Entropy, by XRG Recursive Gaming, winner of 2007 Stony Brook Gaming Competition

1. CSE 380 – Computer Game ProgrammingIntroduction CSE 380 – Computer Game ProgrammingIntroduction Entropy, by XRG Recursive Gaming, winner of 2007 Stony Brook Gaming Competition

2. Why study games? • To get game development jobs • Because it is fun • Because they are complex • Because they push the envelope of computing technology • Bottom line: • games are natural learning devices • making games is a great way to learn other things

3. To really join the industry

4. Modern Games are Complex • Can be very complex • Technologies used: • 2D & 3D Graphics • Sound & Music • Networking • Artificial Intelligence • Physics Simulation • Parallel Processing • Custom scripting languages • Etc. • All of it must be implemented efficiently

5. Pong by Atari, released to public 1975

6. Battlefield 3 by Electronic Arts/DICE

7. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft • Over 10,000,000 subscribers • thousands play simultaneously • players in countries around the world • Requires: • Rich graphical environment • Complex networking • Semi-nude dancing • Needs an army to make it. And: • maintain • update • count profits

8. The Development Team/Army Programmers Designers Artists Audio Engineers Producers

9. The Modern Game Programmer • Is often more of a tools programmer • what tools? • tools for game designers, artists, & other programmers • Often works with very specific technologies • AI programmer, physics programmer, graphics programmer, etc. • Often has very specific skills • advice: find your niche

10. What is this course about? • Syllabus says: • “An introduction to the fundamental concepts of computer game programming. Students design and develop original games for PCs applying proven game design and software engineering principles.”

11. Course Objectives • Integrate technologies such as multimedia, artificial intelligence, and physics modeling into a cohesive, interactive game application. • Introduce the principles of game design that make for a playable experience. • Learn and use software engineering, team project management, and prototype presentation principles in a game development context.

12. Course Topics • Game program architecture • Game Timing • GUI programming for games • Tile-based graphics • Page & side scrolling algorithms • Sprites & bitmap animation • Collision detection • Physics-based modeling • Artificial Intelligence in games • Pathfinding Algorithms • Render Threading • Optimization techniques • Game input devices • Sound & Music • Differing game types, modes, & perspectives • Game & level design • Rapid Prototyping & game testing • Game project management • Game design documentation • Gaming industry issues • Computer game history

13. Course Textbook Game Engine Architectureby Jason GregoryPublished by A K Peters, 2009ISBN 978-1568814131

14. Course Textbook Real-Time Collision Detectionby Christer EricsonPublished by Morgan Kaufmann, 2005ISBN 978-1558607323

15. Reference Textbooks Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentalsby Katie Salen and Eric ZimmermanPublished by MIT Press, 2003ISBN 0-262-24045-9 Best of Game Programming Gemsby Mark DeLouraPublished by Course Technology, 2008ISBN 1-58450-571-0 C++ Primer Plus, 5th Editionby Stephen PrataPublished by Sams, 2004ISBN 0672326973

16. What course work is involved? • Individual Programming HWs • Implement important algorithms • collisions, pathfinding, scrolling, etc • Midterm Exam • test concepts from individual assignments

17. What course work is involved? (continued) • Final Group Project & Presentation • design and develop completely original games • can be serious games • games intended to educate in some way • Group Project Benchmarks • will have additional technical requirements • much greater expectations

18. Serious Games • Does not mean it: • is boring • teaches in the tradition sense • is a tutorial • It does mean that it: • is a game • should entertain • should get the player thinking about something other than the raw gameplay • should try to enrich the player’s understanding of some subject

19. An Example: Typist

20. And your games? • Potential sources for game subjects: • courses you have taken at Stony Brook • Computer Science? • your hobbies • your personal interests • Why do this? • make a game that no one who has ever lived has made before • make a game that no sensible company would ever make • Enter it in the IGF Student Division • http://www.igf.com/php-bin/entries2010_student.php

21. 11th Annual Stony Brook UniversityGame Programming Competition • Friday, 5/16, 5pm-8pm • Invited projects are presented to game industry representatives • past Judges From: • Activision, Applied Visions, Atari, Gamelab, Gameloft, Microsoft, Powerhead Games • http://www.cs.stonybrook.edu/~games

22. Project HWs Platforms • Languages/Libraries • C/C++ • Windows • DirectX SDK • Visual Studio 2012/2013 IDE • free from Stony Brook DreamSpark portal

23. And the Group Project? • We’ll add a couple of technologies • Box2D Physics Engine • Lua Scripting Language

24. C/C++ • C++ is almost the industry standard • Why would programmers still use C? • Why not Java, C#, Objective C, or Python? • C++ Boot Camp • This Friday, 1/31, 3pm – 6:30pm in CS 2129 • Not mandatory, but highly recommended

25. Windows Game Development • PC vs. Console: • expense • processing power • development difficulty • full-screen developers learn to hate ALT-TAB • API: • http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa139672.aspx

26. DirectX SDK (June 2010 release or later) • A low-level library for making games • What can it do for a 2D game? • manipulate the graphics card • efficiently render an image to the screen • efficiently render text • efficiently play a sound or music • Download SDK: • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/directx/default.aspx • API (ASAP get used to this Web site structure): • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee663275%28v=vs.85%29.aspx • DirectX API now part of Windows API

27. Early Advice 1. Learn C++ ASAP – and I mean really learn it • More on the C++ Boot Camp in a minute 2. Learn to use Visual Studio ASAP, including running projects using DirectX (I’ll give sample code) 3. Think about your original game/team early on 4. Cancel your WOW account immediately

28. Accounts • Windows Lab account, where you will work on your projects • http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/facilities/windowslab/

29. AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON ACADEMIC DISHONESTY • All work you submit for homework, projects, or exams MUST be your own work. • If you cheat or aid someone in cheating, you will automatically fail this course and be brought up on charges of academic dishonesty without warning. • NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE!

30. Where do we start? Documentation • Always design first • design your game • design doc • design your art • storyboard • design your code • UML

31. Game Development as a Process User Help Document Gameplay & Setup files: .xls, .csv, xml Game Design Document Game UML Design Docs C++ Source Code .EXE Program Resource Files: .ICO .BMP, etc. Storyboard Art Assets: .DDS, .WAV, etc. Game Development LOG Bug Database

32. Why 2D Games? • Avoid 3D Artwork Obstacles • Many topics are relevant to both 2D & 3D games • NOTE: • we will still have to implement our games efficiently

33. What is a 2D game graphically speaking? • Basically 2 things: • Texture rendering (images) • Text rendering • Rendering textures & text is easy • Efficiently managing the data of the game is not