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Home page for Professor Haynes' COSC 457 Computer Game Programming
Fall 2014



Class meets: 2:00 - 3:15pm in 425 PH



Textbooks:

  1. Required: J. Gregory, Game engine Architecture, AKA GAE CRC Press, 2009.
  2. A resource for learning Unity,
    R. Creighton, Unity 4.x Game Development by Example, most recent edition (3rd), PACKT Publishing, 2013.


1. Lecture notes and Recordings
Date Topics/Links Reading
12/11 Design patterns for game programming, here is a free web-based version.
12/9 A lecture on neural networks largely based on this link, with particular interest in gaming application.
Sigmoid activation function, back prop, single hidden layer
12/4
12/2 AI: minimax explained
interim reports continued
11/25 Semester Game Project - Interim Report
11/18 Collision detection
11/13 Mesh modelling: data structures
11/11 Illumination models.
See Chapter 16 from Foley & VanDam Graphics text: here
Bump mapping here
11/3
10/21 functional Unity; Signup sheet
10/14 GAE Chapter 7 The Game Loop and Real Time Simulation
10/9 How to get started on Unity project -- View here -- especially Space Shooter
10/7 Random number generator, Cannon's algorithm for parallel matrix multiply
10/2 More on quaternions. See Steve Rotenberg's lecture notes: here (local link here)
is quite readable, but he makes a misstep at the end where he generate rotation matrix from quaternion -- unnecessary!
See Unity tutorial		 GAE chapter on 3D math for Games
9/25 In class discussion for cataloguing of story elements
Intro to Quaternions for motion: complex numbers
9/23
    Holding the player's interest
  • story arc (plot)
  • change of scenery
  • character arc
  • ...
    Killing the player's interest
  • Frustration -- no progress
  • Stupid story
  • Predictable (no randomness)
  • Intrusive UI
  • ...
    In class cataloguing: identify story, describe/defend style of narrative branching, example cutscenes.
    Techniques to hold player interest.
  • Pokemon (exploration/adventuring)
  • Slender (exploration/adventuring)
  • WOW (adventuring)
  • COD (other FPS)
  • other genre?
9/18 Game Design Document; See Gamasutra writeup: here
See Tom Sloper's writeup here
See sample template here: here
BUT read this! death-of-the-game-design-document/0195381
9/11 Intro to solid modelling, intro to surface modelling
9/9/2014
9/4/2014 Intro to the course content.
Discussion of memory palace (see below - Assignments 9/4)


2. Assignments
Date assigned --- date due Label Assignment Comment
9/25 -- 10/2 HW0925Characterizing sound
Narrative/Story analysis -- group work. Audit sheet
9/18 -- 9/22 HW9/18
9/9 -- 9/18 HW9/9
    A Capsule (Unity object) is placed at (0, 0, 0)
  1. Give the transformation matrix that will change the capsule (located in object space at (0, 0, 0) and not rotated) to be twice as long and 1/3 as wide.
  2. Give the resulting transformation matrix to accomplish a translation of 10 units in the x direction and 20 units in the z direction,
  3. Give the transformation matrix to accomplish a rotation of the capsule of 45 degrees about the world space (0, 0, 0) around the z axis.
  4. Give the transformation matrix to accomplish a translation of the capsule to (10, 0, 20), and a rotation of 45 degrees centered at capsule's origin around the z axis.
  5. Give a second transformation matrix to accomplish the same thing as in #4.
Turn in hard copy, in numerical order, name on first page. 		Get a start on Unity. Not to be turned in:
Go through Game #1 in the Creighton book and/or go the the Unity tutorial HERE on Roll-a-Ball
9/4 --- 9/9 HW9/4
  • Get Unity
  • Design Memory Palace -- a game to improve memory by using Method of Loci
    The game should be able to supply images (locations) and allow the user to associate an item to memory.
    The game is a tool for practicing memory improvement -- so it should not be specific to memorizing one thing, like digits of π
    See also: aa


Projects
Name Distributed Due Comment
Term Project Spec 12/11/2014
roulette 9/30/2014 10/21/2014 This is VERSION 1 of the project. See email 10/13/2014
Groups of 1, 2 or 3
If you want to have a group of 4 you must first pass a threshold test (see me)
Resources