Computer Game Development

1
Computer Game Development

• Dr. Scott Schaefer

2
Course Information

• Instructor Dr. Schaefer
• Office HRBB 527B
• Office Hours by appointment
• Website http//courses.cs.tamu.edu/schaefer/489_S
  pring2009

3
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

4
The Course Project

• Build a team
• Tell me your team members ASAP
• If you cant find a group, Ill 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)

5
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
• Id like groups formed by 1/23!!!
• Start after this lecture

6
Game Ideas

• Think small
• You dont have
• Experience
• Years of time
• Millions of dollars

7
Game Ideas

• Try to do one thing well
• Good graphics/animation
• Cool physics
• Excellent sounds
• Clever puzzles
• Dont do a mediocre job in everything
• One of everything
• You wont design hundreds of levels

8
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

9
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

10
Proposal Presentation

• 10 minutes 1/30
• Describe your game
• State whats unique about your game
• Development schedule

11
Progress Reports (Group)

• Every two weeks (2/11,2/25,3/11,4/1,4/15,4/29)
• State work done over past two weeks
• Describe difficulties encountered
• Oral presentation to class

12
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

13
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

14
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

15
(No Transcript)
16
The Evolution of Game Hardware

• Atari 2600 - 1977
• 1.18MHz 6507
• 128 bytes RAM
• 4KB ROM
• Atari 5200 - 1982
• (incompatible cartridge with 2600)
• 1.8MHz 6502
• 16KB RAM

17
The Evolution of Game Hardware

• Nintendo Entertainment System - 1985
• 1.79MHz
• 256x240 pixels
• 2KB RAM
• Mario Bros!

18
The Evolution of Game Hardware

• Sega Genesis - 1988
• 7.6MHz
• 64KB RAM
• Game Boy -1989
• 8-bit 4.2 MHz
• 8KB RAM
• Tetris!

19
The Evolution of Game Hardware

• Super NES - 1990
• 3.58Mhz 65C816 16bit CPU
• 128KB RAM
• Playstation - 1994
• 34 MHz R3900 32bit CPU
• 2MB RAM (CPU), 1MB RAM (Video)
• Nintendo 64 - 1996
• 94MHz R4300 64bit CPU
• Reality Co-Processor SGI
• 4MB RAM

20
The Evolution of Game Hardware

• Playstation2 - 2000
• 295MHz R12000 CPU
• 32MB RAM
• XBox - 2001
• 733MHz Celeron
• 64MB RAM
• nVidia GeForce4
• GameCube - 2001
• 485MHz PowerPC
• 43MB RAM

21
The Evolution of Game Hardware

• Playstation3 - 2006
• 3.2GHz Cell CPU
• 256MB RAM 256MB Video RAM
• XBox360 - 2005
• 3.2GHz PowerPC
• 512MB RAM
• Nintendo Wii - 2006
• 729MHz PowerPC
• 88MB RAM

22
The Evolution of Game Hardware

• The PC
• Different processors
• Different GPUs
• Different amounts
• of RAM

23
Game Genres

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