Overview (and implied syllabus) CS4070/6070

This is a course that is intended to provide an introduction to
computer game programming in the PC environment.
What we want is to equip the student who completes the course to
proceed to the next course or into the gaming industry.
This means that we want to create a firm foundation to build on,
not necessarily a full structure yet :)

There will be assigned readings,
and you must do these as part of the course.
However if you are truly interested in gaming and being a productive
game programmer,
you should treat these as suggestive and introductory only.
There is a rich supply of tutorial and technical material on the web,
the gaming activity is very well documented!
You can use the links on the course web page as a starting point,
or use Google(tm) to find your own materials.

There will be assigned programming projects,
and you must do these as part of the course.
However if you are truly interested in gaming and being a productive
game programmer,
you should 'go beyond' to decorate/enhance your programs.
There are always things to do to make the game better (and look better).
A nice game that you have done can serve as a portfolio item
that might be an enabling credential if you want to get into the
gaming industry.
But there is a point of diminishing returns, too --
maybe you have other courses that require attention :).
Productive game programmers are also capable computer scientists,
a fact that will become more clear as the course progresses.

We develop 2D games using Dev-C++ as a compiler/development environment
and Simple Directmedia Layer (SDL) for graphics and
user interface capabilities.
These choices have the advantages that they are freely available and
quite capable.
These choices have the disadvantage that they are not
the development platform of choice in the industry;
the industry uses more powerful tools
(and more people working longer and harder)
to produce much larger and more sophisticated games than we can do in
just one semester (or less) of individual effort in a course environment.

So, just to make this completely clear,
we will not be producting Halo, Quake, Spore, or the Sims in CSX070.
We will produce working games (on a more manageable level,
a level of accomplishment achievable by an individual in a semester) and
we will have some exposure/capability in all/most of the aspects of gaming
(with the probable exception of working
on large-scale code in a team/project environment).



Toward the end of the course,
after the fundamentals have been established and
while the assignments in play are individual (or small team) projects,
some 3D graphics and more advanced game topics will be discussed:

3D modeling, articulation and rigging
3D graphics, matrix transformations, tiling
Lighting/shading models, texturing
special FX
3D rendering, GPUs
sound/audio issues
user interface issues, game controllers
networking
game mods: counterstrike(eg)
game AI
game physics
game engines
gaming platforms: PS3, Xbox, Nintendo, portables (iPhone)
OS issues: linux, Windows
College/university game development courses