Last modified on 04/26/2016
CSC 329: Introduction to Game Programming
Final game presentation:
Location: UB 305. Here is the schedule for the final presentations. Each presentation will be 15 min followed by a small feedback and discussion. Please be prepared to show your game. All sources need to be uploaded into the home folder of the class (as you did throughout the semester). Please see instructions on assignment 10 (final game).
Also: please build a WebGL project from your game (under File > Build Settings) and copy the entire folder into your home folder under 'final' and send us the link to the game. That way we can play the game while you give your presentation and have a better impression. It only takes minutes to build the project and copy the resulting folder into your home folder.
Slides:
Other material:
How to upload assignments/homework:
You submit solutions (text, sources and binaries) to your assignments by uploading them into your account. You will find a directory 'hw<n>' for each assignment in your home directory. Please use only this particular folder for submission. If you have any problems with the process of submission, contact Christopher before due date, otherwise it may be treated as a late submission.
Instructions for uploading:
Linux/Unix: You should be familiar with using scp. If not, use man scp within a terminal window and follow the explanation. As an example: assume you have your program and the sources in a local directory 'hw01' and you cd into one level above this directory, type:
scp -r hw01/* <username>@lee.cs.miami.edu:hw01
to upload it.
Windows: WinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/download.php) is a compact graphical scp-client. Otherwise, you can also use PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html) and then the Linux scp version as described before.
Mac: Two options: 1) open Terminal and follow instructions under Linux/Unix. 2) Use Cyberduck (http://cyberduck.ch) as a GUI client.
Game Presentations:
Location: UB 305. Here is the schedule for the final presentations. Each presentation will be 15 min followed by a small feedback and discussion. Please be prepared to show your game. All sources need to be uploaded into the home folder of the class (as you did throughout the semester). Please see instructions on assignment 10 (final game).
Also: please build a WebGL project from your game (under File > Build Settings) and copy the entire folder into your home folder under 'final' and send us the link to the game. That way we can play the game while you give your presentation and have a better impression. It only takes minutes to build the project and copy the resulting folder into your home folder.
Slides:
- Introduction: Introduction.pdf
- Genres: Genres.pdf
- Concurrency and Threads: Concurrency.pdf
- 2D Graphics & Animation: 2DGraphicsAnimation.pdf (CoinSheet.psd, CoinSheet.png)
- Sound Effects & Music: SoundUnity.pdf (older material containing filter effects: Sound.pdf)
- Collision Detection: CollisionDetection.pdf, Script for spawning
- Path Finding: UninformedSearch.pdf, InformedSearchHeuristics.pdf, PathFindingGames.pdf
- Artificial Intelligence: AI.pdf
- Assignment 1: Game Presentation
- Assignment 2: Concurrency, (Interference.java, ThreadPool.java)
// designed by Joe Masterjohn - Assignment 3: Sprites and Animation, (csc329-project, sprites.zip)
- Assignment 4: Character animation by interpolation (csc329-project, invertible matrix proof)
// designed by Joe Masterjohn - Assignment 5: Game Design Document
- Assignment 6: Game Development
- Assignment 7: Sound Effects & Music
- Assignment 8: Collision Detection
- Assignment 9: Path Finding, (csc329-project)
// designed by Joe Masterjohn - Assignment 10: Final Game (with AI)
Other material:
- Multi-Threading in C# (by Joe Albahari)
- Sprites resources, Unity Asset Store
- Unity scripts as behavior components (Unity tutorial)
- Unity manual
- Unity "How-to's" (scripting and implementation tipps)
How to upload assignments/homework:
You submit solutions (text, sources and binaries) to your assignments by uploading them into your account. You will find a directory 'hw<n>' for each assignment in your home directory. Please use only this particular folder for submission. If you have any problems with the process of submission, contact Christopher before due date, otherwise it may be treated as a late submission.
Instructions for uploading:
Linux/Unix: You should be familiar with using scp. If not, use man scp within a terminal window and follow the explanation. As an example: assume you have your program and the sources in a local directory 'hw01' and you cd into one level above this directory, type:
scp -r hw01/* <username>@lee.cs.miami.edu:hw01
to upload it.
Windows: WinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/download.php) is a compact graphical scp-client. Otherwise, you can also use PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html) and then the Linux scp version as described before.
Mac: Two options: 1) open Terminal and follow instructions under Linux/Unix. 2) Use Cyberduck (http://cyberduck.ch) as a GUI client.
Game Presentations:
|
01. World of Warcraft
02. Virtua Fighter 03. FIFA X 04. Alone in the Dark 05. Chronicles of Riddick 06. Doom 07. Night Trap 08. RezHD 09. Caution Seaman 10. Super Mario (64) 11. Final Fantasy 12. L.A. Noire 13. Wolfenstein 3D |
01/21
01/21 01/28 01/28 02/04 02/04 02/11 02/11 02/18 02/18 02/25 02/25 03/03 |
Robert
Joshua Conor Daragh Pedro, Michael Randy, Kelvin Anita, Ronan Nick Haorui, Bingzhi Xavier, Natan William, Jeffrey Sherman, Alan Joshue |
Introduction
The game industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and is still growing. Years ago, the technology forced games to have simple designs. Programs could often be developed by a small team of pure hackers with the major requirement being a good idea. Back then, formal training and education was not considered that important. Now, it is almost essential.
Games are so complex these days that they require months if not years to be developed, usually by a large team of programmers, designers, artists, testers, and producers to organize and develop them. Games are now as complex as, if not more than, the latest blockbuster movie. It is an interactive entertainment, pure and simple.
The tools and training needed for game development are enormous, and the complexities warrant academic education beyond a single course. In fact, an entire undergraduate curriculum could be designed and justified for game development.
This course is still experimental and evolutionary in nature. It was offered and shaped in the past by Dr. Christian Duncan and carried out by Dr. Uttam Sarkar. The present structure is from scratch and new at this University, however, it inherits some good ideas from Christian and Uttam. I am grateful to my colleagues for their contributions.
Course objectives Ideally, it would be worth looking at the entire area of game development including story boarding, 3D modeling, sophisticated sound effects etc. -- but -- that would take years! Realistically, we would instead take this class as an opportunity to explore the basics behind game programming and related issues befalling game development and the gaming industry. While the course is expected to incorporate interests and game development skills from the students, one must not carry the unwanted hope of mastering all it takes to develop a commercial quality game in a semester.
However, the course will focus on necessary topics for creating 2D games.
Pre-requisites and Preparation
The only pre-requisite this course is CSC120 and CSC220 with a strong preference for CSC322 (C programming). The course would best fit students who love programming and who also like do a lot of study and net-searching of game related resources.
Instructor
Dr. Ubbo Visser. Contact details. This page gives also digital copies of assignments and slides (if not already on the WWW as HTML version). Particular office hours are not given, students who want to talk to me are encouraged to make an appointment with me in class or via email. Students are encouraged to ask questions by email at all times.
Teaching Assistant
Joe Masterjohn Email: j.masterjohn@umiami.edu
TA lab hours: Monday 11am-1pm; Thursday 2-4pm UB305
Grader
Andreas Panayi Email: a.panayi@umiami.edu
Contact Hours
Each week there are two 75 minutes sessions (TuTh 8:AMPM - 9:15AM)
Classroom: MM 117
Recommended Text Book
There are a lot of books available with regard to game programming. However, I haven’t found a good textbook yet that covers what I would like to do in the course. We will start with a new format in this course using an existing game engine rather than building a game engine from scratch. We will use Unity 2D throughout the course. Online material and tutorials are manyfold and I therefore won't recommend a book for this course.
Course Content
Course material contains material from various sources reflecting the following content: Fundamental issues behind developing a game application. Fundamental programming issues in game design: Software design; Version control; Basic graphics; GUI programming; Networking; Artificial intelligence; Scripting languages; Sound. Large-scale game project: Team development of a functional game; Graphics and GUI component; Networking component; Core game engine. BSP trees, Collision detection.
Grading (will be based on a total of 100 points)
Homework: 60%
Final: 40%
Scoring of Homework Assignments
The score of each homework will be mentioned in it. The total score of all homework assignments will be scaled down to 60 points at the end of the semester for the purpose of final grading. For example, if all homework assignments collectively carry 100 points and a student gets 90 out of 100, he/she gets 90*60/100 or 54 out of 60 in Homework Assignment component for final grading.
Final
There will be no final written exam as in many other classes. Instead, you will present your game!
Class attendance and participation
Class attendance is not mandatory, although my exams will depend heavily of my lectures. Not all of the material will come from the text book. Class participation is also important. Active interest in lectures is the easiest way to learn.
Plagiarism
The penalty for copied homework of any kind can be immediate failure in the course. My policy on programs is as follows: There is no reason for two (or more) people handing in identical or nearly identical programs. I will regard such programs as either group-written or simply copied. If I have no hard evidence of copying, such programs will receive NO credit. More serious actions will be taken in cases where there is evidence of cheating.
Late programs
Unless otherwise stated, programs will lose 20% of their value for each weekday (Monday through Friday) that they are late, down to a minimum value of 20%. The due date of a program is the latest date on which it can be run to get full credit.
Dropping the course
Unless there are extreme extenuating circumstances, I will not allow anyone to drop a course after the drop date. Poor academic performance will never be an acceptable reason for a late drop. The drop date for this course can be seen in the academic calendar.
Incompletes
Unless there has been a documentable illness that caused you to miss substantial amounts of class and computer time, I will not give an incomplete grade in this course. Therefore, please do NOT waste my time asking about an incomplete grade unless you have a remarkably good reason.
Make-up exams
I do not give make-up exams. You simply must show up and take them at the specified times.
Presentations:
The final game presentations will be held on one or two days at the end of the semester or during the finals.
Evaluation of final project: Many students have asked about components that the game needs to have for the final presentation. You can imagine that this is not easy to answer given the variety of games that can be presented. It wouldn't make sense to add Pathfinding and NavMeshes if your game is a board game for example. So, instead of having mandatory components we will evaluate your final game based on the continuous work that you have done on your game since the last assignment as well as the presentation itself and the components your game has to offer.