I've been working on both Project2015 and a class I am teaching this fall. The Project2015 stuff is going very slow and has seemingly lost a ton of momentum. Work has had a tough deadline and this looming class I'm teaching is starting to consume my extra time as I prepare.
The class is on Game Engine Development. My plan so far is to use XNA and C#. I had wanted to use Torque/C++, but the XNA/C# stuff has made some sense and we have been going in that direction. I still want to get in some C++ work and I'm trying to figure out how to do that at this point.
The open source engine is going to be called Panther Game Engine. I've already setup a source forge project for it and have been slowly configuring the group. I still have about 6 weeks, but that doesn't feel like much time.
I've completed all the SVN setup and have my lecture for that planned. I still want to create a screen cast of the process so it will be even clearer.
The term "Game Engine" is heavlily loaded and not well defined. For me, it's all about tools to make building games easier. So, I've been creating the shell of a level editor for xna. The toughest part was integrating XNA and Windows Forms. I have that working and ended up using a piece of Microsoft sample code and have tried to segment it from the open source project as best I could. This really should be part of the XNA release and not some separate set of code, but at least there is a sample of how to do this.
Next up is working on a terrain system, then I want to get the animation work flow down. Lots to do.
Showing posts with label chapman university. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chapman university. Show all posts
Monday, July 20, 2009
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Game Development Contest Results
Last night's contest for my class was amazing.
http://www.gamedev360.com/contest07
The RailGunner game is an amazing piece of work built in about six weeks. Jess and Noah really outdid themselves. Even the second (T-Orc) and third place (Doom Slayer III) games were very nicely done. Rail Gunner and T-Orc are fully playable. Doom Slayer III while not completely done had a ton of code to it. He even did a trailer that was hillarious and everyone enjoyed. I'm hoping he uploads the trailer for others to see.
All in all I think everyone enjoyed themselves and I think a number of the students will get jobs. There was enough time at the end for the industry folks to mingle with the students and I'm sure a number of them will get calls.
One of the things that became apparent and I had sort of forgotten about it was the fact that half of my class were seniors and half were freshman. I went really fast in the first few classes knowing the freshmen were out of their experience level and hoping they would drop. A number of them did, but a few of them stuck with it and while they didn't have winning games they did have some impressive pieces of work. Although I should mention that Jess (one of the winners) is only a sophmore. Brilliant.
One of the crowd favorites was a freshman game called Beer Sweeper. It was fun to watch as Luis kept raching around the virtual recreation of an actual dorm room (it was very close, I once lived in that same dorm) the keys started to change and it became very hard for him to control. It got some good laughs.
The fourth place game Ork Fight had a ton of AI code and Chris got the orcs to fight on teams with the other players. It was very fun to watch. He had some funny stories about problems while he was working on the AI. Some of the problems sounded almost human.
The fifth place game was a huge endeavor. Given a few more weeks I think Vinnie would have taken first place. He's going to be the Peter Jackson type some day. Double majoring in Film and Philosophy and a minor in computer science he made some major engine modifications and is well on his way to a significant creation.
All in all it was a great semester. I worked way too hard at it and didn't make much money, but I love doing it and I'm looking forward to at least taking a semester off. I'll decided later in the year if I'll do it again.
http://www.gamedev360.com/contest07
The RailGunner game is an amazing piece of work built in about six weeks. Jess and Noah really outdid themselves. Even the second (T-Orc) and third place (Doom Slayer III) games were very nicely done. Rail Gunner and T-Orc are fully playable. Doom Slayer III while not completely done had a ton of code to it. He even did a trailer that was hillarious and everyone enjoyed. I'm hoping he uploads the trailer for others to see.
All in all I think everyone enjoyed themselves and I think a number of the students will get jobs. There was enough time at the end for the industry folks to mingle with the students and I'm sure a number of them will get calls.
One of the things that became apparent and I had sort of forgotten about it was the fact that half of my class were seniors and half were freshman. I went really fast in the first few classes knowing the freshmen were out of their experience level and hoping they would drop. A number of them did, but a few of them stuck with it and while they didn't have winning games they did have some impressive pieces of work. Although I should mention that Jess (one of the winners) is only a sophmore. Brilliant.
One of the crowd favorites was a freshman game called Beer Sweeper. It was fun to watch as Luis kept raching around the virtual recreation of an actual dorm room (it was very close, I once lived in that same dorm) the keys started to change and it became very hard for him to control. It got some good laughs.
The fourth place game Ork Fight had a ton of AI code and Chris got the orcs to fight on teams with the other players. It was very fun to watch. He had some funny stories about problems while he was working on the AI. Some of the problems sounded almost human.
The fifth place game was a huge endeavor. Given a few more weeks I think Vinnie would have taken first place. He's going to be the Peter Jackson type some day. Double majoring in Film and Philosophy and a minor in computer science he made some major engine modifications and is well on his way to a significant creation.
All in all it was a great semester. I worked way too hard at it and didn't make much money, but I love doing it and I'm looking forward to at least taking a semester off. I'll decided later in the year if I'll do it again.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Tonight's Contest
Tonight is the night I'm hosting a bunch of local game industry folks to view the student projects and presentations. The best game get's a $100 gift card, but the students have done most of the work with the opportunity to get in front of a bunch of folks from industry. It's an experiment, but right now the wave looks a lot bigger than I ever expected.
This is how judging will be weighted. It doesn't have anything to do with their grade on the project, just who 'wins' best game.
Completeness: (25 %)
Replay/fun factor (20 %)
Uniqueness (15 %)
Story (10 %)
Graphics (10 %)
Simple graphics that are used in a unique way will also receive high scores here.
Audio: (10 %)
Student Choice: (10%) (max 90 points = 18 students x 5 points each)
I've tried to break completness out into the following sub items: Splash screen, main menu, Scoring, Game has a story, Game controls/play, multiple levels, game ends/menu cycle/quit, high score system.
I have this obscene spreadsheet created which will automatically calculate the winner based on judges input. Once I have the number (1-100) from the judges for each game and category I simply imput them and come up with a winner. I did this last year, but I put the numbers in as I went. I just hope it doesn't take forever to enter the data, but things have a way of working themselves out. I'll report again tomorrow with the winners.
Just as I finish writing this I may dump the spreadsheet and just ask for the judges first, second and third choices for the winner. Hmmm.
This is how judging will be weighted. It doesn't have anything to do with their grade on the project, just who 'wins' best game.
Completeness: (25 %)
Replay/fun factor (20 %)
Uniqueness (15 %)
Story (10 %)
Graphics (10 %)
Simple graphics that are used in a unique way will also receive high scores here.
Audio: (10 %)
Student Choice: (10%) (max 90 points = 18 students x 5 points each)
I've tried to break completness out into the following sub items: Splash screen, main menu, Scoring, Game has a story, Game controls/play, multiple levels, game ends/menu cycle/quit, high score system.
I have this obscene spreadsheet created which will automatically calculate the winner based on judges input. Once I have the number (1-100) from the judges for each game and category I simply imput them and come up with a winner. I did this last year, but I put the numbers in as I went. I just hope it doesn't take forever to enter the data, but things have a way of working themselves out. I'll report again tomorrow with the winners.
Just as I finish writing this I may dump the spreadsheet and just ask for the judges first, second and third choices for the winner. Hmmm.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Game development class - huge finale
If you've been following my blog you know I've been teaching a game development class. The student's have been working on their own creations for almost half the semester and here is a (two week old) preview of the results.
http://www.gamedev360.com/contest07/preview.html
I have about 10 people from five of six of the biggest game companies in the area coming to judge the final presentations. I offered the student with the best game a $100 EB giftcard. Last year they were focused on the gift card, this year I'm sure they are focused on the job so putting them together with people who are looking for talent seems like a win win for everyone. All sides are excited.
I went into the lab on Saturday to help students with last minute problems and I have to say this is one of the best group of students I have ever had. The quality of the work is phenominal. The screenshots on the contest preview are almost three weeks old and the games since then are looking very very polished. A couple of them are going to be standouts.
There was the funniest quote the other day in one of the extra lab sessions. About halfway through the class I stopped assigning homework and allowing the student's to work on their own projects. One of the student's said to me, "Man, when you stopped assigning homework this class got a lot harder!". That has to be one of my all time favorite teaching quotes. The pressure of the final presentation in front of industry seems to have really worked.
I'll try and post results of the contest on Wednesday. I've been spending every minute of my free time on this contest. What am I going to do with all that extra free time?
http://www.gamedev360.com/contest07/preview.html
I have about 10 people from five of six of the biggest game companies in the area coming to judge the final presentations. I offered the student with the best game a $100 EB giftcard. Last year they were focused on the gift card, this year I'm sure they are focused on the job so putting them together with people who are looking for talent seems like a win win for everyone. All sides are excited.
I went into the lab on Saturday to help students with last minute problems and I have to say this is one of the best group of students I have ever had. The quality of the work is phenominal. The screenshots on the contest preview are almost three weeks old and the games since then are looking very very polished. A couple of them are going to be standouts.
There was the funniest quote the other day in one of the extra lab sessions. About halfway through the class I stopped assigning homework and allowing the student's to work on their own projects. One of the student's said to me, "Man, when you stopped assigning homework this class got a lot harder!". That has to be one of my all time favorite teaching quotes. The pressure of the final presentation in front of industry seems to have really worked.
I'll try and post results of the contest on Wednesday. I've been spending every minute of my free time on this contest. What am I going to do with all that extra free time?
Friday, March 30, 2007
Why use Torque as a game engine?
As I said in my previous blog entry I've been teaching a game development class using the Torque Game Engine. There were a number of factors that lead to the choice of Torque.
The early meetings with the curriculum board lead to the adoption of Unreal as the engine of choice. As the fall arrived and I had been spending months working with Unreal, reality began to sink in. Since this was a programming class there would have to be more to it than just level editing. While Unreal script is programming I also wanted to be able to have the students understand the actual C code behind the engine. Without access to the engine source this would mostly be a level editing class. The Computer Science department wanted to make sure this was more of a programming class than a level editing class.
In general, there are always C code tweaks to an engine to make any game so anything short of source code would not be a realistic environment for the students. Workable, but not realistic.
When the department attempted to license the Unreal engine it was out of the budget. Rumor had it that it was in the 100s of thousands which was way outside the budget for an edu setting! Another factor was the majority of the official documentation for Unreal requires that same license. While there is a lot of independent documentation on Unreal and this may not be a problem it was a factor in our decision.
Torque had come up in earlier discussions and a review showed it was actually perfect for the educational setting. At around $100 a seat, it included the source. That decision was made in December and I've spent the past few months trying to stay ahead of the students while I learned the ins and outs of Torque. Stressfull, but I think the results I am seeing from the students are amazing.
The early meetings with the curriculum board lead to the adoption of Unreal as the engine of choice. As the fall arrived and I had been spending months working with Unreal, reality began to sink in. Since this was a programming class there would have to be more to it than just level editing. While Unreal script is programming I also wanted to be able to have the students understand the actual C code behind the engine. Without access to the engine source this would mostly be a level editing class. The Computer Science department wanted to make sure this was more of a programming class than a level editing class.
In general, there are always C code tweaks to an engine to make any game so anything short of source code would not be a realistic environment for the students. Workable, but not realistic.
When the department attempted to license the Unreal engine it was out of the budget. Rumor had it that it was in the 100s of thousands which was way outside the budget for an edu setting! Another factor was the majority of the official documentation for Unreal requires that same license. While there is a lot of independent documentation on Unreal and this may not be a problem it was a factor in our decision.
Torque had come up in earlier discussions and a review showed it was actually perfect for the educational setting. At around $100 a seat, it included the source. That decision was made in December and I've spent the past few months trying to stay ahead of the students while I learned the ins and outs of Torque. Stressfull, but I think the results I am seeing from the students are amazing.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Torque Game Engine
This semester I've been teaching a class on game development at Chapman University. The class website is http://www.gamedev360.com/. It is the biggest reason I have not blogged in a while. Secondary was my last post on procrastination which sort of helped me see blogging as a distraction. We are using the Torque Game Engine for the class and so far I am impressed. There are some things I really like about it and some things I don't and I'll come up with some posts along those lines in the future.
My previous gig was called GameWorld.com developing mobile games. During that time I was teaching some other classes (Assembly Language, Computer Architecture) and lobbied the head of the department to teach a game development class. After five years, that finally came through last year and I taught the first class. Last summer the department created a curriculum board of industry professionals to come up with a minor and certificate program. This semester is the first class as part of the minor. Very exciting.
The website for the current class is http://www.gamedev360.com/. Please feel free to comment or contact me about Torque. I'll be writing more about Torque and game development in the future.
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