Computer Game Programming

COSC 457

(TTh 4:00-5:15 PH508D)

Instructor: Matt Evett ; Dept. Computer Science; room 512E Pray-Harrold
Tel: 734-487-1227; e-mail: mevett@emich.edu; http://www.emunix.emich.edu/~evett
Office Hours: See my page for hours
I try to maintain an "open door policy": you are welcome to drop by at times other than office hours, and generally I'll be able to talk to you, but sometimes I may be too busy.

Make sure you register for the online component of this course, http://webct2.emich.edu. There are announcements there for the assignments!! The caucus is the official mechanism for distributing information about the course. All students in the class are required to register for that caucus. To do so you will need an EMU e-mail account. This is free. If you don't already have one, go the the Halle library and get one.

Syllabus

Programming Environment

This is a project-oriented, upper-division level course. We will be doing a lot of programming, primarily in Java. The department can provide you with Microsoft Visual C++, though any IDE will do, including Eclipse, etc.

Lecture Notes

  1. Gaming History
  2. The Allegro game engine.
  3. 2-D Graphics
  4. Arcade, bitmaps, sprites
  5. History
  6. Game Design Principles
  7. Game Design Process
  8. Game Production Timeline
  9. The Game Business
  10. Physics
  11. Collision Detection
  12. Interactive Drama
  13. AI in First-Person Shooters
  14. Ethics

Assignments

Submitting assignments:

To submit assignments, go to http://caddis.acad.emich.edu/~hwmatt/student/. In addition, you should hand in a hardcopy of your code, at the beginning of class on the due date.

The assignments:

  1. Game Review , due Tuesday, May 16.
  2. Brief description of game concept., due Friday, May 19.
  3. Game design document, due May 30.
  4. Hoover-craft.
  5. Alpha-release demo of your team's game in class, June 20.
  6. Final release demo of your team's game, in class, June 27.