by Ming Chow ¹

• ¹ Tufts University

A hands-on course where real-world skills including design, teamwork, management, documentation, and communications are critical. This course will delve into topics such as the game engine, rendering, user interfaces, sound, animation, and game hacking. This course will also cover designing MMORPGs and mobile games.

How do you create a complete computer / video game from start to finish? What are the different elements to a game? What makes a great game? Computer game development requires all facets of computer science, including computer graphics, artificial intelligence, algorithms, data structures, networking, and human-computer interaction. It also requires knowledge of other disciplines including economics, mathematics, physics, and psychology. The value of this course goes beyond culminating computer science. It is largely a hands-on course where real-world skills including design, teamwork, management, documentation, and communications are critical. This course will delve into topics such as the game engine, rendering, user interfaces, sound, animation, and game hacking. This course will also cover designing MMORPGs and mobile games.

Course Description

Video game development is a multi-disciplinary, collaborative endeavor. In this course students from a range of interests across liberal arts and engineering will work in teams to create a video game. Topics covered in this course include: game design, the game engine, sound, rendering, 2 and 3D graphics, basic game physics and AI, sprites, and animation.