Computer Game Development Dr Scott Schaefer Course Information

Computer Game Development Dr. Scott Schaefer

Course Information • Instructor: Dr. Schaefer • Office: HRBB 527 B • Office Hours: by appointment • Website: http: //courses. cs. tamu. edu/schaefer/489_Spring 2009

Grading • • • Website: 5% Proposal: 10% Status Reports/Presentations: 5% (6 total) Final Report/Presentation: 10% Final Project: 30% • Originality, completion of milestones, polish, difficulty • Participation: 10%

The Course Project • Build a team • Tell me your team members ASAP • If you can’t find a group, I’ll help • Build a game • • • Settle on a game idea (1/26) Website (1/30) Formal Game Proposal/Design (1/30) Progress Reports/Presentations (every 2 weeks) Final Report/Presentation (5/12)

Building a Team • Games are made up of lots of areas of CS • Graphics, networking, AI, physics, etc… • Consider building a diverse team • Come up with a name • I’d like groups formed by 1/23!!! • Start after this lecture

Game Ideas • Think small • You don’t have • • Experience Years of time Millions of dollars …

Game Ideas • Try to do one thing well • • Good graphics/animation Cool physics Excellent sounds Clever puzzles • Don’t do a mediocre job in everything • One of everything • You won’t design hundreds of levels

Game Website • Create a website for your game (send me the URL) • • • Team name/members Description of game Proposal link Status reports Final report Download for final game

Game Proposal • • Description of game Unique features of game Screen mockups? Development schedule • Functional minimum (I expect the minimum done before Spring break) • Low target • Desirable target • High target • State who will be responsible for each part

Proposal Presentation • 10 minutes: 1/30 • Describe your game • State what’s unique about your game • Development schedule

Progress Reports (Group) • Every two weeks (2/11, 2/25, 3/11, 4/15, 4/29) • State work done over past two weeks • Describe difficulties encountered • Oral presentation to class

Progress Reports (Individual) • Send in an email to me • Assign a percentage effort to each team member • Describe what YOU think each team member did over the past two weeks (including yourself) • RMS of scores will make up part of your participation grade

Final Report (Group) • Due on date of final exam (5/12) • Describe • what went right • what went wrong • what changes if any you made to your original design and why • what you would have done had you more time • Oral presentation demonstrating final game

Final Report (Individual) • Send in an email to me • Assign a percentage effort to each team member including yourself • Write a justification for your assignments • RMS of scores will make up part of your participation grade

The Evolution of Game Hardware • Atari 2600 - 1977 • 1. 18 MHz 6507 • 128 bytes RAM • 4 KB ROM • Atari 5200 - 1982 (incompatible cartridge with 2600) • 1. 8 MHz 6502 • 16 KB RAM

The Evolution of Game Hardware • Nintendo Entertainment System - 1985 • • 1. 79 MHz 256 x 240 pixels 2 KB RAM Mario Bros!

The Evolution of Game Hardware • Sega Genesis - 1988 • 7. 6 MHz • 64 KB RAM • Game Boy -1989 • 8 -bit 4. 2 MHz • 8 KB RAM • Tetris!

The Evolution of Game Hardware • Super NES - 1990 • 3. 58 Mhz 65 C 816 16 bit CPU • 128 KB RAM • Playstation - 1994 • 34 MHz R 3900 32 bit CPU • 2 MB RAM (CPU), 1 MB RAM (Video) • Nintendo 64 - 1996 • 94 MHz R 4300 64 bit CPU • Reality Co-Processor – SGI • 4 MB RAM

The Evolution of Game Hardware Playstation 2 - 2000 • 295 MHz R 12000 CPU • 32 MB RAM • XBox - 2001 • 733 MHz Celeron • 64 MB RAM • n. Vidia Ge. Force 4 • Game. Cube - 2001 • 485 MHz Power. PC • 43 MB RAM

The Evolution of Game Hardware Playstation 3 - 2006 • 3. 2 GHz Cell CPU • 256 MB RAM + 256 MB Video RAM • XBox 360 - 2005 • 3. 2 GHz Power. PC • 512 MB RAM • Nintendo Wii - 2006 • 729 MHz Power. PC • 88 MB RAM

The Evolution of Game Hardware The PC • Different processors • Different GPUs • Different amounts of RAM

Game Genres • • Action 1 st Person Shooter Sports Fighting Puzzle Racing Role-Playing