Department of Computer Science
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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 are key frames in animation?

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

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

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

  10. What is box modeling?

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

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

  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?

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