IMGD 1001 Practice Mid-Term Exam

The below questions are designed to provide practice for the mid-term exam. They are not necessarily complete, as carefully vetted as the exam questions may be, nor carefully timed. Still, it should provide the "flavor" for the exam questions. Use them as an aid in studying, in addition to reading, memorizing, self-quizzing, preparing a one-pager, etc.

  1. Describe, in no more than 1-2 sentences each, the role of the Developer, Publisher, and Retailer in the game development process.

  2. What is level design? Roughly, where does it occur in the game development process?

  3. In what ways, in terms of team size and makeup, have game development teams changed over the past 20 years? Why?

  4. Briefly describe why a toy is not a game. How can you make a toy into a game?

  5. Name at least two aspects you lose when making a board game into a computer game. Name at least two aspects you gain when making a board game into a computer game.

  6. What is game theory? Provide one example of how it can be used to inform gameplay or otherwise develop a game.

  7. A simple game features a knight and priest fighting a single opponent at a time. The knight fights in the front with a sword, the hunter in the back with arrows. The priest can either heal the knight or cast a bolt at the opponent. Assume the heal and bolt do the same healing/damage, respectively. If the player is manipulating the priest, why does this simple game not have interesting gameplay? Describe a way to make the gameplay more interesting.

  8. What is Impermanence as a tool for ensuring interesting choices? Describe how you could use it in a first-person shooter game to make the gameplay more interesting.

  9. What are Supporting Investments as a tool for ensuring interesting choices? Describe how you could use them in a real-time strategy game to make the gameplay more interesting.

  10. What is "positive feedback" for a synergistic game relationship? Provide an example.

  11. What are key frames in animation?

  12. When creating an artistic scene, it is often useful to use "broad strokes" in the creation process. What does this mean?

  13. What is a reference as it relates to visual design and production for games?

  14. What are some of the differences between NURBS and Polygonal modeling?

  15. What are faces, normals and backface culling as they related to polygonal modeling?

  16. Briefly describe some ways to effectively reduce the polygon count, with examples where appropriate. Why might you want to do this?

  17. What is box modeling?

  18. What is a texture and how does it relate to a shader?

  19. What is an alpha channel?

  20. Provide some brief examples of how lighting can be used to influence mood.

  21. What is a key light? What is a fill light? What kind of light would you use to make "pools of light" in a scene?

Return to the IMGD 1001 Home Page

Send all questions to the TA mailing list (imgd1001-ta at cs.wpi.edu).