CSCI 180 - Survey of Games & their Technologies

Professor: Prof. Victor LaCour
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall (RTH) 321
Day/Time: Monday,Wednesday:1-2:30PM

This course provides a historical, technical, and critical approach to the evolution of computer and video game architectures and game design, from its beginnings to the present day. Students should finish the course with an understanding of the history of this medium and its technical foundations.
The course offers lecture, reading, discussion, guest presentations and projects on the developing culture and technology of computer and video game architectures and mechanics.

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CSCI 281 - Pipelines for Games & Interactives

Professor: Scott Easley
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall (RTH) 321
Day/Time: Thursday 7-10pm

This course will present an approach to the aesthetic development and technical implementation necessary to achieving unique, compelling, and intuitive visual design in games. The course will also look ahead to the task of creating games that can compete in the next-generation marketplace.
Regardless of artistic background, students will have an opportunity to exercise design skill, emphasizing clear visual communication and quick revision, with an awareness of the collaborative processes in real-world game development.

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CSCI 486 - Serious Games

Professor: Prof. Victor LaCour
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall (RTH) 321
Day/Time: Thursday 1-4:30pm

This course is an advanced team-based development course where teams of 3+ students work on a collaborative Serious Gaming project(s) during the semester. Student will work to research and develop applications of interactive technology that extend beyond the traditional videogame market, including: education, health, training, policy exploration, analytics, visualization, simulation, the arts, and therapy. The number and types of projects per semester will vary depending on the skills and serious game domain interests of the students.

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CSCI 491AL - Final Game Project

Professor: Prof. Victor LaCour
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall (RTH) 321
Day/Time: Thursday 2-5:30pm

This course is an advanced team project course where 2+ students work on entertainment-based game project(s) during the semester. These projects will range across various genres of game lexicon, including side-scrollers, 1st and 3rd person 3D games, RTS, adventure, racing, puzzle games, and other genres. This course provides students in various areas of game specialization the practice of design, iterative prototyping (paper, presentational, interactive), and development of a 1st playable level.

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CSCI 522 - Game Engine Development

Professor: Jose Villeta
Location: RTH 321
Day/Time: Monday 6:30-9:30

This course will provide basic and advanced techniques for designing and developing a game engine suitable for use on a wide variety of next-generation gaming hardware. Through implementing the essential systems of a high-performance, multi-threaded, cross-platform, real-time 3D game engine, the student will gain familiarity with the characteristics of such engines.

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CSCI 523 - Networked Games

Professor: Prof. Mike Zyda
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall (RTH) 321
Day/Time: Tuesday, Thursday 10:00AM-11:50AM (Fall Semesters)

This course covers the design and implementation of networked games, from the origins of the supporting technologies in distributed systems, visual simulations, networked virtual environments, and shipped games. Topics include the challenges of networked games, the origins of networked games technology, communications architectures, managing dynamic shared state, systems design, real-time collision detection and response resource management for scalability and performance, matching players to games, open source game engines, and mobile networking.

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CSCI 524 - Networked AI

Professor: Prof. Mike Zyda
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall (RTH) 321
Day/Time: Tuesday, Thursday 10:00AM-11:50AM (Spring Semesters)

This course covers the design and implementation of artificial intelligence systems deployed as integral parts of networked games. The objective of the course is to prepare the student for research and development of AI technologies for interacting with and playing against large-scale, networked games.
Topics include networked game communication architectures, architecting networked game AI clients and services, various AI techniques including character following, knowledge representation and reasoning, search, learning, and planning.

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CSCI 526 - Advanced Mobile Devices & Game Consoles

Professor: Prof. Mike Zyda
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall (RTH) 321
Day/Time: Wednesday:10:00AM-12:30PM

The course works with MOTOROLA CORPORATION and students get an opportunity to work with the company’s next-generation mobile phones (the E680i).Students work with the company’s standards for application development and use the latest Motorola platform and their tools to create a Mobile Game.

The aim of the course is to research on new ways of creating open-source games using non-traditional ways of building multiplayer mobile games.

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CSCI 529 - Advanced Game Projects

Professor: Prof. Victor LaCour
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall (RTH) 321
Day/Time: Thursday 2-5:30pm

This course is an advanced team project course where 2+ students work on entertainment-based game project(s) during the semester. These projects will range across various genres of game lexicon, including side-scrollers, 1st and 3rd person 3D games, RTS, adventure, racing, puzzle games, and other genres. This course provides students in various areas of game specialization the practice of design, iterative prototyping (paper, presentational, interactive), and development of a 1st playable level.

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CSCI 538 - Human Performance Engineering

Professor: Steve Jacobs
Location: OHE 136
Day/Time: Tuesday 6:30-9:10 PM (Spring Semesters)

This graduate course is a team project course where students learn tools and techniques for addressing issues related to Human Performance Engineering (HPE) of computing systems including games. The student learns how user computer interaction can affect human operator performance and enhance the user experience.

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