Journal of Game Design and Development Education ISSUE 1: 2011 Challenges and Opportunities in the Design of Game Programming Classes for a Traditional Computer 4 Ian Parberry Teaching Students to Make Alternative Game Controllers 18 David I. Schwartz Evolving Interdisciplinary Collaborative Groups in a Game Development Course 25 Holliie Bourdreaux, Jim Etheridge and Ashok Kumar Designing an International Curriculum Guideline for Game Audio: Problems and Solutions 38 Ufuk Onen, Richard Stevens and Karen Collins Studying Commercial Games: Justifying Choices 48 Katrin Becker Skins: Designing Games with First Nations Youth 54 Beth Aileen Lameman and Jason Edward Lewis 1 Journal of Game Design and Development Education (JGDDE) Rochester Institute of Technology The Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences Spring 2011 ISSN 2160-9691 (Print) ISSN 2160-9705 (Online) © 2011 Rochester Institute of Technology, and individual authors EditoRIAL BOARD SPONSORS Stephen Jacobs - Editor-in-Chief We’re thankful for our sponsors’ support; Nick Paulus - Managing Editor Alice and Klaus Peters at AK Peters gave us a good start, good guidance and allowed us to move from a Bryan Alexander print journal under their imprimatur to an electronic one when it made sense to do so. Jessica Bayliss The Golisano College of Computing and Information Marinka Copier Sciences generously funded the editorial and publication costs of this effort. Drew Davidson The Game Education Summit of North America is Chris Egert acting as a co-promotional partner and the next issue of JGDDE will publish the “Best Paper Award” Karen Schrier winner from the Summit. Magy Seif El-Nasr Visit our website at: http://www.rit.edu/gccis/gameeducationjournal/ Ian Parberry for more infomation or to submit articles for our next issue. Scott ‘JT’ Mengel - Web Design Corrinna Corrallo - Graphic Design This work is licensed under a “Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported” License. You are free to share the work under the following conditions: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor; You may not use this work for commercial purpose; You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. See hp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ for full details. 2 The Journal of Game Design & Development Education Welcome Dear Readers, Welcome to the first issue of the Journal of Game Design and Development Education (JGDDE). The JGDDE is a peer-reviewed journal that covers all aspects of teaching the art, craft and science of game design and development to students in and out of a higher education setting. We plan to cover a range of work in our emerging field, as well represented by the content in our first issue. For example, Ian Parberry’s piece covers the emergence and growth of his pioneering work in the field teaching game programming in a university setting over the better part of two decades while Beth Lameman’s article looks at an evolving effort to teach game design and development to pre-university indigenous youth as a way of recapturing and owning their heritage while David Schwartz’s effort chronicles the early design of a mixed hardware and software course to create new types of game controllers. Games are a multidisciplinary medium and those of us who teach their creation come from as broad a set of backgrounds as you can find. JGDDE will celebrate that diversity of skills and backgrounds. We look forward to having you as readers and as contributors. Stephen Jacobs Assistant Professor Editor-in-Chief 3 Challenges and Opportunities in the Design of Game Programming Classes for a Traditional Computer Ian Parberry University of North Texas [email protected] ABSTRACT Game programming classes have been offered at the University of North Texas continuously since 1993. The classes are project based, and feature collaborative coursework with art majors in UNT’s College of Visual Arts and Design. We discuss the design that enables them to provide training for students intending employment in the game industry without sacrificing academic educational depth or the educational needs of mainstream computer science students. 1. INTRODUCTION In 1993 we introduced a game programming course towards a professionally recommended curriculum in to the undergraduate computer science program game studies [8]. Unlike institutions such as Digipen, at the University of North Texas. At the time, this Full Sail, and SMU’s Guildhall that offer specialized was a controversial, much-challenged, and difficult degrees or diplomas in game programming, we offer move. There were no course materials, books, game programming as an option within a traditional or web pages available. Interestingly, the only computer science curriculum. Keeping in mind that many objections were from faculty — both the students institutions are starting game programs, and that many of and the administration were in favor of the class. them are designing their curricula in an ad hoc manner, Objections were raised about the industry-driven the purpose of this paper is to share some of what we have focus of the class and the perceived trivial nature learned from experience over the last decade and a half of entertainment computing. Since 1993 the initial by describing our game programming classes, the design game programming class has evolved with the philosophy behind them, and some of the potential pitfalls fast-moving game industry, and spawned more to be avoided. classes and an undergraduate certificate in game programming. After more than a decade and a half We begin by discussing game industry needs in Section of operation, our game programming classes have 2, and some important issues in the design of a game positioned our alumni for employment in companies programming class in Section 3. We will discuss our including Acclaim Entertainment, Ensemble Studios, introductory class in more detail in Section 4, and our Gathering of Developers, Glass Eye, iMagic Online, advanced class in Section 5. Section 6 describes two new Ion Storm, Klear Games, NStorm, Origin, Paradigm classes and a recently introduced undergraduate Certificate Entertainment, Ritual, Sony Entertainment, in Game Programming at UNT. Section 7 discusses the Terminal Reality, and Timegate Studios. Our early need for separate lab space for use in game programming alumni are moving upward in the game industry to classes. The Conclusion contains some data about the programming director and producer level positions. impact of game programming on the computer science program at UNT. A preliminary version of the material in In sharp contrast to their early history, game programming this paper appeared in [12, 13, 14]. classes are now gaining acceptance in academia (see, for example, Feldman [7], Moser [11], Adams [1], Faltin 2. WHat GAME CompanieS WANT [6], Jones [9], Becker [3], Alphonce and Ventura [2], and Game companies want C and C++ programmers with Sindre, Line, and ValvÊ [15]), resulting in a proliferation general competence in technical subjects typically found of new classes and programs nationwide, and a move in an undergraduate computer science program such as 4 The Journal of Game Design & Development Education programming, computer architecture, algorithms, data the requirements of the capstone project CS390 in [4]. structures, graphics, networking, artificial intelligence, software engineering, and the prerequisite math and Other employers are also attracted to students who physics classes. In addition, they usually require evidence have experience with a group software project with of the following skills and experience: nontechnical partners. Feedback has suggested that game demos created with artists tend to show better 1. Work on a large project, that is, larger than in interviews than the typical project created by the typical “write a program for a linked list” programming students alone. kind of programs that are typically used as homeworks in programming courses. 3. DESIGNING A GAME PROGRAMMING 2. Creation of a game demo or two, something CLASS nontrivial that plays well and showcases the There are a number of key decisions in the design of programmers’ ability. This shows that the a game programming class that affect the outcome applicant is devoted enough to have spent in a fundamental way: their own time to create something, and has the perseverance to see it through to completion. 1. Should the classes be theory based, or project 3. That the applicant is a “team player”, somebody based? who can work in a multidisciplinary team with 2. What software tools should be used? other programmers and nontechnical people 3. Where do programming students find art such as artists. assets? 4. That the applicant can learn independently, 4. Should students be free to design any game in because the game industry continues to push any genre, or should their choices be limited? the boundaries of what can be done using new 5. Should students write their own game engine, computer technology. or work with a pre-existing engine? 5. That the applicant is well-versed in game technology. On the first question, the options were either a theory class with homeworks and exams, perhaps While our undergraduates can technically learn augmented with small programming projects, versus enough about the game industry in general and game a project class in which the grade is primarily for a programming in particular from books to satisfy most large project programmed in groups. We chose the of these requirements, our game programming classes project option, understanding that students would are designed to help students achieve them more come out of the classes with two substantial game effectively than they could alone, and encourage them demos that will play a major role in their first job to higher levels of achievement. The requirements interview in the game industry. listed above are similar to the “Ideal Programmer Qualities” listed by Marc Mencher [10]: On the second question, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at UNT was until recently • Team Attitude: The ability to work in a team to almost exclusively Unix based, with g++ being the get the job done, without unnecessary friction.