Interactive Media & Game Development Worcester Polytechnic Institute	IMGD

Required Texts:

Read each chapter when it is assigned. The readings discuss much more than can be covered in class, and we will cover things not in the books. There will be in-class quizzes on the readings, and each reading assignment contains practice questions from the reading. You must come to class prepared!

• RABIN: Introduction to Game Development, Second Edition, by Steve Rabin, 2009, Charles River Media, ISBN: 1584506792
  The best book I've found for (nearly) comprehensive coverage of the material in this course. The chapters are individually authored, giving the book rather uneven levels of detail and tone from chapter to chapter, but many of the selected chapters are quite good. At nearly 1,000 pages, it has considerably more material than will covered in a term, but it should make a good reference beyond the course.
  Chapters: 2.1, 6.1, 6.2, 7.2, 7.3
  E-TEXT

• BATES: Game Design, by Bob Bates. Course Technology PTR; 2 edition, 2004. ISBN: 1592004938
  Very solid book on game design principles.
  Chapter: 10
  E-TEXT

• FELDMAN: Designing Arcade Computer Game Graphics, by Ari Feldman. Out of Print, 2000. But, the link above has the whole book for download!
  Emphasizes the development of 2D graphics for computer games, including animation, proper color usage, and fonts.
  Chapter: 9
  E-TEXT

• KOSTER: A Theory of Fun for Game Design, by Raph Koster. Paraglyph Press; 1 edition, 2004. ISBN: 1932111972
  A classic book talking about what makes games fun.
  Chapters: 3, 5
  E-TEXT

• CRAWFORD: Chris Crawford on Game Design, by Chris Crawford. New Riders, 2003. ISBN: 0131460994
  If you can look past Crawford's arrogance, there are a lot of good war stories about game development and some good, general game design tips.
  Chapter: 7
  E-TEXT

Required Software:

Course Objectives:

This course will introduce you to the roles of different participants in the game development process, and how technical and artistic development proceed in tandem. Group work is emphasized, especially the importance of collaboration between technical and artistic efforts. You will be expected to participate in group-based game development projects using appropriate tools.

While playing video games has become very popular, actually building them requires the bringing together of various technical and artistic pieces.

There are several objectives for this course:

• Understand the roles of the major participants in developing games
• Use iterative design and development practices to create a playable game
• Acquire skill in manipulating a typical set of tools required for developing games
• Gain experience and develop skills in working in teams on game projects with short deadlines
• Learn how to bring together graphics, audio, scripting, testing, and documentation
• Learn how to communicate your ideas to others, as well as to identify challenges you are facing
• Begin to develop a sense of which aspects of the game development process interest you most
• Do some cool stuff!

There are many other elements that must come together to make a successful game. Thankfully, you have four years, and a whole array of IMGD courses, within which to accumulate skills and experience in these areas. Therefore, deep programming, game design and artistic skills will be covered in other courses, and in your IQP and MQP projects.

Therefore, there are some things we won't be stressing in this course. The main ones include deep programming skills, and traditional detailed artistic skills. These and other topics will be covered in other courses, and your projects.

Recommended Background:

Course Structure:

• In-class lectures and discussion
• Solo and group projects
• Out-of-class readings
• Frequent in-class quizzes

Exams and Quizzes:

Quizzes will always be administered at the beginning of a class. If you miss a quiz for any reason, you cannot take it later. This is intended to encourageme you to arrive in class on time.

Take these quizzes seriously! Five of the six quizzes will each be worth 5% of your final grade. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped.

If you pay attention in class, complete the reading assignments on time and ask questions, you should have no problem with the quizzes.

Grading:

The base level grade will be a B, which indicates that the basic objectives on assignments and participation have been met.

An A grade will indicate significant achievement beyond the basic objectives. Each major assignment will offer suggested ways to exceed minimum requirements.

A grade of C will indicate not all basic objectives were met, but work was satisfactory for credit.

No incomplete grades or makeup assignments will be given unless there exist exceptional, extenuating circumstances.

Assignment weighting is as follows:
25%	Six Quizzes (5% each, lowest grade dropped)
5%	Intro Assignment
15%	Treatment Document/Presentation
10%	Asset List
15%	First Playable
5%	Status Reports
20%	Final Prototype
5%	Testing & Evaluation

Here are the Final Projects that were produced by this class.

Attendance:

If you have an unavoidable need to miss a class, you don't need special permission, but you are responsible for the material covered even if you're not in class.

Do not come to class or meet with your project team if you become ill with flu-like symptoms.

Please email me ASAP if you know you will be unable to attend a class.

Participation:

Projects:

Late Policy:

Office Hours:

Discussion Boards:

General:

Class Conduct:

• Arrive at class on time.
• Turn off cell phones, pagers and all sound-producing devices before class begins. They must remain turned off until class is ended.
• Please be considerate of other students by avoiding use of distracting applications.
• No extraneous conversations. This is disrespectful of other students and really annoys your instructor.
• Do not leave or pack up early. Your instructor will dismiss you.

Academic Honesty:

Any breach of professional ethics as evidenced, for example, by copying exams or projects, downloading code from the Internet, cooperating in more than discussions and study groups, misusing computer resources, or using outside help of any kind, will be considered adequate reason for an NR in the course.

Group projects are designed so that every member gains a significant amount of new material. In the workplace, each team member is expected to contribute. Participants in group projects in this course should keep this in mind, and act accordingly. In evaluating each group, all team members will be asked to distribute a fixed set of "points" to the rest of their team, based on how much each member contributed.

It is to be emphasized that knowledge of material and professional behavior are tied together; failure in one of them negates any excellence in the other. Students who stay in the course past the first three days agree to adhere to the strictest rules of professional behavior.

The official WPI statements on Academic Honesty can be accessed at http://www.wpi.edu/offices/policies/honesty.html. Those who have any doubt about what that means, and fail to gain that understanding after a discussion with the instructor, are encouraged to drop this class. Remember this warning - any breach of ethics will earn you an NR.

Disabilities:

If you have not already done so, students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class must contact the Disability Service Office (DSO) as soon as possible to ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely manner.

The DSO is located in Daniels Hall. Their phone is 508-831-5235.

Course Schedule:

Schedule for Office Hours:

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:00
:30
10:00	IMGD 1001 FL 311	IMGD 1001 FL 311		IMGD 1001 FL 311	IMGD 1001 FL 311
:30
11:00
:30
12:00
:30
1:00			Lab Section #1
:30
2:00
:30
3:00		Jia's Office Hours	Lab Section #2	Jia's Office Hours
:30
4:00
:30
5:00
:30
6:00
:30
7:00
:30
8:00
:30

Main Web Resources

Possible sources for content you can use in your games:

• Ari Feldman's SpriteLib. Here you can download the free SpriteLib GPL written by Ari Feldman with many sprites that have potential.
• Reiner's Tilesets. A site with a huge number of attractive tilesets and animated characters. And they are free.
• Midi World Many different midi (sound) files can be found here.
• FlashKit sound effects. A site with a huge number of sound effects (for Flash, but works with GameMaker, too).
• Video Game Music Archive. Contains midi files of lots of game music.
• GameDev.net. Many sprites available (and other stuff if you look around).

You have to work in groups for the projects. For some groups, it comes as naturally as a putting on socks before putting on your shoes. For others, it takes effort. You might read (and re-read periodically) some Top 12 Tips for Groups. Go over these as a group!

A list (certainly, not comprehensive) of some of the tools available to help build games:

• Introductory game development environments
  • GameMaker
  • Scratch
  • Alice
  • Gamestar Mechanic
  • Power Game Factory (for Mac side-scrollers)
• Blitz Basic
• Dark Basic

GameMaker stuff:

• Yoyo Games Main Page
• GameMaker Home Page
• GameMaker Lite for Mac Download
• GameMaker Lite for Windows Download
• GameMaker Wiki
• Gamasutra
• RMRK: a good forum for GameMaker stuff

Previous Offerings:

• A Term, 2008
• A Term, 2007
• A Term, 2006
• C Term, 2006
• C Term, 2005

Other Helpful Readings:

• Game Architecture and Design - A New Edition, by Andrew Rollings and Dave Morris
  A book about the "Game Development Process", but missing artistic content creation and programming. A bit wordy, but with good information and examples on the areas of Game Design, Team Management, and Game Architecture.
  Chapters: 1, 2, 3 and 5

• Gameplay and Design, by Kevin Oxland. Addison Wesley, 2004. ISBN: 0-231-20467-0
  Includes easy-to-read descriptions of the game development process in two phases: components of a game design and the process of creating and formatting design documents. Examples of a Norbot game are worked throughout the text.
  Chapter: 18

• Tutorial: What is a Good Game?, by Mark Overmars. 2004.
  A narrative describing some of the ingredients in a (good) game.

• Creating the Art of the Game, by Matthew Omernick. New Riders, 2004. ISBN: 0735714096
  An informative, easy-to-read book on creating 3D art for games.
  Chapters: Foreword, 1 and 2

• Enhancing the Impact of Music in Drama Oriented-Games, by Scott Morton.
  Includes a close look at using music in games, including an informative list of good tips and common mistakes, with examples.
  

• Behind the Mask - Perceptual Coding: How MP3 Compression Works, by Paul Sellers.
  Explains the basic theory behind MP3 encoding, and offers some tips on making coded files sound better.

• On Game Design, by Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams. New Riders, 2003. ISBN: 1-5927-3001-9
  A good book for a "Critical Studies of Games" course, but with some solid game design material for a "Game Development" course.

• The Game Maker's Apprentice, by Jacob Habgood and Mark Overmars. APress, 2006. ISBN 1590596153
  From the creator of Game Maker, this book provides detailed tutorials about creating games, along with general game design guidelines. Comes with a CD-ROM containing the Game Maker source code for the tutorials.

• Audio for Games: Planning, Process and Production, by Alexander Brandon. New Riders, 2004. ISBN: 0735714134
  Information on audio technology and how it fits in with the game development process.

• Game Coding Complete, by Mike McShaffry. Paraglyph Press, 2003. ISBN: 1-932111-75-1
  On the process of programming computer games, including tips and tricks used by real game programmers.

• Developing Games in Java, by David Brackeen. New Riders, 2004. ISBN: 1592730051
  If you want to code games in Java, this book provides good examples of AI, 2d and 3d graphics, and multiplayer games, using the Java libraries.

• The Indie Game Development Survival Guide, Game Development Series, by David Michael. Charles River Media, 2003. ISBN: 1-58450-214-2
  The title sounds like it would be right on for those that want to develop games in their garage, but the content matter is a bit light weight. ... But, it does tell a complete story about developing games start to finish and has some words of wisdom.

• Awesome Game Creation - No Programming Required, Second Edition, by Luke Ahearn and Clayton Crooks. Charles River Media, 2002. ISBN: 1-58450-223-1
  Introduction to software for building games without writing code. Includes a CD with versions of many game development toolkits.

• So You Want To Be A Pixel Artist?, by Tsugumo
  Nice discussion of 2D art & animation, with lots of examples.