CSC 395-02: Game Design & Programming

Instructor
Dawn Nye

Office Hours
By appointment (Noyce 2811). Let me know the day before you want to meet (or earlier), and we can make something work. I also keep late hours and will usually answer Teams messages and emails late into the night.

Mentor
Michael O’Connor

Mentor Sessions
W 7-8 PM at Noyce 3819

Meeting Times
MWF 1:00-1:50 PM at Noyce 3819

Course Description
This course will provide students with a broad range of experiences in game design, software development, AI, computer graphics, and oration all aimed at video game development. Students will, over the course of the semester, prototype a video game of their own design in small groups using the programming techniques and design philosophies presented in the class. These topics will include, but are not limited to, core game loop structures, game software architecture, 2D/3D movement, collision detection, AI movement/steering behaviors, AI coordination and decision making, tactical vs strategic planning, turn-based vs real-time behaviors, and game platforms such as MonoGame, Unity, Unreal, and so on.

In addition, student groups will give several oral presentations during the class. They will have the opportunity to pitch their game in a number of simulated scenarios, including a short ‘elevator pitch’ as well as in a more formal mock interview setting.

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Topics and Readings

Below are the (immediately) upcoming and previous topics we will cover in class. More will be added as the semester advances.

Topic	Associated Reading/Notes/Slides
Introductions
History of Video Games	Slides
The Big Project	The Project
C#	Experience the Difference A Lot of C# Tutorials by RB Whitaker
MonoGame	Getting Started A Lot of XNA (MonoGame’s Nearly Identical Precursor) Tutorials by RB Whitaker A Lot of MonoGame Tutorials by RB Whitaker FOR MAC USERS Step By Step Instructions to Set Up Everything How To Tame Your Mac (Video Instructions) For further questions, email h@nnah.io, who, out of the goddess of her own heart, has put these materials together.
Pitches/Design Docs	Notes The Anatomy of a Design Document National STEM Video Game Challenge: Game Design Documents Example Elevator Pitch Flyer NEW: Example Game Pitch Slides
Affine Transformations	A Crash Course on Linear Algebra Tips and Tricks Notes
Game Design	Intro to Game Design
Collision Detection	Developing Collision Detection –Quick General Convex Polygon Collision Detection (via the Separating Axis Theorem) AABB Tree Example Quadtree Example The Sweep and Prune Algorithm in Detail Resolving Collisions – New!!! Use a Physics Engine (Like This One!?) Or Write Your Own
3D	Blender Tutorial Series
Game Architecture	Entity-Component vs Blobject vs Chaos Entity-Component-System Small ECS Game Walkthrough The Unknown Design Pattern There’s a Wiki!?
AI	Collider Queries Minimax Global Behaviors from Local Decisions –Flocking Principles Behavior Trees –More Reading Fuzzy Logic –The Full Formal Treatment Textbook: Grinnell Library
Shaders	Background Lab – Let’s Make More Shaders –Secondary Lighting Tutorial –Blinn-Phong Lighting Advanced Techniques –Normal Mapping (more advanced form of Bump Mapping) –Skyboxes and Reflections –Shadow Maping —Shadow volumes
HCI	Guest Lecture Slides
Bepu Physics	The Repo (obtain via the NuGet Package) -Contains demos (Demos.sln) Getting Started –More Approachable Example Code
Procedural Content Generation	Introduction Genetic Algorithms –Notes Generating Structures Noise and Terrain Grammars Graph Grammars Textbook: https://www.pcgbook.com/
Jumping (and Related Math)	Math for Game Programmers: Building a Better Jump 5 Tips for Better Platformer Controls Why Does Celeste Feel So Good to Play? Platformer Toolkit (Interactive Tutorial!!!)
Miscellaneous Topics	Trigger Colliders Pathfinding Debugging Games

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Course Outline

Course topics will eventually include (approximately in the order presented) but are not limited to:

• Video game history
• Game design
• Game pitches
• Video game design/documentation
• Video game software architecture
• 2D game platforms
  • Core rendering techniques
  • Core platform architecture
• 2D movement and collision detection
• 3D game platforms
  • Core rendering techniques
  • Core platform architecture
• 3D movement and collision detection
• Animation
• Input/output management
• Kinetic vs dynamic movement
• AI mathematical foundations
• AI kinetic movement and dynamics steering behaviors
• AI movement coordination and group decision making
• Pathfinding
• Tactical vs strategic planning
• Turing-based AI vs real-time AI
• A final game prototype presentation

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Course Objectives

• Students will learn to create a game pitch document and pitch presentation
• Students will learn to create a well-written game design document
• Students will prototype a game of their own design using their game design document
• Students will understand basic game architecture paradigms and concepts such as:
  • Core game loops independent of concrete implementation
  • Input/output management
  • Movement
  • Physics
  • Shaders
  • AI
• Students will learn how to incorporate AI into computer games with the opportunity to utilize more advanced AI techniques upon interest