CS315-001 Course Description, Fall 2010
Course Information
- Course Title
- Game Programming
- Section
- CS315 Section 001
- Meetings
- Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 2PM in RB122
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- CS232 or CS222
- Instructor
- Paul Gestwicki, Ph.D.
Overview
As a student registered in this class, you are a member of 3:15 Studio. This game development studio was created specifically to produce Morgan's Raid, a history education game for Indiana elementary school students. This is not a "pretend" studio: by enrolling in this class, you are committing to working ten hours per week for the studio. Dr. Gestwicki is one of the producers of the game and the head of the studio.
This course is designed to engender situated learning, and it is an immersive learning experience. This means that you will learn about game programming via enculturation into the community of practice. You are responsible for your learning and for the success of the project. Enrolling in this course is a commitment to your peers and the project stakeholders.
Course Objectives
A student should accomplish the following objectives after completing the course:
- Identify, compare, and evaluate different rendering and control models for interactive media programming, including: active rendering vs. passive rendering; event-driven programming; input device processing (keyboard, mouse, gamepad); and architectural patterns for synchronization of interactive elements in multithreaded environments.
- Apply and evaluate mathematical and computational analysis techniques to standard problems in game programming including: collision detection using space partitioning; collision processing using single- and double-dispatch; rule-based and pathfinding artificial intelligence; and thread pooling for realtime audio mixing.
- Apply modern tools of software development to game programming, including integrated development environments, version control systems, and digitial signatures and distribution.
- Develop technical communication and project organizational skills, including written and oral commuication, collaborative system analysis, and time-management.
- Distinguish among qualitative and quantitative aspects of the game design and development process, including identification of critical paths and prioritization of software modules.
Required Books
None
Course Website
The course Web site is http://www.cs.bsu.edu/~pvg/courses/cs315Fa10.
Meetings
You are expected to attend all team and studio meetings.
Exams
There will be no written exams. Hence, in accordance with university policy, we will have a class meeting during our scheduled final exam slot.
Evaluation
Your grade will be based on your minimum score in the following table. In order to interpret the numeric values on this page, you should familiarize yourself with my general grading rubric.
| Category | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contributions | Met all conditions of satisfactions in a timely and professional manner. For code, uses pair programming or all commits are signed by a team member. | Met all conditions of satisfaction on schedule. For code, usually uses pair programming or most commits are signed by a team member. | Met most conditions of satisfaction on schedule. For code, rarely follows pair programming or few commits are signed by a team member. | Failed to meet conditions of satisfaction on schedule or in a professional manner and/or has not contributed code. |
| Commitment to Meetings | Attends and is prompt and attentive for all meetings. | Attends most meetings but is either late with significant frequency or is not focused during meetings. | Attends most meetings but is routinely late or unfocused. | Regularly misses meetings. |
| Facilitation (ScrumMasters only) | Facilitated the success of the team. | Mostly facilitated the success of the team with some problems such as failure to remove impediments or unnecessarily prioritizing owned tasks before team tasks. | Regularly failed to facilitate the team's success | Did not adequately serve the team. |
You will be responsible for scoring your own performance at regular intervals during the semester. Your self-assessment wil be announced within your team and shared with the rest of the studio.
If I receive reliable reports that a student is not keeping commitments or contributing adequately, I will schedule an individual meeting with the student to discuss the matter. Failure to attend this meeting or resolve the problems will result in the student's being fired from the studio: the student fails the course and may no longer contribute to the project.
Communication
Office Hours and Appointments
Students who come to office hours are helped on a first-come, first-served basis; no appointment or prior contact is required. If a student wishes to make an appointment to meet outside of office hours, he or she should email the instructor the request along with several possible meeting times. Appointments can generally be made within two working days of the request.
All email communication to the instructor should be from a BSU-affiliated address. This policy ensures that senders can be correctly identified and protects your privacy. Email sent from other domains may not be answered.
The instructor may access email through services not affiliated with the University. Please note that such messages necessarily pass through the campus firewall in an unencrypted format, and they may be stored on servers not owned or managed by Ball State University. It is therefore advisable to restrict confidential information to office hours or appointments.
If you are emailing regarding questions in a computer program, it is recommended that you send a copy of the code in question in your email. The preferred method is to copy the code into the body of your message, using plain text and following standard formatting conventions.
Telephone
Although instructor's office telephone numbers may be provided for reference, email communication is the most reliable means of contact.
Academic Integrity
Students and faculty are bound by the Student Academic Ethics Policy of the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities.
Notice for Students with Disabilities
If you need adaptations or accomodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with the instructor, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment as soon as possible.
