Welcome to the CS679 Course Web!

by Mike Gleicher on August 18, 2012

This is the News page – or a list of announcements that seem important. If you want to know about the class, you might start with the Course Announcement.

The Course Info Page has links to all kinds of useful stuff. Dialog is in the class forum (open only to students).

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The Week in 679: Week 15 December 10-14

by Mike Gleicher on December 9, 2012

Wow! We made it to the end. This week people will wrap up projects. Instructions for final project handins and post-mortems are here.

  • Tuesday, December 11 – Last Lecture! There will be a lecture. I’ll talk about some stuff like animation. Don’t forget to send your playtest feedback to the TA before class!
  • Thursday, December 13 – No required class. I will go to the lecture room at class time in case someone wants to come by to talk about something (if you have questions about technical topics, the games industry, or whatever). It’s optional – feel free to use the time to work on your project, study for your other exams, or anything else.
  • Friday, December 14th – Festival of Games! We’ll meet in 1358 (the lab) at 2:30 and play the final versions of the games! Show off how things turned out! Experience the cool things your classmates built! Make sure your game is handed in before the lab session starts.
  • Friday, December 14th / Monday December 17th – Your final project handins are due. This includes a group post-mortem, as well as a personal reflection. We really need to get everything before noon on Monday, December 17th so we can get our grades done.
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The Week in 679: Week 14 December 3-7

by Mike Gleicher on December 1, 2012

We’ve gotten into the home stretch here – just 2 weeks left to wrap up projects, and any topics we’re going to talk about. There won’t be any readings or assignments, so you can stay focused on your projects.

The big thing this week is the playtest on Friday, December 7th. As we’ve mentioned in class, this will be logistically complex. Remember to send your availability between 1:30 and 4pm to Mark (the TA) so he can schedule things. More details about how the playtests will be given in class.

  • Tuesday, December 4 – We’ll talk about some more graphics tricks (shadow volumes, ambient occlusion, …), and start talking about AI.
  • Thursday, December 6 – We will talk about the procedure for the playtests. We’ll talk about some other technical topics (probably AI).
  • Friday, December 7 – Play test. There will be a set schedule where in scheduled 15 minute blocks you’ll be either observing someone playing your game, or playing someone else’s. You will be required to write about what you see (brief comments on the other games, and what you’ve learned about your games).

I should also note, that since we don’t have assignments and readings, the only way for you to learn what we’re talking about is by having you come to class. So for this phase of class, we’ll just have to assume that if you don’t come to class, you’re not learning the material, and the converse (if you come, you’ve learned the material – which admittedly is a crude approximation).

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The Week in 679: Week 12 November 26-30

by Mike Gleicher on November 25, 2012

We’ve made it through Thanksgiving, and are now ready for that final push towards the final project! We’ll use class times for lectures (usually), but we’ll cut back on readings and assignments so you can stay focused on projects.

  • Tuesday, November 27 – Lecture on Graphics. We’ll talk about lighting and shading and other graphics topics.
  • Tuesday, November 29 – more discussion on Graphics. Topics depend on how much we get through on Tuesday.
  • Friday, November 30 – project milestone (playable demo). This is the last major milestone before the play test (which is December 7th). Your group needs to show a playable prototype. Not all the elements need to be put together (you can have independent examples of the different technologies, you might not have levels or progression or …) – but there should be something that looks and feels like a game. The exact mechanism for us to check on this is TBD

Next week, we’ll have some tech topic lectures (probably animation and/or AI), but mainly it will be getting ready for the playtest.

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HCI Assignment (due Tuesday 11/20)

by Mike Gleicher on November 15, 2012

There is a reading assignment (with associated forum posting) due on Tuesday, November 20th. Assignment 8 is posted in the Assignments category. Briefly, you need to read 2 (preferably 3) chapters of a book provided in the protected course reader (Ch1, Ch2, Ch3), and comment on it in the forum.

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The week in 679: Week 11 November 12-16

November 10, 2012

This week, we’ll really get Project 3 underway. Now that you have a plan, I think everyone realizes what it is going to take to get to that all important first milestone. This week, we’ll have few other demands on you other than to focus on the project. (Note: this won’t be a recurring theme […]

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P2 Grades

November 10, 2012

Yes, P2 grades are still delayed. But I thought I should explain what you will get, which might also give you an idea why it takes so long. Both Mark and I evaluated your games based on your demo, and playing them a little more afterwards. We tried to evaluate the game itself, without considering […]

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