GamePipe News & Events
Operating A Computer Science Game Degree Program
Michael Zyda, Victor Lacour, Chris Swain
The USC Department of Computer Science is in its second year of
operating its BS in Computer Science (Games) and MS in
Computer Science (Game Development) degree programs. We
have developed an interesting educational architecture inside of
that degree program that allows the students to become strong
game developers, strong computer scientists, strong programmers,
strong systems developers, and facile with working in crossdisciplinary,
collaborative groups. We believe that educating
students in this fashion strengthens our department’s ability to do
cutting edge research in computer science as well as provide great
graduates for the game industry. In this paper, we share our
lessons learned, some detail on our courses and processes, as well
as detail on our impact .... (more)
Educating the Next Generation of Game Developers
Michael Zyda
The current revolution in videogaming used for both entertainment and serious purposes engenders a strong requirement that we advance the state of the art of game technology and design through our university research and education programs. To make this happen, many universities have begun new degree programs focused on game design and development. This special issue discusses the programs we are creating, decisions we’ve made, challenges encountered in establishing these programs, and actual results. Two articles in this issue come from the game design side of the educational equation, two others from the computer science side. If we feel so strongly that the creation of game programs .... (more)
From Visual Simulation to Virtual Reality to Games
Michael Zyda
During the past two decades, the virtual reality community has based its development on a synthesis of earlier work in interactive 3D graphics, user interfaces, and visual simulation.1 Doing so let developers create a more open technology than the visual simulation community could, increased the number of people working in 3D, and developed a science, technology, and language considerably beyond that of the earlier field. Beginning in 1997 with the publication of an NRC report titled “Modeling and Simulation—Linking Entertainment and Defense,”2 the video game community has pushed into spaces previously the domain of the VR community. Clearly, the VR field is transitioning into work influenced by video games .... (more)
Enabling Voice Modality in Mobile Games through VoiceXML
Michael Zyda, Dhruv Thukral, Jim Ferrans, Jonathon Engelsma, Mat Hans
The use of speech recognition in gaming applications is not entirely new. The growth of voice as a part of gaming has exploded largely due to the popularity of online matchmaking services such as Xbox Live. Yet, the majority of its use is only limited to communications between players to coordinate game play activities through the use of a headset and a microphone. To further explore the possibilities of using voice that affect game play directly, Motorola has partnered with GamePipe Labs at the University of Southern California. This short paper describes the efforts undertaken and the results of this collaboration. (more)
Educating the Next Generation of Mobile Game Developers
Michael Zyda, Dhruv Thukral, Jim Ferrans, Jonathon Engelsma, Mat Hans
Mobile gaming is one of the fastest growing segments in the video game industry. The $680 million acquisition of JAMDAT by Electronic Arts to form EA Mobile in 2006 is indicative of how lucrative this segment is becoming to game development and publishing companies. The attraction lies in the huge, accessible market of mobile phones: it is estimated that more than two billion are in use. Most of these mobile phones have at least the computing power of earlier Pentiumbased PCs. Yet, development on these phones is still far from simple, with various standards and platforms available for the plethora of phone types on the market. Even Java game developers have to publish hundreds of versions to cover the great variety of mobile devices. Recently the push has been .... (more)
Incorporating Mobile Games into a Computer Science Game Degree Program
Michael Zyda, Dhruv Thukral, Jim Ferrans
The CS526-Advanced Mobile Devices and Consoles course is currently in the second year of its running. The course aims to target game development for mobile platforms, a platform which in recent years has become an almost indispensable arm for all major gaming publishers. With an initial intent to fill the need of the mobile gaming industry to hire computer science graduates having experience in embedded device programming, we have also learned along the way that a course on mobile game development plays a vital role in the USC Department of Computer Science Games major. This paper discusses the growing need of why any computer science based games curriculum should not ignore the .... (more)
Connected Immersion
Michael Zyda, Gurminder Singh
Immersive VR environments typically cut the user off from the outside world. Such immersion hampers work for most users, as they are unable to attend to external events such as phone calls, emails and alerts. In some situations being cut off from the outside world can be significant safety hazard. We enable access to external events and stimuli in immersive environments so that the user is aware of such events and is able to attend to them without having to disengage from the VR gear. We describe a method and apparatus required to receiving phone calls that arrive on cellular phones in an immersive VR environment. .... (more)