Department of Computer Science Worcester Polytechnic Institute

IMGD 1001 Practice Mid-Term Exam Solution

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

    
   Ans: 
   
   Developer - responsible for creating the game, including design,
   programming, and artistic content creation.
   
   Publisher - provides financial support for the game.  Responsible
   for manufacturing, marketing and customer support, among other
   things.
   
   Retailer - sells the games to the consumer
   

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

    
   Ans: Level design is the process of creating levels for a game,
   using the implemented development tools and gameplay rules, with the
   intent of providing interesting gameplay.  Level design occurs in the
   latter stages of game development when most of the game coding and
   content has been created.  

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

   Ans: In general, game development teams have grown and
   increasingly include artists, designers and even producers in addition
   to programmers.  This change has been fueled by the increase in
   computer capabilities that have allowed for increasing support for
   graphics and music, and also by the market demand for high-impact,
   hit-driven games.
   

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

   Ans: A toy is not a game because it does not provide
   any built-in goals.  A toy can become part of a game if goals
   are provided by the player.
   

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.

   Ans: Lose many physical aspects of the board game, such as
   pieces, dice and cards.  Lose natural social interactions that take
   place during board game play.  Gain AI that can handle many simple and
   sophisticated game bookwork tasks.  Gain multimedia, including
   graphics and sound, that can enhance immersiveness.
   

6. What are key frames in animation?

   Ans: Key frames are the images of a moving object at the extremes of
   movement.  For example, for a duck flying, this could be when the
   wings are down and up.

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

   Ans: A reference is a picture of a real-world object that can be used
   as an example to make a digital representation of the object.  The
   reference can help with proportions, colors and textures.  For
   example, modeling and rendering sofa would be much easier with a
   picture of a real couch as a reference in order to get the arms
   proportioned right and the fabric right.
   
   

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

   Ans: A face is the flat size of a polygon.  A normal is a vector at
   a right angle to the face.  Backface culling is the process of removing
   polygons that are not rendered on a screen.
   

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

   Ans: Use backface culling to remove faces that cannot be seen (ex -
   remove the bottom polygon on a barrel that can't be moved).  Reduce
   some of the polygons used to make a curved surface (ex - render the
   barrel sides with 12 polygons instead of 20).  Being able to remove
   polygons that do not affect the image scene quality (much) is
   important to reduce the size of a game image and make it faster to
   render.
   

10. What is box modeling?

    Ans: Modeling a basic shape as a box (or other primitive polygon)
    and using extrude and cut and edit to achieve a model of the shape
    desired.
    

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

    Ans: A shader defines the surface property of an object (ie- how
    shiny, bumpy, how light effects it).  A texture is a bitmap that is
    plugged into shader that defines image we want to appear on object
    (ie- such as a picture of letters on an otherwise flat sign).
    

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

    Ans: Color can be used to indicate mood.  For example, a green wash
    can indicate peace for the player while a red wash can indicate
    warning.  Lighting can indicate mood, with shadows providing mystery
    or warning.
    

13. 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?

    Ans: A key light is the main light source, the most intense and the
    majority.  It's put at angle to define 3-D forms.  A fill light brings
    out some details out of shadow and works well at angle.  A backlight
    is placed behind and slightly above or below object to help define
    shape.  It highlights edges, pulls away from background.  To make a
    pool of light, an artist would probably use spot lights with focused
    beam on single location since they provide great control over the
    lighting.