Game Development in Computer Science Education

1
Game Development in Computer Science Education

• Dr. Michael Katchabaw
• Department of Computer Science
• The University of Western Ontario
• London, Ontario, Canada

2
Outline

• Introduction
• Why Study Game Development?
• Building Game Development Curriculum
• Classroom Resources
• Conclusions and Looking Forward

3
Introduction

• Worldwide, there has been a recent growing
  interest in video game studies in education
  circles.
• Many disciplines are looking into this
• Media studies
• Education
• Psychology and sociology
• Art and design
• Music
• And, of course, computer science

4
Introduction

• Each discipline has its own interestsin studying
  video games.
• For example, media studies look into thecontent
  of games and their impact onsociety.
• As another example, many educators are
  investigating the applicability and usefulness of
  games as classroom learning tools.
• In terms of computer science, interestis
  typically focused on the issues surrounding the
  development of games.

5
Introduction

• Most interest in video games in computerscience
  curriculum has been at the university and college
  levels.
• Developing games of commercial scale and
  quality often requires a great deal ofbackground
  and expertise.
• For example, game studies at Western.
• Nevertheless, we are starting to see a move
  towards the secondary and elementary levels as
  well.

6
Why Study Game Development?

• Why study video games in general?
• Why study game development in a computer science
  curriculum?
• Why study this at the secondary and elementary
  levels?
• There are a lot of good reasons, actually

7
Why Study Game Development?The Challenge

• "Game programming is without a doubt the most
  intellectually challenging field of Computer
  Science in the world."
  - André LaMothe

8
Why Study Game Development?The Challenge
9
Why Study Game Development?Good Computing
Problems

• Since game development builds on nearly all areas
  of computer science, games can be a good
  mechanism to teach students about computer
  science in general.
• Problems are entertaining and involve creativity
  and ingenuity.
• Yet, they also teach students about programming,
  data structures, datamanagement, algorithms, and
  so on.

10
Why Study Game Development?Good Computing
Problems

• Studying game development can also provide rich
  experiences to students
• Working in teams.
• Interdisciplinary studies.
• Providing a creative outlet.
• Working on concrete, real-world problems and
  applications.
• Consequently, these can be very good computing
  problems to investigate.

11
Why Study Game Development?Industry Drivers

• The video game industry is a significant
  component of the software industry
• Several billions of dollars in sales each year,
  and growing very rapidly.
• More units distributed each year than virtually
  any other category of software product.
• Last year, the gaming industry pulled in more
  revenue than Hollywood.
• For the last several years, video games have been
  selected as the most fun entertainment activity
  of all North Americans according to surveys.

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Why Study Game Development?Industry Drivers

• Canada has a growing game industry.
• Ontario, in particular, is home to a
  growingnumber of game companies.
• To stay competitive, these companieswill need a
  number of things
• A skilled workforce to rely upon.
• New technologies to improve their products.
• New development tools and techniques that allow
  their products to be built cheaper and faster,
  without sacrificing quality.

13
Why Study Game Development?Student Interest

• Students are definitely interested in game
  development.
• Since it provides an interesting, stimulating,
  and educational experience, why not include it
  more in their computer science course work?
• Perhaps it might help attract studentsto
  computer science

14
Building Game Development Curriculum

• Building game development curriculum can be quite
  challenging.
• What topics should be presented?
• How should it be delivered?
• How should students be evaluated?
• Do tests and exams make sense, or is project work
  all that is needed?
• We will take a look at the answers to these and
  other questions now

15
Building Game Development Curriculum Topics
Game Design
Software Infrastructure
Technical Elements
(Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Animation,
Physics, Networking, )
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Building Game Development Curriculum Topics

• Technical elements
• These compose the core technologies and
  foundations that are used to support the game.
• This includes graphics, animation, artificial
  intelligence, networking, physics, and so on.
• While each technology is relatively independent,
  they must work in unison to provide a complete
  gaming experience.

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Building Game Development Curriculum Topics

• Software infrastructure
• A good software design pulls the various
  technical elements together to form a functional
  software base to support the game.
• This layer must keep in mind the best practices
  of software engineering, including abstraction,
  modularity, encapsulation, portability,
  reusability, dependability, testability,
  localization, robustness, maintainability,
  correctness, scalability, usability, and so on.
• We must also follow standard software engineering
  processes during development.

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Building Game Development Curriculum Topics

• Game design
• With good software and technical design, we have
  all the foundations for a game.
• Having good foundations, however, is not enough
  to produce a good game.
• Good games require careful and thoughtful design
  of the structure, content, and approach to
  gameplay.
• Without this, the game might be technically
  sound, but just not enjoyable to play.

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Building Game Development Curriculum Topics

• Games in general
• Motivators and typesof players
• The evolution and history of video games
• Game genres
• The game development process
• Principles of game design (generic and
  genre-specific)
• Interactive storytelling
• Level design

• Puzzle/obstacle design
• Software lifecycle models for game development
• Technical issues (graphics, artificial
  intelligence, animation, sound, networking, )
• Real-time software
• Engine design and implementation
• The game asset lifecycle
• Tools and supports
• Ethical/social issues

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Building Game Development Curriculum Topics

• While appropriate for a college or university
  curriculum, some of these topics are too advanced
  for a secondaryor elementary curriculum.
• Quite a few, however, are appropriate for a
  secondary and elementary curriculum.
• They would be quite suitable for computer science
  courses, especially multimedia.
• Some might be good topics in other subjects.

21
Building Game Development Curriculum Topics
Photo from the Space Pioneer Learning Adventures
Game Design Camp. 40 boys and girls (5th and 8th
graders) came together for two weeks to work in
same gender groups (with a teacher facilitator)
to design space related educational games.
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Building Game Development Curriculum Topics

• Game concepts and examples can beused to support
  a traditional core computer science curriculum as
  well.
• Programming.
• Software design.
• Algorithms.
• Data structures and management.
• User interface design.

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Building Game Development Curriculum Topics

• The International Game Developers Association
  (IGDA) has developed itsown curriculum framework
  for game studies, and runs a discussion
  e-maillist for this purpose as well.
• Information can be found online at
• http//www.igda.org/academia/curriculum_framework.
  php

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Building Game Development Curriculum Evaluation

• In a college or university curriculum focused on
  game studies, student evaluation typically takes
  the form of assignment or project work.
• Students, alone or in a group, complete a small,
  medium, or large sized game.
• Tests and exams are relatively rare,but are not
  unheard of.
• Testing students on game studies can be
  surprisingly difficult.

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Building Game Development Curriculum Evaluation
Screen shots from game projectsdeveloped in
Westerns game development course.
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Building Game Development Curriculum Evaluation

• In a secondary or elementary curriculum, tests
  and exams could be more common, but are still
  hard to construct.
• Assignments and projects involving the
  development of games would still play a key role,
  however.
• Especially true in courses where games are
  studied for their own sake (like multimedia).
• But, this can also hold true in courses where
  games are used as examples of computing problems
  (like programming).

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Building Game Development Curriculum Evaluation

• Assignments and projects in developing games must
  be managed carefully.
• Scope is likely the most serious problem.
• Complexity is also a big issue.
• Collecting content and game assetscan be
  incredibly time consuming, andgenerating it
  might not be an option.
• Tools and resources must be in place first.
• Good progress tracking is a must.

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Building Game Development Curriculum Project
Ideas

• Before developing a game, it is important to
  first consider just how much of the game will be
  built by the students.
• Scope and complexity are definitelylimiting
  factors here.
• There are several key parts to a game.
• Some may be acquired for use with minimal
  difficulty and huge gains.
• Others will need to be generated by the students
  no matter what.

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Building Game Development Curriculum Project
Ideas
Content Creationand ManagementTools
Game Contentand Assets
Programmingand Support SDKs
Game Code
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Building Game Development Curriculum Project
Ideas
Content Creationand ManagementTools
Game Scriptingand Logic Tools
GameLogic
Game Contentand Assets
Game Engine
Programmingand Support SDKs
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Building Game Development Curriculum Project
Ideas

• A really good approach might be an
  interdisciplinary approach.
• At a secondary school, there are many disciplines
  of study so why not use them?
• Visual arts for artistic assets.
• English for story creation.
• Drama for voice acting and motion capture.
• Music for, well, music.
• Teaming up like this is a great way to have
  really interesting and rewarding projects.

32
Building Game Development Curriculum Project
Ideas

• Another interesting interdisciplinary approach
  involves teaming up secondary and elementary
  students together.
• Elementary students design the game, while
  secondary students build the game for them.
• This allows for some new and interesting dynamics
  and collaboration.
• It could also inspire elementary students to
  study computer science further when they reach
  secondary school

33
Building Game Development Curriculum Project
Ideas
Screen shot from Neomancer, an interdisciplinary
action/adventure/RPG projectbetween computer
science students at Western and art and design
students atSeneca College. Nearly 50
participants are involved in the project.
34
Classroom Resources

• There are a variety of good resources available
  to assist in class game development activities.
• Software tools and programming environments.
• Books.
• Websites.

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Classroom Resources Software Supports
Game Maker. Available online at
http//www.gamemaker.nl.
36
Classroom Resources Software Supports
KlikPlay. Available online at
http//www.clickteam.com/English/klilkplay.htm.
37
Classroom Resources Software Supports
Adventure Game Studio. Available online at
http//www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk.
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Classroom Resources Software Supports
RPG Toolkit. Available online at
http//www.toolkitzone.com.
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Classroom Resources Software Supports
3D GameStudio. Available online at
http//conitec.net/a4info.htm.
40
Classroom Resources Software Supports
BlitzPlus and Blitz3D. Available online at
http//www.blitzbasic.com.
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Classroom Resources Software Supports

• Other tools/engines/environments
• OGRE (http//www.ogre3d.org)
• Irrlicht (http//irrlicht.sourceforge.net)
• Popcap (http//developer.popcap.com)
• Blender (http//www.blender3d.org)
• Alice (http//www.alice.org)
• MUPPETS (http//muppets.rit.edu)

42
Classroom ResourcesBooks

• Several publishers are now publishing books on
  game development.
• Some are getting to be appropriate forclassroom
  use as textbooks.
• A few of the more active publishers
• Thompson Course Technology (took over and
  expanded Prima Tech/Premier Press series)
• Pearson Education (through Addison-Wesley and
  especially New Riders Games)
• Charles River Media
• Wordware Publishing

43
Classroom ResourcesWebsites

• Industry-oriented
• Entertainment Software Association
  (http//www.theesa.com)
• ESRB (http//www.esrb.org)
• IGDA (http//www.igda.org)
• Game development news
• Gamasutra (http//www.gamasutra.com)
• Slashdot (http//games.slashdot.org)
• And do not forget google!
• There are far too many good sites to list here!

44
Classroom ResourcesWebsites

• Do not forget our course website
• http//www.csd.uwo.ca/courses/CS437b
• There are course notes, sample exams, and lots of
  links to games-related material available on our
  website.

45
Conclusions and Looking Forward

• Moving forward with games in acurriculum
  involves careful consideration
• Sometimes negative perceptions of gamestaint the
  study or use of games.
• Being taken seriously by peers, parents,
  thecommunity, and sometimes even students.
• Issues in gender balance and inclusiveness.
• Will there be the support and resourcesmade
  available that are needed?

46
Conclusions and Looking Forward

• That said, games and game studies have been
  successfully integrated before.
• At the college and university levels.
• And at the secondary and elementary levels.
• With the growing acceptance of game studies at
  all levels, the time is right to pursue this
  further!

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Conclusions and Looking Forward

• Studying game development in a computer science
  curriculum has many interesting and exciting
  possibilities.
• Interesting and engaging problems to solve.
• Opportunities to express creativity.
• Enriching experiences for students.
• Experience in working in groups.
• Possibilities for interdisciplinary studies.
• Studying games does not need to be limited to
  computer science either!

48
Conclusions and Looking Forward

• Many resources are becoming more readily
  available to support this.
• Software tools and environments.
• Textbook-grade references.
• Websites on the Internet.
• It is becoming easier and easier to add
  games-related lessons and course work to a
  computer science curriculum withgreat success!