COMP-521B: Modern Computer Games

School of Computer Science
McGill University
Winter 2010

Time and Place
Instructor
Teaching Assistant
Pre-Requisites
Textbook
Overview Description
Course Syllabus
Assignment Information
Resources

Time and Place

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 13:35 - 14:25
Leacock 15
Please consult Minerva for the most up-to-date scheduling & classroom location information.

Instructor

Clark Verbrugge
Office: McConnell, room 230
Office hours (Winter term): Monday 10:00-11:30, Wednesday 8:30-10:00, or by appointment.
Phone: 514-398-2411
Email: clump@cs.mcgill.ca

Teaching Assistant

Ahmad Yoonessi
Office: McConnell, room 231
Office hours: Tuesday 10:30-12:00, Thursday 10:30-12:00, or by appointment.
Email: ahmad.yoonessi@mail.mcgill.ca

COMP-303 Programming Techniques or
COMP-361 Systems Development Project

(Pre or Co)-requisite:
COMP-557 Fundamentals of Computer Graphics (or permission of the instructor)

There is a non-trivial programming requirement; ability to program in C (or C++) and Java will be required.
Note: students registering without the co- and pre-requisites may find the course removed from their transcript by their Faculty. If you do not have the official pre-requisites please see the instructor.

Text

There is no required text for this course. Material is based on a variety of academic papers and publications. Several texts covering relevant topics have, however, have been placed on reserve in the Schülich library; these are recommended to read, but are not required texts:

Introduction to game development by Steve Rabin (ed). General issues in game design; a collection of articles on game topics.
Fundamentals of Game Design by Ernest Adams. This covers general, non-technical issues in game design.
Game architecture and design by Rollings and Morris. Basic game architecture.
Real-time collision detection by Ericson. Detailed techniques for simple and advanced collision detection.

Course Overview/Objectives

This course will give students a good understanding of modern computer game design and implementation techniques. It covers a wide spectrum of game aspects, focussing on components essential to or common in popular computer game styles. Concepts are backed up by non-trivial programming tasks that allow students to gain practical experience in particular components of game implementation.

Note that computer graphics will not be covered in detail. Some knowledge of basic graphics methods and techniques will be presumed (see co-requisite requirement).

Course Syllabus

The course is organized around a roughly historical introduction of game components with increasing complexity. These progressively introduce a) basic single-player, turn-based game design, b) graphical and real-time elements, c) virtual world design and game AI, and d) networking and multiple players. Major sections are each evaluated through a significant programming project.

A detailed syllabus is available here.

Evaluation

4 Assignments/Projects: 60%
Midterm: 10%
Exam: 30%

Assignments

Assignment descriptions and information will be posted here as term progresses.

Assignment 1 is available here.
The PNFG compiler is here, and the NFG interpreter is here.
To compiler a game foo.pnfg:
```
java -cp pnfg.jar pnfg.Main -nfg foo.pnfg > foo.nfg
```
To run a compiled game:
```
java -cp nfg.jar nfg.Main foo.nfg
```
An example pnfg version of COD is here.

nb: The above PNFG compiler is a stable but older version that does not work with pnfg files in DOS format. You can also try pnfg2.jar, a newer snapshot, which should handle CR/LF linefeeds properly (if you encounter bugs let me know!).

An example plot DAG can be seen here (as a "Puzzle Structure Chart").

Further documentation on PNFG can be found in Félix Martineau's MSc thesis, and this paper.

Assignment and Exam Policy

Assignments must be submitted on time. Late assignments will only be accepted in highly-exceptional circumstances and only with written permission of the instructor. No assignment submissions will be accepted after marked assignments have been returned, or after solutions have been discussed in class. In accord with McGill University's Charter of Students' Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.

McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offenses under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity for more information).

More specifically, work submitted for this course must represent your own efforts. Copying assignments or tests, or allowing others to copy your work, will not be tolerated. Note that introducing syntactic changes into a copied program is still considered plagiarism.

Online Resources

The following (freely available) documents and sites may be of interest. Some articles are accessible for free only from McGill (or other subscriber), and some (like GamaSutra) may require a free registration to access the articles. This list will be updated as the term progresses.

COMP-521B: Modern Computer Games

School of Computer Science McGill University Winter 2010

Assignment Information

Assignment and Exam Policy

Fun

School of Computer Science
McGill University
Winter 2010