This week features the second exam at the beginning of the class period. It is worth up to 15 points and covers the material from weeks 1 through 4 (including Chapters 11 and 12 from The Game Maker's Apprentice textbook, Game Maker Tutorials 10 through 13 (3D Techniques, Tank Wars, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Slightly Less Doomed), and the required reading sections for those weeks on this web site.
There is no lecture track this week, but in the lab portion we will delve deeply into another, more sophisticated type of maze game with Tutorial 14: Pyramid Panic. It is a lessons that gives the AI opponents (i.e., the monsters the player must face) some more intelligent behavior (AI), adds a very neat effect, and reinforces the complete game building experience from front end to cheese screen that you'll need to demonstrate on next week's midterm 'theme' game plus your final project game.
Your take-home midterm exam game project is discussed in class this week, and a theme for it will be elected by the class serving as a committee-of-the-whole.
The link below is the homework assignment due at the beginning of the next class session.
These links feature the supplemental material that you are responsible for knowing before the second exam (that takes place at the beginning of Week 8). Be sure to click on every link in this section!
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These supplemental links are worth pursuing only if you wish to really learn the subject matter of game design in the broadest possible sense. This material will not be directly included in the exams, but if you're serious about being a game designer and delving deeply into the subject of game design art, craft, and science, here's some more lessons from others who have also "been there."
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Bibliography: General Course References
