
swipe or mouse). These assignments will be individual to
begin with, but many will allow or require coordination
later on. Each assignment will specify whether it is
individual or group work.
Exams:
Exams allow the student and the
instructor the opportunity to asses how much of the
material from the course the student has learned and
retained. There will be two exams in this course, a
Midterm, to be given on October 22/23 (depending on
section), and a final exam scheduled by the University.
Everything
else:
We will have
quizzes worth a very small portion of your grade in the
weeks leading up to the midterm and the final. These
quizzes are intended to prepare you for the exams which
are worth much more of your grade. We may have homeworks
from time to time, particularly if a class is cancelled
for any reason.
Students with special needs:
Anyone
who has special needs should contact me in the first week of
classes so that reasonable accommodations can be agreed on.
Academic Integrity:
See the
BSU Academic Integrity statement
(most recent available at the moment) for a complete
description of the academic integrity procedure at
Bridgewater.
Academic integrity will be taken very seriously
in this class. All individual work must be your own. If
you cheat or otherwise represent the work of others as
your own. You will receive an F for the course.
Guidelines for proper academic integrity:
Discussing problems with your classmates can help
you understand the problems and kinds of solutions to
those problems that you will learn about in this class. In
an effort to make in clear what sort of discussions are
appropriate and encouraged in this class and which cross
the line to academic dishonesty I use the following
guidelines: You may discuss any out of class problem I
assign in this class with your classmates or other so long
as no one is using any sort of recording implement
including, but not limited to, computers, digital
recorders, pens, pencils, phones etc. This lets you talk
about theoretical solutions without sharing the actual
implementations. As soon as anyone in the group is typing,
writing etc, all conversations must stop. You may look at
someone else's program code only very briefly in order to
spot a simple syntax error. As a rule of thumb, if you
find yourself looking at someone else's code for more than
about 30-45 seconds it is probably time to stop. If you
are having trouble with your program, come to the
instructors office hours for more help.
Furthermore, this is an upper level computer
science class, using examples and online resources as
*part* of your solution is reasonable and expected. If you
use something from an online resource, you need to comment
that section of your code (one at the beginning and one at
the end) with the source of the borrowed code. This
borrowed code can't be more than 20% of the assignment.
Some in class exams and quizzes are closed book
and closed neighbor. If you are found using a data storage
device of any kind during one of these evaluations, you
will be failed for the course.
Those that are open book, will allow electronic
storage so long as no AI assistants or search facilities
are used.
Of course for your
group work, your entire group is intended to produce a single
deliverable and are expected to work together on all parts of
that so the above does not apply to members of a group working
together on their group work.
Standards
for in class behavior:
You
are all adults and are expected to act as adults in this
class. While questions are encouraged in this class, if a
particular line of questioning is taking us too far afield,
I will ask the student to come by my office hours or to see
me after class.
Cell
phones, electronic organizers and other devices should
be silenced while in class. If you work for EMS or are the
emergency contact for a loved one or something similar,
please turn your cell phones etc to vibrate mode so that you
are not disrupting others in the class.
In
the unlikely case of trouble makers in the class, those who
are simply attempting to disrupt the class will be asked to
stop; those who will not, will be referred to the University
for appropriate action.
Tentative Schedule:
I may well change the order of the topics depending on how
things are going in the semester.
Week
|
Topic
|
| Week 1 |
Introduction to the class |
| Week 2 |
level up your python for upper level classes
|
| Week 3 |
Intro to Arcade, scrollers, and sprites, sound and
collisions;
game design basics:
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| Week 4 |
Game programming: tiling and maps
Game design: platforms and player modes
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Week 5
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Game programming: Animations, timers and other
important little bits
Game Design: game goals
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Week 6
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Game Programming: Vectors, movement and perhaps some
'physics'
Game Design: Players
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Week 7
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Midterm and ??
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Week 8
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Game Programming:
multiplayer games and networks
Game Design: Mechanics
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Week 9
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Game Programming: multiplayer games and networks II
Game Design: Mechanics and relationship with other
elements
|
Week 10
|
Game Programming Game AI
Game Design: prototyping
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Week 11
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Game Programming Game AI II
Game Design: playtesting
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Week 12
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Intellectual property - the foundation of games
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Week 13
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Game Programming:
security/ multiplayer III
Game Design: community and game mechanics.
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Week 14
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TBA
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Final Exam week
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