Department of Computer Science Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Textbooks

• RABIN: Introduction to Game Development, by Steve Rabin, 2005, Charles River Media, ISBN: 1-58450-377-7
  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: 3.1, 3.2, 3.5, 5.5, 6.2, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 7.2, and 7.3

• 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

• ROLLINGS: 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

• OXLAND: 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

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

• OMERNICK: 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

• 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

• MORTON: 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.
  

• SELLERS: 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.

Other helpful books:

• 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.

Course Objectives:

This course discusses the process of game development. It examines the roles of different participants in the 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. Students are expected to participate in game development using appropriate game development tools.

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

It seems most people involved in game development first got into the field because they found creating games was at least as much fun as playing them. Hopefully you will feel this way too.

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 things that must come together to make a successful game. Thankfully, you have four years, and a whole array of courses, within which to accumulate skills and experience in many of these.

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.

Grading:

Attendance:

Projects:

Late Policy:

Exams:

Office Hours:

Discussion Boards:

General:

The IMGD lab (AK 120D) can be used for this course, and the latest version of Game Maker (7.0) has been installed there. It will also be installed shortly in Kaven 202 and 207. The rest of the labs on campus should have version 6.1 in stalled. Both versions should work fine, though 7.0 is more robust (read: it doesn't crash as much ;-)).

Class Conduct:

Individual projects are expected to be done individually. As such, students are encouraged to discuss their work with each other, but are also expected to do the work by themselves.

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/Pubs/Policies/Honesty/Students/. 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.

Course Schedule:

Schedule for Office Hours:

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:00
:30
10:00	Mark's Office Hours FL-B24b	Mark/Rob's Office Hours FL-B24			Rob's Office Hours FL-B24a
:30
11:00	TJ's Office Hours FL-222	TJ's Office Hours FL-222
:30
12:00					Mark's Office Hours FL-B24b
:30
1:00	IMGD 1001 (Early) HL-116	IMGD 1001 (Early) HL-116	Paulo's Office Hours FL-222	IMGD 1001 (Early) HL-116	IMGD 1001 (Early) HL-116
:30
2:00		Paulo's Office Hours FL-222	Paulo's Office Hours FL-222	TJ's Office Hours FL-222	TJ's Office Hours FL-222
:30
3:00	IMGD 1001 (Late) SL-305	IMGD 1001 (Late) SL-305		IMGD 1001 (Late) SL-305	IMGD 1001 (Late) SL-305
:30
4:00				Rob's Office Hours FL-B24a	Paulo's Office Hours FL-222
:30
5:00					Paulo's Office Hours FL-222
:30
6:00
:30
7:00
:30
8:00
:30

Web Resources

Mid-term exam:

• Mid-term Exam Topic Outline
• Mid-term Practice Exam
• Mid-term Practice Exam Solution

Final exam:

• Final Exam Topic Outline
• Final Practice Exam
• Final Practice Exam Solution

Game maker stuff:

• Game Maker Wiki
• Gamasutra
• RMRK: a good forum for Game Maker stuff

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 work. You might read (and re-read periodically) some of the documents below (and go over as a group!):

• Top 12 Tips for Groups
• Tips for Working Successfully in a Group

Previous Offerings

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