The Game

1
The Game

• CS 248 Help Session
• Rene Patnode
• November 7, 2003

2
The Game

• A movie starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn
  and directed by David Fincher (Fight Club)
• Also, your third and final assignment for CS 248

3
Help Sessions

• Today
• Requirements
• Game Design
• Deliverables
• Wisdom of the Ancients
• Tomorrow
• Lead by Ian Buck
• OpenGL basics

4
Requirements

• 3D viewing and objects
• e.g. Super Mario 64, not Super Mario Bros. 3
• User input
• Psychic interface cool, but probably not feasible
• Lighting and smooth shading
• Prof. Levoy will start covering this soon.

5
Requirements

• Texture Mapping
• Advanced Features
• See handout for descriptions
• FA 2 team
• Each feature should take approx. 1 student-week
• Game-play
• We cant just all get along.

6
Example Game Bunny World 2K3

• Goal Help Farmer Brown keep bunnies from
  over-running his farm
• Input Move the farmer with the mouse. Click to
  grab a bunny.
• Lighting The farm is lit by a sun-like light
  source.
• Textures The farmer and the bunnies have
  skins.
• Advanced Feature 1 Bunnies are controlled by a
  flocking algorithm.
• Advanced Feature 2 Crops are procedurally
  modeled.

7
Forming Teams

• 1-3 people
• Do it ASAP
• Suggestion Stay after help session if you need a
  team.
• Otherwise, post on the newsgroup.

8
Forming Teams

• Make sure your team is compatible
• Will I like this person at 7 am after an
  all-nighter?
• Make sure everyone has the same goals
• How much effort?
• Desired grade?
• Competition?
• Make sure everyone wants the same type of game
• Genre Action vs. RPG
• Game-play Button Masher vs. Sit and Watch
• Content Blood vs. Puppies

9
Generating Ideas

• Look at existing games
• Watch movies
• Think about what would be fun to play
• Think about what advanced features you want to
  use
• Get a room full of monkeys and typewriters

10
Deliverables

• Proposal Tuesday, 11/11 by 200 pm
• First Demos Monday, 11/17
• Final Demos Wednesday, 12/3
• Competition (optional) Wednesday, 12/3 at 400
  pm
• Need to make a web page
• Write-ups Friday, 12/5 by 500 pm

11
Proposal

• Really important. Seriously. Spend some time on
  it.
• Helps guide you in the rest of the process.
• Helps us help you.

12
Proposal

• Game Name
• Should be exciting. Example Explosion!
• Team members
• Names and contact info for everyone
• Premise
• The who, what, where, when, and why (but brief)
• 3D world description
• How will you represent the premise?

13
Proposal

• Gameplay Mechanics
• What will happen in that world?
• Advanced Features
• Why your game will be 1337
• Reminder FA 2 team
• Challenges expected, special tools needed, really
  advanced features planned
• Help us help you.
• Screenshot
• Can be very low-tech

14
Planning

• Proposal is just a start
• Spend a lot of time designing
• Implementation AND Game-play
• Make a schedule
• Set priorities
• Required functionality should come before extra
  bells and whistles.
• Decide who does what
• Assets
• Models, Textures, Sounds, etc.
• What do you need to produce? What is already
  available?

15
Developing

• Where to code?
• Up to you, but
• Sweet Hall machines
• Quality hardware
• Maximize TA effectiveness
• Minimize difficulty demo-ing
• Windowing library
• Recommended GLUT
• Use other SDKs as needed

16
First Demo

• Need
• 3D world
• Basic game-play
• Basic required features
• Dont need
• Detail
• Performance
• Advanced features

17
Final Demo

• Need
• Everything
• Dont need
• Sleep

18
Competition

• Optional.
• 8 finalists will vie for several prizes
• Trip to Siggraph 2004
• Dinner at Il Fornaio
• X-box
• Games from Electronic Arts
• Jury (tentative)
• Somebody from Electronic Arts
• Somebody from Microsoft
• Al Alcorn (a.k.a. Mr. Pong)
• Reminder Dont get stressed about competing for
  grades with those entering the competition

19
Write-Up

• Let us know
• What you did
• How you did it
• Where you got help from
• Individual write-up
• Who did what
• How much each team member did

20
Wisdom of the Ancients

• Use source control (e.g. CVS)
• Test code before checking it in
• Give each team member ownership of certain areas
• Share knowledge openly
• Dont just discuss through code
• Find the tools youll need early
• Concentrate on features that actually improve
  your game

21
Wisdom of the Ancients

• The web is a great resource. Use it.
• http//graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs248-03/proj
  3/
• If you find other things that should be posted
  there, please tell us!
• Abuse your TAs!
• Office hours
• Newsgroup
• cs248-aut0304-tas_at_lists.stanford.edu
• Questions?

22
One Last Thing

• See The Matrix Revolutions ASAP
• It rocks IMHO