Course Handbook 2020-21

BSc (Hons) Computer Games Technology Course Handbook 2020-21

Introduction

Welcome to another great year in the Computer Games Technology community!

Exciting developments, as always, both within the course and in the games industry promise a fun filled year of game development!

We will email announcements of opportunities and events as they occur, with Covid-19 it’s certain to be a challenging year but we hope to arrange visits from industry professionals where possible.

The course aims to deliver:

• The skills required to work in both the games industry and other industries which employ game technologies and gameplay mechanisms. • Give students a solid grounding in graphics, programming, design and management while allowing them to develop expert skills in a focussed area of their choosing. • Give students a range of widely transferable skills in areas such as communication, project management, team working, making presentations and self-directed study. • Support those students establishing their own game development business.

Contents

BSc (Hons) Computer Games Technology Course Handbook 2020-21 ...... 1 Introduction ...... 1 Contents ...... 1 Where to find information ...... 2 How to succeed ...... 3 Solving problems ...... 3 Contacts ...... 4 Course structure overview ...... 7 List of resources ...... 10

Social Media - Facebook ...... 11 Social Media - Discord ...... 11 Wellbeing ...... 12

Where to find information

• The first place to visit for information and useful links is the Student Portal at https://myport.ac.uk/

• For academic information on the modules you are doing go to our virtual learning environment, Moodle, where you will find full details of all the modules you are taking. http://moodle.port.ac.uk/ • See page 5 of this handbook for a complete course structure.

• There is general information on the course and facilities here: www.port.ac.uk/games Look under ‘About Game Courses’ for links to useful information and ‘Internet Links’ for some handy links to game related sites outside the university.

• There is a complete list of Creative Technologies staff, with email addresses, here: https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/structure-and-governance/our-people/our- staff?department=School+of+Creative+Technologies

• To investigate modules in more detail you can find the ‘Module Specifications’ here: www.port.ac.uk/unitwebsearch Search for the module (or course) to see the official description of the module, including reading lists.

How to succeed

1. Attend all your workshops and lectures, even if they are online. 2. Complete all the self-directed study suggested by your lecturers (i.e. things you do in the time between the workshops and lectures). Do not only simply work on things that are part of your assessments, but develop a full and thorough understanding of all the things you come across while on the course. 3. Manage your time, working on coursework and preparing for exams over the whole year. Your lecturers will suggest the things you need to be doing week to week. Leaving everything until the last couple of weeks before assessments are due is likely to result in failure. Use a calendar to help you manage and keep track of the things you need to do. 4. Take part in extra-curricular activities, both ones organised by the course team (like the Game Jam) and ones that you organise yourselves (like setting up your own game development teams or attending industry events – there are lots of free online events this year). 5. Be Interesting!

Solving problems

Talk to any of the following who will either be able to help you or point you in the direction of more help:

• Your Personal Tutor (their name is on your Student Portal) • Any of your lecturers • Anyone in the MyPort Information Hub on the ground floor of Eldon North building • Your course leader (Mr Gavin Wade) [email protected]

There are many other people you can approach, take note of the Wellbeing section later, but the above are the best people to talk to first with regards to the course.

Note that anything you discuss will be treated as confidential and since you are adults (over 18) we will not talk to anyone outside the university without your permission, this includes members of your family.

If you have a problem with a specific module the first person you should contact to address such is the person who runs the module, usually the Module Coordinator. Their name should appear with the module on Moodle. If they are unable to help, you should you bring issues to your Course Leader for consideration, but do please contact the Module Coordinator in the first instance.

Contacts

Course Leader Gavin Wade [email protected]

Deputy Course Leader Peter Howell [email protected]

Course Team Adam Jerrett [email protected] Alex Counsell [email protected] Anna Limpens (CGE CL) [email protected] Hui Yu [email protected] Jackie West [email protected] Jahangir Uddin [email protected] Leila DeLara [email protected] Mat Garey [email protected] Matthew Higgins [email protected] Mel Krokos [email protected] Neil Dansey [email protected] Paul Charisse [email protected] Rod Jeffcote [email protected]

Si Qiao [email protected] Ted Turnbull [email protected]

Deputy Head of School Rod Jeffcote [email protected]

Head of School Adrian Hull [email protected]

Course Administrator Rachel Green [email protected]

BSc (Hons) Computer Games Course Leader: Gavin Wade Technology ([email protected]) Group work and project Career planning and individual project management Programming pathway Graphics pathway Design pathway

Year 1 CT4EPORT - 20 credits CT4TDEMO - 20 credits CT4TOGA - 20 credits CT4IMAGE CT4DEFIG - 20 credits ePortfolio Technical Game Demo Development Tools for Games and Animation Introduction to Image Creation Define Games Core (all students do this) Core (all students do this) Core (all students do this) Core (all students do this) Core (all students do this)

Coordinator: LEILA DeLARA Coordinator: TED TURNBULL Coordinator: JAHANGIR UDDIN Coordinator: JACKIE WEST Coordinator: ADAM JERRETT CT4FOMOD 20 credits In the first year all modules are Core, so all students gain experience of key industry Foundation in 3D Modelling skills. Core (all students do this)

Coordinator: MATTHEW HIGGINS

Year 2 CT5PICAR - 20 credits CT5STENG - 20 credits CT5PAPI - 20 credits CT5DAVRC - 20 credits CT5GAMES - 20 credits Programming Application Design and Visual Research for Project Initiation and Career Management Student Enterprise CT Programming Interfaces Cinema and Game Design Games Core (all students do this) Core (all students do this) Option Option (Co-req CT5CASPR) Option Coordinator: ROD JEFFCOTE Coordinator: LEILA DeLARA Coordinator: MATTHEW HIGGINS Coordinator: TED TURNBULL Coordinator: PETER HOWELL CT5PROGC - 20 credits CT5CASPR - 40 credits CT5PIGDE - 20 credits In the second year, optional modules let students pursue skills around programming, art production and design for games and related industries. Commercial Asset Production for Real Prototyping and Iterating Game Program Consoles Time Designs Option Option Option Coordinator: NEIL DANSEY Coordinator: GAVIN WADE Coordinator: MATTHEW HIGGINS CT5MEGA - 20 credits CT5DESAN - 20 credits Mathematical Elements for Games Designers also take 40 credits of and Animation Designing for Animation modules from either art (CT5CASPR) or programming Option Option (CT5PROG/CT5MEGA) pathway Coordinator: JAHANGIR UDDIN Coordinator: MATTHEW GAREY CT5PROG - 20 credits Gameplay Programming Option Coordinator: NEIL DANSEY

Optional Year Option Optional sandwich (placement) year between year 2 and the final year - some students set up their own business in the sandwich year 5

Final year Coordinator: JAHANGIR UDDIN

CT6CTPRO - 40 credits CT6RIGPR1 - 20 credits CT6COPRE - 20 credits CT6AGRAT - 20 credits CT6GRES 20 credits Final Year Project Real-time Interactive Group Project 1 Console Programming Resolution Advanced Graphics Techniques Games Research Core (all students do this) Core (all students do this) Option Elective option Option Option Pre-req CT5PROGC Pre-req CT5CASPR Coordinator: ROD JEFFCOTE Coordinator: TED TURNBULL Coordinator: MATT HIGGINS Coordinator: MEL KROKOS Coordinator: PETER HOWELL CT6RIGPR2 - 20 credits CT6GAMAI - 20 credits CT6CREWO - 20 credits CT6PSYDR - 20 credits Psychological Theory for Game Real-time Interactive Group Project 2 Programming AI for games - Create Worlds Designers Core (all students do this) Option Option Option Pre-req CT5PRGAP Pre-req CT5CASPR Coordinator: TED TURNBULL Coordinator: JAHANGIR UDDIN Coordinator: GAVIN WADE Coordinator: PETER HOWELL

Final year students develop their individual specialisations ready for their career. CT6MOCAP - 20 credits Motion Capture Applications Option Pre-req CASPAR Coordinator: ALEX COUNSEL

The Independent Game Developers Association - www.tiga.org COLOUR CODING NOTES Pre-req: pre-requisite, this named All students must complete 120 credits module must have been previously Core modules of modules per year. taken. Modules are a combination of year Co-req: co-requisite, this named Optional modules long and single teaching block. module must also be taken.

Contain Programming & Graphics In the first year all modules are Students all have the possibility of (students choose which to do) compulsory or 'core'. doing a placement year in industry From the second year onwards between the second and third years. Graphics students specialise, choosing from Either finding their own placement a number of optional modules as well in a company or working together to Programming as studying core modules. set up their own business. Notice that in the second year students are basically choosing Game Design between Professional and academic skills. graphics, programming & design Course leader: Mr Gavin Wade, email Career preparation. routes, but in the final year have more [email protected] Flexibility within modules, allowing Business and Entrepreneurship greater specialisation. Course Content subject to change.

School of Creative Technologies: More information at: www.port.ac.uk/games

Course structure overview

The course is broadly divided into three strands: Game Design, Game Graphics and Game Programming with opportunities to take specialist options in these areas.

Year one In the first year of the course all students take the same modules, though in particular modules they are able to start specialising. So all students learn to:

• Program in C++ and have access to console development kits. This is taught from the ground up to ensure all students attain a similar threshold level of understanding, enabling students with less aptitude for programming to succeed. • Create 2D graphics, both hand-drawn (includes life drawing) and using Photoshop. As well as developing 2D skills this module also rewards students for their ability to contextualize what they are doing as they ‘learn to see’. This enables students with less experience of art to succeed. • Create 3D graphics using the latest version of 3D Studio Max, an essential skill even for programmers to master. • Start designing games, including investigating a variety of game genres and pitching game designs. • Develop their own online portfolio, writing skills and reflect on future career directions, with particular attention on the skills they will need to develop.

Additionally, first year students are divided into teams and asked to ‘make a game’. This problem-based learning is very open ended allowing them to make many mistakes through which they learn not only about themselves and their own preferences, but also about project management, working in teams and making presentations.

The investigation of future career paths and the experience of working in a team during a game development enables students to make an informed choice about the options they choose in the second year.

That students more interested in the graphics side of game development and those more interested in programming are each moved out of their comfort zones is important. In the games industry developers are frequently confronted with new and unfamiliar things (such as new technologies, novel gameplay and so on) so having the skills and confidence to tackle the unfamiliar is essential.

Additionally, programmers having an understanding of graphics and artists having an understanding of programming is useful not only for their own work, but also for enabling communication across different specialist teams in game development.

Year two In the second year students can choose to specialise in either game programming (C++, APIs (incl. Direct-X), console programming, maths etc.) or game graphics (3D modelling, animation, 2D art, industry pipelines etc.) or game design (either with graphics or with programming). All continue to develop game design skills, investigating gameplay mechanisms in more depth and creating some detailed design documentation. They also develop their academic skills, reflect on career choices and do some background work to lay the foundations for their big, individual third year project.

There is also a group working module in the second year in which students have the opportunity to develop game artefacts. However, this group project is to enable the students to develop commercial sensibilities. In their groups they have to set up and run a company. This builds on their first year team working experience, but sets in place a more formal structure and ensures that they consider the costs of everything they do. In addition to gaining entrepreneurial skills this also extends the transferable skills they started developing in the first year.

Students interested in other course modules, outside of their selected pathways, are encouraged to contact the coordinator of such modules to see if they can attend for additional learning. Such attendance is at the discretion of the module coordinator, dependant on space being available and is not assessed. Such an option might allow an artist to improve their programming (to become a Technical Artist) or allow a programmer to understand asset (art) production pipelines, for example.

Optional placement year All students have the option of doing a placement between their second and final year. There are two types of placement:

1) Work within an existing company. 2) Set up and work within their own company.

We do not guarantee finding students placements within existing companies but do support them through our faculty Creative Careers placement office. Every year we have several students in game developer placements but finding these is difficult and competitive.

We have many students setting up their own companies within the placement year. This is a very challenging option and they are required to meet stringent criteria in order to be allowed to do this. They are mentored throughout the year and must demonstrate coherent, realistic and convincing business plans and company structures. On occasion we’ve had up to five placement year company start-ups running at the same time.

Many students who successfully complete a placement year return to get a 1st class or 2.1 classification at the end of their final year. The placement year certainly focusses their attention and improves their approach to work.

Final year From having followed specific (graphics/programming/design) pathways via options in the second year, in the final year students are able to choose from a large range of career defining options. This allows them to develop tightly focussed specialist skills in the area of their choice. There are only three core modules that all students do, and even in those, students are able to develop their own specialist skills.

The three core modules each comprise two thirds of the final year. They are an individual project and a group project. For the individual project students are able to negotiate with the course leader and their lecturers what topic precisely they wish to focus on. They can do everything from an artefact project in which they make something (such as a game, level, program, characters etc.) to a study project in which they research an area of games, using research methods to investigate some aspect of game development or technology. Students projects often are a mixture of artefact and study; building an artefact in order to explore and answer a research question as a combined project.

The core group project follows on from the first and second year group projects, but in the final year we replicate as closely as possible an authentic industry development project. In this group project the students are given a small range of projects to choose from with the clients drawn both from industry and within the university; all needing some game related artefact produced. This is an incredibly challenging project and requires the groups to work professionally in order to meet their client’s demands. Client satisfaction is a large factor in arriving at the final marks for this module.

There is a range of six optional modules in the final year covering:

• Advanced console programming • Artificial intelligence • Technical art skills • Concept art, character or/and level building • Motion capture • Games design and research

Students choose any two of these, thus enabling them to develop specialist skills in their chosen area of game development. Some of these modules have pre-requisites from the second year, for example in order to take the module on advanced console programming a student will have had to take the second year console programming module. Often the options they choose relate to their final year individual projects.

List of resources

Games Labs PlayStation 4 & Vita development kits. Xbox One (UWP) development environment. (we are engaged in conversations with Sony regarding PlayStation 5 development kits)

Game engines, including Unreal Engine, Unity, CryENGINE, PhyreEngine, GameMaker and VBS2.

Specialist software includes current versions of: 3D Studio Max, Maya, Zbrush, Visual Studio, Photoshop, Microsoft Project, Articy:Draft, Agisoft Photoscan, Substance Designer and Painter.

Motion Capture Studio A dedicated VICON twelve camera motion capture studio, for use by students and staff. Professional animation software MotionBuilder is available. There is a performance area of 6.5 Metres by 4 Metres with a system that can capture up to 250 frames per second, for actors and props. 4 x custom built facial capture cameras, and processing using Faceware software solutions. The studio is manned with an experienced team to help facilitate capture and the clean-up of data.

Virtual Reality Lab Large stereo projection screen and input devices for real time applications including:

• Cyberglove • Phidgets • CyberRider exercise bike • Treadmill, • 8 camera Vicon motion capture, • Magnetic motion capture • Oculus Rifts • HTC Vive • Lead Motion Sensor • Xtion Motion Sensor • Kinect Motion Sensor • Phantom Desktop/Omni (haptic device) • LG 3D TV/Blu-ray player

Computer labs and open access area Over 300 computers are located in the building (Eldon Building) where the course is based with essential software installed (3D Studio Max, Photoshop, Visual Studio .NET etc) and all the usual Microsoft Office applications. We also have Cintiq displays for use by our students. This area also contains a range of large format printers for poster sized printing.

Apps Anywhere and Remote Access Accessed via the university Virtual Private Network (VPN), Apps Anywhere will allow you to run software licensed by the university to support your study on your own Windows device. We also anticipate it being possible to remotely connect to and use some of the PCs in our Eldon Games Labs, details are pending.

Social Media - Facebook

Our games courses have a ‘Closed’ group on Facebook, so there is no need to create your own.

The group currently has over 500 members, mostly students (and graduates) like yourself, looking to be or successfully engaged in a career in a games related industry. It’s an excellent place to share knowledge, experiences, to ask for help, to talk about games, or to find a new job.

The group is called ‘Games Tech Crew’ https://www.facebook.com/groups/GamesTechCrew/

When applying to join the group, please ensure you Facebook profile indicates you are studying games at the University of Portsmouth, or your application may be rejected.

Social Media - Discord

You will also find lots of your peers and the course staff are very active on Discord. Some modules may use Discord as their focus point for dealing with remote learning. It’s a convenient place where everyone can support and answer your questions promptly.

Join our course server using this link: https://discord.gg/T97QC7Z

Wellbeing

A decline in your mental health and wellbeing can adversely affected your academic performance. We appreciate that it is not uncommon for students to experience stress, mood changes, worry, or problems with eating and/or sleeping and that these can affect your participation in class, submission of assignments, and performance in assessments. If preparing for class and doing your coursework on a module causes you to experience any of these symptoms, then please speak with your Personal Tutor or the Module Coordinator.

We understand though that your mental health and wellbeing may be diminished because of things external to university. You may have relationship problems, be worried about your family, be suffering a loss or bereavement, or be engaged in a personal struggle. We are also very aware that COVID-19 is also a cause of stress and anxiety for many and whilst we will do all we can to mitigate this, in any of these cases please be aware that the University provides a Wellbeing service to support the wellbeing and academic success of students. You can access confidential services to help you manage personal challenges. You can find more information about this support by searching myport.ac.uk for ‘Student Wellbeing Service’ or via MyPort: https://myport.port.ac.uk/guidance-and-support/health-and-wellbeing

The email address is [email protected] and the telephone number is +44(0)23 9284 3466

Please remember that it’s ok not to be ok and getting help is the smart thing to do. The first step to improving things is often to talk and let people around you know.