The video game industry is quickly becoming a very significant and important software industry, both for entertainment and serious applications. Building a high quality game is a surprisingly difficult and challenging process; exploitation of the latest technologies does not necessarily lead to success. In the end, much of a game's success (or failure) is dictated by its design. In other words, does the game offer engaging, immersive, and rewarding gameplay to the player, resulting in an overall satisfactory experience?
This course provides an in-depth examination of video game design and best practices to study the issues and challenges that arise when developing games for both entertainment and serious applications. Topics include: the history of video games; game development teams, processes, and management; principles of game design, game play, and balance; game genres and genre-specific design issues; plot, story, and level design; technical design issues with respect to foundations from computing (graphics, artificial intelligence, networking, software engineering, and so on), and elsewhere (physics, anatomy, language studies, and so on); ethical issues in video games and the gaming industry; and the future of gaming. The course will culminate with a significant development project focussed on the design of an innovative video game and its proof of concept through prototyping.
| Lecture Hours: | 1:30 - 3:30pm, Tuesdays, B&GS 52 |
| 2:30 - 3:30pm, Thursdays, MC 105 |
| Prerequisites: | CS 307a/b/y (for CS437b) or enrolment in a graduate Computer Science program (for CS641b). |
| Antirequisites: | None. |
Note: A background in computer graphics is not required for this course. Students may find it useful, but it is not mandatory. Similarly, experience with artificial intelligence, networking, and other core technical areas used in game development may be useful, but they are not required either.
| Instructor: | Michael J. Katchabaw |
| Office: | MC 28H |
| Office Hours: | 3:30 - 4:30pm, Tuesdays |
| 3:30 - 4:30pm, Thursdays | |
| Or by appointment. | |
| E-Mail: | katchab@csd.uwo.ca |
| Phone: | UWO extension 84059 |
One book is required for this course, and may be available for purchase from the University Bookstore or the Used Book Store:
The course will address as many of the following topics as time will allow:
Course lecture notes will be made available in PowerPoint and Postscript formats on the course website on a weekly basis, as they are developed. They are provided as a courtesy by the course instructor. Possessing (and even reading) these notes is not a suitable substitute for attending lectures.
The course website is accessible at either http://www.csd.uwo.ca/courses/CS437b or http://www.csd.uwo.ca/courses/CS641b. Lecture notes, project information, and class information will be posted on this website. You are responsible for reading this information frequently.
Each student will have access to an account provided by the Computer Science Department on either the senior undergraduate computing facility, GAUL, or on the Research Network, or both. In accepting the account(s), a student agrees to abide by the department's Rules of Ethical Conduct. Hardware donated by Nokia, including their 3600 phone and their N-Gage gaming device, will also be available for mobile and wireless game development. As such, students will have access to a mixture of potential development environments, in addition to what they may have access to at home.
Note: After-hours access to certain Computer Science lab rooms is by student card. If a student card is lost, a replacement card will no longer open these lab rooms, and the student must bring the new card to the I/O counter. Likewise, if a student card ceases to provide access where it should, it should be brought the I/O counter as well. There, the operator will swipe the card, record the complaint and send the information to the Systems Group who will send notice when they have fixed the problem.
We will occasionally need to send e-mail messages to the whole class, or to
students individually. E-mail will be sent to your Computer Science e-mail address. You
must make sure that you read this e-mail on a frequent and regular
basis, or have it forwarded to an alternative e-mail address if you prefer to
read it there.
You should note, however, that e-mail at ITS (your UWO account) and other e-mail providers such as hotmail.com or yahoo.com may have quotas or limits on the amount of space they can use. If you let your e-mail accumulate there, your mailbox may fill up and you may lose important e-mail from your instructors. Losing e-mail that you have forwarded to an alternative e-mail address is not an excuse for not knowing about the information that was sent.
Grades will be based on a group project worth 55%, a midterm exam worth 15% and a final exam worth 30%. The group project will be split into separate deliverables including a proposal (5%), design document (15%), demo (15%), and final implementation (15%). Minutes collected from weekly meetings with a TA assigned to your project will be worth 5% of your mark.
To be eligible to receive a passing grade in the course, your mark on the final exam must be at least 40%, and your average on the project components must be at least 40%. Otherwise, the maximum overall mark you can receive is 45%. To be eligible to receive a grade of C or higher, your mark on the final exam must be at least 50%, and your weighted average on the project components must be at least 50%. Otherwise, the maximum overall mark you can receive is 58%.
Every effort will be made to have project components marked and handed back within 3 weeks of the handin date. Midterm exam marks will be posted within 2 weeks of the exam at the latest. If we are unable to comply with our intended return dates, revised dates will be posted on the course website.
| Midterm: | Saturday February 11, 2006, 2:00 - 4:00pm, WSC 240 |
| Final: | 3 hours during the April exam period |
There will be no makeup midterm exam, except for students requesting a special midterm exam for religious reasons, due to exam conflicts, or other exceptional circumstances. These students must have notified the course instructor and filed documentation with their Dean's Office at least 2 weeks prior to the midterm exam. If there are other serious medical or compassionate grounds for missing the midterm exam, please take supporting documentation to the office of the Dean of your faculty, who will contact the instructor. In such cases, the weight of your midterm exam will be shifted to the final exam, which would then be worth 45% of your final overall grade.
As an important note, computer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams may be subject to submission for similarity review by software that will check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that may indicate cheating.
| Group Project Proposal: | 5% (light) | Project assigned January 9, 2006 | Due January 23, 2006 |
| Group Project Design Document: | 15% (medium) | Due Feburary 20, 2006 | |
| Group Project Demo: | 15% (medium) | Due March 13, 2006 | |
| Group Project Implementation: | 15% (heavy) | Due April 11, 2006 | |
| Group Project Meeting Minutes: | 5% (light) | Due April 11, 2006 |
Submission
It is your responsibility to keep up-to-date backups of project disk files in case of system crashes or inadvertently erased files. Retain disk copies of all material handed in, as well as the actual graded version, to guard against the possibility of lost projects or errors in recording marks. It is not safe to discard these materials until you are satisfied that your final mark for the course has been computed properly.
The role of tutoring is to help students understand course material. Tutors should not write assignments or take-home tests for the students who hire them. Doing so would be considered an academic offence. Having employed the same tutor as another student is not a legitimate defence against an accusation of collusion, should two students hand in materials judged similar beyond the possibility of coincidence.
Plagiarism: Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western Academic Calendar).
All projects are a group effort, but each group is expected to act individually. You may discuss approaches to problems among yourselves; however, the actual details of the work must be an individual effort. Incidents that are judged to be the result of academic dishonesty will be reported to either the Undergraduate Chair or the Graduate Chair depending on your enrolment. The selection of penalty to be applied is up to the appropriate Chair, with consultation of the instructor. Typically, for the student's first offence, the item in question will be given a mark of zero with an additional penalty equal to the weight of the item also being applied. You are responsible for reading and respecting the Faculty of Graduate Studies Regulations on Scholastic Offences, if you are taking this course as a graduate student, or the Computer Science Department's policy on Scholastic Offences, if you are an undergraduate student. All students must follow the Department's Rules of Ethical Conduct.
While the group project is expected to be a team effort, you must still follow these rules and avoid plagiarism when it comes to using other people's code and so on in the project. While the use of other code in your project is encouraged, you must clearly identify all such code in your project documentation. Failure to do so will be considered a scholastic offence.
The University of Western Ontario uses software for plagiarism checking. Students may be required to submit their written work and programs in electronic form for plagiarism checking.