welcome to

Office hours  Alexander Repenning: ecot 824, 10am, Tuesdays  Clayton Lewis: tbd

Objectives  Introductions  background  Hands on: make 1st game

motivation  James Paul Gee: “Games, not school, are teaching kids to think.”  Todd Oppeheimer: The Flickering Mind

Goals of this course u Learn about game design u Learn about education u Learn how to build real-time graphics u Work in interdisciplinary teams (computer science, fine art, education) u Learn to work in group: presentation and communication skills u Research: find relevant support material and present solution to others u Evolve designs by presenting to larger group u Critique other people's design u React to other people's critique

short history of games Pong, 1972 Pacman, 1980 Space Invader, 1978Centipede, 1980 Sokoban, 1982 The Sims, 2000 Tetris, 1985SimCity, 1989 Frogger, 1981 Doom, 1993Halo 2, 2004

What this course is and isn’t  Not an opportunity to make DOOM 4  CS students: you will have to work with students and teachers

Challenge: how to make educational games that really are engaging and educational?

challenge 1 Establish meaningful connections between engagement and learning using Engagement/Learning continuum  Educational Design (Learning  Engagement): Educational design’s main objective is learning. This design process starts with learning but gradually adds elements of engagement. A popular design approach used in education is backward design (Wiggins and McTighe, 2000).  Game Design (Engagement  Learning) Game design is highly focused on motivational aspects such as engagement and fun (Koster, 2004). Most games have clever scaffolding mechanisms built in (Gee, 2004) allowing their users to gradually solve more complex problems. However, these mechanisms are typically used to learn about using the game and not about some educational topic. Most game design approaches are highly user centered and iterative.

How not to merge games and education : Before you go on, what is Newton’s 1 st Law? a)F=ma b)F=GMm/r^2 c)V=IR d)None of the above

Prototyping with AgentSheets  Be able to express and communicate complex ideas  Education u History u Math u Music u Geology u Logic u Programming u Art

Why we use AgentSheets  Fastest prototyping tool: make games in minutes, not weeks  Learn a lot about agent-based, object-oriented programming u Applies to all programming languages u Feel free to decompile your projects with Java decompiler  In later part of course turn the same projects into 3d projects using AgentCubes

Out of this World (very distance education) NASA used AgentSheets to simulate an “E.coli in microgravity” experiment aboard the space shuttle Discovery with John Glenn

Bridge Builder  Simulation to explore bridge designs u Create a bridge by erasing bricks; use as few bricks as possible.  Each bricks computes forces acting on it  Bridge collapses when one or more bricks do not have enough support  Users discover different bridge designs (Greek, Roman…) u Activity featured on PBS Mathline  vity3.shtm vity3.shtm

Game design homework 1: Frogger

Problem Analysis

Frogger You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks, until you get the to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs. But watch out for snakes and alligators! (Sega, 1980) Background and history:

1) List agents: project description nouns  a) Categorize agents: {user controlled, AI controlled, passive/props} u User controlled:  Cursor keys  Sound, speech recognition (Mac only)  b) Define user control and AI u AI from simple to complex  Random movement  Tracking with pathfinding  Collaborate Diffusion (optional topic for afternoon) step 1

What are the Objects/Agents? You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks, until you get the to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs. But watch out for snakes and alligators! step 1

What are the Objects/Agents?  Mark nouns You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks, until you get the to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs. But watch out for snakes and alligators! step 1

Homework 1  Download AgentSheets (agentsheets.com) u Install u Follow tutorial to make virus simulation: find it in the support/video section  Send to me to get registration code for u Give me a sentence about what you like to get out of the course. u Let me know if you want Mac or PC version u Have “csci4830” in subject line  Make Frogger (for 100 points): u Cursor controlled frog u Trucks moving on road continuously  Hint: use generator agent (e.g., tunnel producing trucks) u Frogs will die when hit by truck  Extra points (up 20): u Frog, when dying, will make new frog  Hint: use generator agent (e.g., leave) and broadcast message u Frog live counter u Nice artwork (original) of agents/background or extra functionality  Submit Frogger u u If this does not work…  Due: Jan 24

Homework 1 GORP submission  Goto the course website and select the GORP/frogger tab u  Login into GORP u Name: xxxxxx u Pass: xxxx  Click: “add project to Frogger”  Fill out add new project form…

…Add new project  Name: something about your frogger, e.g., superduper frogger  Description  Thumbnail: upload a 256 x 256 image, use screen dump tool  Author name  Applet: Zip up the folder produced by the Ristretto tool part of AgentSheets. u Use a name that allows you to recognize that this an applet file, e.g. “froggerapplet.zip” u Win: use winzip u Mac: use Finder “create archive”  Need to have full registration to create applet  Source: u Use a name that allows you to recognize that this an applet file, e.g. “froggersource.zip” u Win: zip your project folder inside the “projects” folder inside AgentSheets u Mac:  Export your project: File > Export  Zip folder exported

Homework 1 submission  Only do this if GORP does not work!!  mailto u Subject: “csci4830: frogger” u Attachments:  applet.zip - Zipped up folder produced by Ristretto  source.zip  Mac: zip up folder produced by File > Export project…  Win: zip up project folder contained in “projects” folder  … and send to Larry Hamel: u He is in charge of the server u Include problem description and CC me