1. The Game CS 248 Help Session Rene Patnode November 7, 2003

2. The Game A movie starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn and directed by David Fincher (Fight Club) Also, your third and final assignment for CS 248

3. Help Sessions Today:  Requirements  Game Design  Deliverables  Wisdom of the Ancients Tomorrow:  Lead by Ian Buck  OpenGL basics

4. Requirements 3D viewing and objects  e.g. Super Mario 64, not Super Mario Bros. 3 User input  Psychic interface cool, but probably not feasible Lighting and smooth shading  Prof. Levoy will start covering this soon.

5. Requirements Texture Mapping Advanced Features  See handout for descriptions  F A = 2 * |team|  Each feature should take approx. 1 student- week Game-play  We can’t just all get along.

6. Example Game: Bunny World 2K3 Goal: Help Farmer Brown keep bunnies from over- running his farm Input: Move the farmer with the mouse. Click to grab a bunny. Lighting: The farm is lit by a sun-like light source. Textures: The farmer and the bunnies have “skins.” Advanced Feature #1: Bunnies are controlled by a flocking algorithm. Advanced Feature #2: Crops are procedurally modeled.

7. Forming Teams 1-3 people Do it ASAP Suggestion: Stay after help session if you need a team. Otherwise, post on the newsgroup.

8. Forming Teams Make sure your team is compatible  Will I like this person at 7 am after an all-nighter? Make sure everyone has the same goals  How much effort?  Desired grade?  Competition? Make sure everyone wants the same type of game  Genre: Action vs. RPG  Game-play: Button Masher vs. Sit and Watch  Content: Blood vs. Puppies

9. Generating Ideas Look at existing games Watch movies Think about what would be fun to play Think about what advanced features you want to use Get a room full of monkeys and typewriters

10. Deliverables Proposal: Tuesday, 11/11 by 2:00 pm First Demos: Monday, 11/17 Final Demos: Wednesday, 12/3 Competition (optional): Wednesday, 12/3 at 4:00 pm  Need to make a web page Write-ups: Friday, 12/5 by 5:00 pm

11. Proposal Really important. Seriously. Spend some time on it. Helps guide you in the rest of the process. Helps us help you.

12. Proposal Game Name  Should be exciting. Example: Explosion! Team members  Names and contact info for everyone Premise  The who, what, where, when, and why (but brief) 3D world description  How will you represent the premise?

13. Proposal Gameplay Mechanics  What will happen in that world? Advanced Features  Why your game will be 1337  Reminder: F A = 2 * |team| Challenges expected, special tools needed, really advanced features planned  Help us help you. “Screenshot”  Can be very low-tech

14. Planning Proposal is just a start Spend a lot of time designing  Implementation AND Game-play Make a schedule Set priorities  Required functionality should come before extra bells and whistles. Decide who does what Assets  Models, Textures, Sounds, etc.  What do you need to produce? What is already available?

15. Developing Where to code?  Up to you, but…  Sweet Hall machines Quality hardware Maximize TA effectiveness Minimize difficulty demo-ing Windowing library  Recommended: GLUT Use other SDKs as needed

16. First Demo Need:  3D world  Basic game-play  Basic required features Don’t need:  Detail  Performance  Advanced features

17. Final Demo Need:  Everything Don’t need:  Sleep

18. Competition Optional. 8 finalists will vie for several prizes  Trip to Siggraph 2004  Dinner at Il Fornaio  X-box  Games from Electronic Arts Jury (tentative):  Somebody from Electronic Arts  Somebody from Microsoft  Al Alcorn (a.k.a. Mr. Pong) Reminder: Don’t get stressed about competing for grades with those entering the competition

19. Write-Up Let us know:  What you did  How you did it  Where you got help from  Individual write-up: Who did what How much each team member did

20. Wisdom of the Ancients Use source control (e.g. CVS)  Test code before checking it in Give each team member ownership of certain areas Share knowledge openly  Don’t just discuss through code Find the tools you’ll need early Concentrate on features that actually improve your game

21. Wisdom of the Ancients The web is a great resource. Use it.  http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs248-03/proj3/ http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs248-03/proj3/  If you find other things that should be posted there, please tell us! Abuse your TAs!  Office hours  Newsgroup  cs248-aut0304-tas@lists.stanford.edu cs248-aut0304-tas@lists.stanford.edu Questions?

22. One Last Thing See The Matrix Revolutions ASAP  It rocks IMHO