GameDev spring semester

[W. Wood Harter]

I hope you are all doing well and making fun games.

I just wanted to let you all know that Game Development at Chapman is a hot hot topic and things are moving quickly. I can't give a lot of details, but Dr. Fahy is behind this 100% and I'm in awe of the progress.

I will be teaching a class next semester on Game Development. It will be in C/C++ and probably doing something with the Unreal engine. I don't have a lot more information than that, but if you can take the class I can only guarantee a lot of work, but we'll probably have fun too. I hope you can take the class.

Wood

[Jean-Eric Khalife]

You rock my world, I can't wait...

~Jean-Eric

[noah evans]

yay

On 10/27/06, W. Wood Harter <wo...@side8.com> wrote:

[W. Wood Harter]

It might help to have a C/C++ class, but it is not necessary. Once you know one language well, it is not as hard to pick up another one. You just have to pick up a compiler and go through the learning curve. Most of the really good programmer friends I know have applications that they write when learning a new language. A good friend of mine always did "Mastermind" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_%28board_game%29) on a new language. I used to do Dungeons and Dragons character generators. Now I typically write a new game in a language and did one recently in Flash to learn Flash. So, the best thing you can do is pick up a compiler and a book and make something you think would be cool.

A new language is always a struggle and most of the battle is getting used to the error messages produced by the compiler and the various nuances of the language syntax.

The requirements will be to have a firm grasp on at least one language. I will review C/C++, but you will have double duty of learning the language and getting the projects done. It would be best to have a lot of the language learning curve behind you.

Wood

--
http://www.memorize-it.com

---

Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 8:47 PM
To: wo...@side8.com
Subject: Re: [GameDev370] GameDev spring semester

Just wondering what the requirement would be for knowledge of C/C++ as I'm not that proficient (at least in comparison to  vb / java).

I'm reading a couple of ebooks right now in hopes of getting a better grasp on it, just wanted to know though what the requirements, if any would be.

[noah evans]

i checked out the new links on the gamedev site,

and from the looks of it, the demo of the unreal engine doesnt really allow for much coding

it seems its mostly just mod tools with basic editing of things like textures and maps

so are we going to have a license for i more in depth editing?

im looking forward to this class, and want to know what to expect

thanks

-noah evans

 

On 10/30/06, W. Wood Harter <wo...@side8.com> wrote:

It might help to have a C/C++ class, but it is not necessary. Once you know one language well, it is not as hard to pick up another one. You just have to pick up a compiler and go through the learning curve. Most of the really good programmer friends I know have applications that they write when learning a new language. A good friend of mine always did "Mastermind" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_%28board_game%29) on a new language. I used to do Dungeons and Dragons character generators. Now I typically write a new game in a language and did one recently in Flash to learn Flash. So, the best thing you can do is pick up a compiler and a book and make something you think would be cool.

A new language is always a struggle and most of the battle is getting used to the error messages produced by the compiler and the various nuances of the language syntax.

The requirements will be to have a firm grasp on at least one language. I will review C/C++, but you will have double duty of learning the language and getting the projects done. It would be best to have a lot of the language learning curve behind you.

Wood

--
http://www.memorize-it.com

[W. Wood Harter]

I'm being asked to use Unreal, but it doesn't look like we'll have a source license. I'm working on some other options to get the c/c++ work done, but I guarantee we will have a ton of coding no matter what happens. Basically all I've linked so far are mostly just the level editing stuff. I've got some other links for the coding stuff that I have not yet uploaded.

Wood

---

From: "noah evans" <noahj...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 6:04 AM
To: GameD...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [GameDev370] Re: GameDev spring semester

[Darrell Noice]

Just adding my two bits,

several of the quake games have been fully open sourced:

http://www.idsoftware.com/business/techdownloads/

You can snag the Half-Life SDK, though you'll have to pay like $10-20
for the engine itself. Never the less, there is quite a bit of
community support regarding the SDK, and plenty of materials available
online. unforitunately though, many of the official mirrors are no
longer maintained. Still, it's available on FilePlanet and whatnot:

http://www.fileplanet.com/44991/40000/fileinfo/Half-Life-SDK-v2.1-(Full)

There is also, for half-life, a bit of a souped up, more functional
version of the game that fixed several bugs and tweaked a bunch of
stuff. This, also, has a bit of a community following. Source and
further information can be found here:

http://spirit.valve-erc.com/

Again, this would require purchasing HL for the engine itself.

[berm...@chapman.edu]

well there's always console or handheld homebrew, that'd be fun.

- Jess

[W. Wood Harter]

The decision to go with Unreal is not my decision alone and is not going to change any time soon. Chapman organized a board consisting of members from Obsidian, Blizzard, Sony, and a few other high level developers. I attended all of the meetings. This was a group decision and I agree with about 90% of it. There are other engines out there, but the Unreal engine is the most widely adopted and will be the best to learn for those wanting to enter the job market when leaving school. I also think it will give the C/C++ skills that will be required and I will be using other assignments to also drive the C/C++ skills.

I would not recommend the HL engine for an introductory and learning experience. Torque or Quake would be my second choice.

Wood

---

From: "Darrell Noice" <darrel...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 12:10 PM

To: GameD...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [GameDev370] Re: GameDev spring semester

Just adding my two bits,

several of the quake games have been fully open sourced:

http://www.idsoftware.com/business/techdownloads/

You can snag the Half-Life SDK, though you'll have to pay like $10-20
for the engine itself. Never the less, there is quite a bit of
community support regarding the SDK, and plenty of materials available
online. unforitunately though, many of the official mirrors are no
longer maintained. Still, it's available on FilePlanet and whatnot:

http://www.fileplanet.com/44991/40000/fileinfo/Half-Life-SDK-v2.1-(Full)

There is also, for half-life, a bit of a souped up, more functional
version of the game that fixed several bugs and tweaked a bunch of
stuff. This, also, has a bit of a community following. Source and
further information can be found here:

http://spirit.valve-erc.com/

Again, this would require purchasing HL for the engine itself.

On 03/12/06, W. Wood Harter wrote:
> I'm being asked to use Unreal, but it doesn't look like we'll have a source
> license. I'm working on some other options to get the c/c++ work done, but I
> guarantee we will have a ton of coding no matter what happens. Basically all
> I've linked so far are mostly just the level editing stuff. I've got some
> other links for the coding stuff that I have not yet uploaded.
>
> Wood
>
> ________________________________
> From: "noah evans"

[noah evans]

a lot of us are taking the computer graphics course during interterm with linstead

is there anything we should ask him to focus on for the game course?

it seems like he would be up for a more goal oriented class

also, any word on books or anything else to read up on to prepare for the course?

thanks

-noah evans