MIC 305 Interactive Entertainment Systems

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MIC 305Interactive Entertainment Systems

• Introduction to the module

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Objectives

• At the end of this lecture you should
• Be able to describe the main themes covered by
  the module
• Have an overview of the requirements of the
  module
• Be able to describe the main features of the the
  Interactive Media Industry
• Be able to describe developments in Microsoft
  VB.NET including programming for mobile devices

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Introduction to the module

• This module will give you the skills to programme
  small and medium-sized multimedia games in VB
  2005 (VB.NET) and DirectX9 and to evaluate the
  advantages and disadvantages of different
  platforms, games' genres and market needs. The
  theory and practical work are well-matched and
  the group project will involve evaluative study
  of the market to help you decide on your system
  and working in a group to scope, design and
  implement your game.

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Schedule
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Continued
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RECOMMENDED BOOKS

• Essential text
• Zak, D.(2007) Microsoft Visual Basic 2005
  Reloaded, 2nd edition, Thompson
• This is a very useful book. There are some major
  changes from 2003 to 2005 (particularly with
  database connection) so this book gives the most
  up-to-date code examples and programming
  principles in a very accessible way. A bonus is
  the examples are mostly small game applications.
• Weller, D, Santos Lobao, A and E. Hatton, (2004)
  Beginning .NET Game programming in VB.NET (this
  is essential, it covers DirectX 9 as well as
  VB.NET game programming)

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Recommended

• Wei-Meng Lee (2004) .NET Compact Framework Pocket
  Guide. O'Reilly
• Oxland. K (2004) Gameplay and design Addison
  Wesley (Chapter 20 covers design
• documentation)
• Tagliaferri, M. (2003) Learn VB.NET through Game
  Programming, Apress.ISBN 1-59059-
• 114-3 (No CD but code is downloadable from a
  website. Good on OO programming
• concepts.
• Miller, T. (2003) Managed Directx 9 Graphics and
  Game Programming (useful for those with a C
  background)

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Development platform

• Visual Basic 2005

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Defining the Interactive Media and Computer Games
Constituency(http//www.skillset.org/games/busine
ss/article_4456_1.asp)

• The interactive media sector is hard to define
• This is partly because it is changing so rapidly
  partly because it overlaps with, and draws on the
  skills of, numerous other sectors and partly
  because it is, in many ways, not so much an
  industry as a discipline that is increasingly
  becoming part of everyday activity across all
  sectors of industry.
• It is also the case that there is a mismatch with
  traditional classifications of industry, which
  are not adequate to describe the interactive
  media sector.

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Definitions

• Creators those businesses, organisations,
  departments and individuals that create
  interactive media products as their primary
  activity
• Enablers those businesses that provide
  infrastructure, technologies or services to
  support the creation and deployment of
  interactive media products
• Clients those organisations or departments that
  commission or use interactive media products as
  part of a wider set of activities (where those
  organisations have in-house interactive media
  departments or divisions, we would consider those
  departments to fall into the 'creators' category
  above)
• End-users the individuals who ultimately
  purchase or experience interactive media
  products.

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What is interactive media used for?

• Interactive media products are used for
• Business-to-business communications and
  transactions such as e-procurement, supply-chain
  integration, customer relationship management and
  business publishing
• Business-to-consumer communications and
  transactions such as e-commerce, information and
  publishing
• Consumer-to-consumer communications such as
  virtual communities and on-line newsgroups
• E-Learning training, education and assessment.
• Entertainment encompassing games and leisure
  activities
• Government communications such as public
  information, on-line services and
  citizen-government communications
• Heritage and Tourism such as museums, galleries
  or city walking tours.
• Internal communications such as knowledge
  management, collaborative working and training

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Platforms
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Interactive Media Industry
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What exactly does the interactive media sector
do?

• In high-level terms, the sector's activities can
  be broadly grouped under these headings
• Business - this includes requirements analysis,
  strategy and concept development, product
  specification, project management, account
  handling and marketing
• Content - this includes editorial, script and
  copy writing, and asset creation and
  preparation
• Design - this should be seen in its broadest
  sense and includes information architecture,
  technical specification and graphic and interface
  design, audio design, usability and user
  interfaces, game-play, environments and
  functionality
• Technology - this includes game engines, site
  building, back-end applications and the
  implementation of payment systems and security
• Sustainability - this includes localisation,
  search engine optimisation, quality assurance,
  usability testing and on-going maintenance

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Post-graduate MSc courses

• At Sunderland
• School of Computing and technology
• MSc Multimedia Systems
• School of Arts, Design, Media and Culture
• MA DesignMultimedia and Graphics
• MA 3D Design Innovation
• MA Illustration Design
• MA Design Studies
• MA Animation and Design
• MA Media production (Television and Video)
• Must have video production skills

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MA Digital Games Design - Farnham (One Year
Programme)

• http//www.skillset.org/games/qualifications/artic
  le_4543_1.asp

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Overview

• Windows Mobile platforms
• Introduction to the history and capabilities of
  mobile devices
• Visual Studio 2005 and mobile devices
• Practical Creating a sample application (Secret
  Encoder)
• Advanced Programming
• Creating Casual Games for Mobile Devices
• Practical A working mobile game StarLight
  space shooter

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Breakthrough Pocket PCCompaq Ipaq

• This was the first device to deliver on
  performance, display and battery life
• 120MHz processor
• 32MB of RAM
• Flash ROM
• RS232 and IR ports
• 240x320 TFT colour display

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State of the art Pocket PC

• Dell Axim V50s
• 624Mhz Processor
• 64MB RAM
• 480x640 colour display
• WIFI and Bluetooth
• 3D Graphics accelerator
• Windows Mobile 5
• 150 less than the original IPAQ!

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Selecting the Target Device

• The target device is selected from within Visual
  Studio
• If you try to use a real device, and none is
  connected, the deployment will take a while to
  time out
• Note the different display form factors

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Writing GamesSoftware Deployment

• For devices containing phones the service
  provider may lock the phone
• To run an application on a locked phone it must
  be signed
• Most phones can be unlocked for development
• Use the Mobile2Market program to sell your code

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Writing GamesCheese Breakout

• The basis of the game is to bounce the cheese and
  hit the tomatoes
• The player controls the bread bat and hits the
  cheese with it
• Sprites
• transparency
• double buffering
• animation
• User input
• event driven keypad

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Bouncing CheeseDrawing the cheese
private void Form1_Paint(object sender,
PaintEventArgs e) e.Graphics.DrawImage(chees
eImage,cx,cy) private void timer1_Tick(object
sender, EventArgs e) updatePositions()
Invalidate()

• I use the timer tick method to trigger updates

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