Game Programming. Introduction. Project Summer Term Nintendo. Wednesday, April 18th, Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

Transcription

1 Game Programming Project Summer Term 2007 Nintendo Introduction Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

2 What is this project about? Gameplay Gameplay mechanics Engine design/coding Rapid prototyping Design iteration Related technical issues Modeling, texturing and rendering Game logic, AI, input and sound FUN! Life meter (Castlevania) Power ups (Super Mario Bros.) Bosses (R-Type) Playing with power Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

3 People Andrew Nealen (Official) office hours: Wednesday 10.30am-11.30am, EN 721 Marc Alexa Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

4 Project Structure Structure / Lehrform Projekt 4 SWS with weekly group meetings (Wed.) One extra meeting per team per week 2(3) game prototypes per team + final game 4-5 lectures throughout the term Teams 4 people per team, 4 teams (=16 participants) If there are more than 16 applicants: Interviews Sign up as team of 4, if you already have a team Otherwise single sign up + preferred role... (more later) Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

5 Team (1) Team Lead / Design Team lead / design Organize team Schedule milestones Iterate game design and game rules Study game theory etc. See Theory of fun and Game Architecture and Design Report progress (or lack thereof) to me Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

6 Team (2) Content Creator Content creator 2D Sprites (Photoshop) 3D Models (SoftImage) Textures, Normalmaps 2D/3D animations Sound design Role of an art director Coherent look-and-feel Adapt style to gameplay mechanics and story God of War, SCEA Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

7 Team (3) Graphics Programmer Graphics programmer Rendering style Work with content creator (procedural content) Interface with gameplay programmer (collision detection, events, etc.) Polish the visuals with vertex/pixel shaders Particle effects, etc. Bizarre Creations Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

8 Team (4) Gameplay Programmer Gameplay programmer The AI of the game: generally refers to every rule-based aspect Also known as the software engineer Encode behaviors, path planning, state machines, etc. Work closely with lead game designer Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

9 Tools (1) XNA game studio express All developer tools freely available from Visual C# express edition (yes, you will need to learn C#) SoftImage XSI (3D modeling and texturing) MapZone2 (procedural texture generation tool) In the lab 42 LCD TV with xbox360 + Creators Club subscription Controllers + wireless adapters to develop all prototypes on windows PCs Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

10 Tools (2) Why XNA game studio express? Simple, easy to use, enables rapid prototyping any technical problem we have can be discussed with the entire group API supports basic routines for 3D model loading and rendering, 2D sprites, sound playback, input processing (for xbox 360 controllers + rumble) etc Again: we can playtest the games on a widescreen LCD on a regular xbox 360 Any other dev environments or platforms allowed?... Sorry, but no Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

11 Tentative Schedule (1) wed apr 18 [LEC] intro talk wed apr 25 [LEC] short XNA intro wed may 02 [LEC] rapid prototyping wed may 09 pitch game design 1 + prototype wed may 16 [LEC] game programming patterns wed may 23 [LEC] particle effects and physics wed may 30 presentation of playable prototype 1 + discussion Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

12 Tentative Schedule (2) wed jun 06 [LEC] procedural content and emergent gameplay wed jun 13 pitch game design 2 + prototype wed jun 20 [LEC] iteration in game design wed jun 27 group meeting, playtesting wed jul 04 presentation of playable prototype 2 + discussion wed jul 11 group meeting, playtesting wed jul 18 final presentations Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

13 Team Building (1) More than 16 applicants? Individual Interviews tomorrow from 10am on in 10 minute intervals (group interviews are optional) More than 24 applicants? Find a team of 4 today... team interviews tomorrow from 10am on in 15 min intervals me a very simple game design pitch by 9pm tonight, all on a single page, and include Your name(s) + preferred team role(s) Previous (graphics) courses taken + other related experience If you would like to present a demo, bring it to the interview tomorrow (on your laptop) Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

14 Team Building (2) Less than or exactly 16 applicants? Lets build teams right now Otherwise: lets arrange times for the individual/group interviews tomorrow Participants and groups will be published on the project website next Tuesday evening If you don t want your name on the website, let me know and we will use an alias instead Good luck! Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,

15 Questions? Lets have a Q & A session! Ideas? Suggestions? Thanks for attending! Next week: Introduction to XNA game studio express Project schedule and discussion Andrew Nealen, TU Berlin,