Fall 2012 Course Information

Announcements

8/28 : Welcome to the class!
9/27 : Project 2 is due on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 11:59PM

Essentials

Class meetings:	Tuesdays, Thursdays, 3PM-4:20PM, Porter Hall A18B
E-mail list:	There is a class mailing list which will be used for announcements and discussion.
Course calendar:	Schedule of class topics and assignments
Course mechanics:	Administrative matters such as assignments, grading policy, late days
Textbook:	There is an optional book for the class: Artificial Intelligence for Games. We will also be posting lectures which are partially based on the book, so you don't have to buy the book if you can follow the lectures. You may also find the following book useful in learning Unity 3D game engine: Unity 3.x game Development Essentials. You are not required to buy it though.

Instructors

Who	Email
Maxim Likhachev

Teaching Assistants

Who	Email
Kalin Gochev
John Drake

Office Hours

Instructor and TAs will hold regularly scheduled office hours.

Who	Location	Hours
Maxim Likhachev	NSH 3211	Thu, 10-11AM & by appointment
Kalin Gochev	NSH 1612	Mon, 4:30-6:30PM; Thu, 4:30-6:30PM
John Drake	NSH 1612	TBD

Course Description

The goal of the course is two-fold. The first goal is to teach students some of the higher-level techniques that are currently not covered in other computer graphics classes but are necessary to implement interesting computer games. In particular, a large emphasis will be on game AI. The second goal of the class is to get students familiar with programming games on various platforms using state-of-the-art game engines. To this end, the course will have a heavy programming focus. It will have a number of projects requiring students to apply the learned material to develop games using Unity 3D game engine. The students will develop games for a standalone PC, for an Android platform and for an Online environment.

In addition to learning the material and learning how to use game engines, the projects will provide students with portfolios of games they have developed. Such a portfolio is important in getting a job in game industry.