CSCI 1011 - Introduction to Game Programming

1. History of computer games
2. Skill set of a computer game developer
3. Basic building blocks of a computer game
   a. Objects
   b. Sprites
   c. Events
   d. Sounds
   e. Scripts
   f. Rooms/levels
4. Building a simple game
   1. Introduction to game development software
   2. Sprite creation
   3. Object creation
      1. Object attributes
      2. Object actions and interactions
   4. The “game loop”
   5. Event programming
   6. User interactions
   7. Generating randomly occurring events
5. Game categories
   1. Building a maze game
   2. Building an action game
   3. Building a multi-player game
      1. Cooperative multi-player
      2. Competitive multi-player
6. Intermediate-level programming topics
   1. Using inheritance to simplify object creation
   2. Using a controller object
   3. Creating scripts to extend the capabilities of the game development system
      1. Creating functions
      2. Using variables, decisions and loops
      3. Incorporating scripts into the game
      4. Debugging scripts 

7. Introduction to other game development environments
   1. Introduction to other game development environments
      1. Comparison of popular game development programming languages
         1. C/C++
         2. Java
         3. C#
         4. Blitz Basic
         5. Dark Basic
      2. Game engines
         1. What a game engine is
         2. Comparison of popular game engines in use

8. The future of computer games
   1. Game immersion and where it is headed
   2. Games as teaching/learning tools
   3. Games as simulators
   4. Games as healing tools
   5. Social impact of games
      1. Do violent games foster aggressiveness?
      2. Are games addictive?

1. Extend the complexity of a games logic through the use of scripts
2. Explain why scripting is necessary to extend a game development systems capabilities
3. Employ inheritance to simplify the creation of related game objects
4. Identify the key programming elements used in the development of a computer game
5. Construct games that include multiple rooms and levels
6. Create multi-player games
7. Create complete examples of arcade-style games using a game development utility

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