Women in Game Programming, CS 181

This is the official course website for Women in Game Programming, CS 181, taught by Ira Fay at Hampshire College in Fall 2015.

Basic Info

The most important document for this class is the syllabus. It contains useful information, including the course schedule.

Class Sessions: Mondays and Wednesdays 1pm - 2:20pm, ASH 126
Professor: Ira Fay, (413) 559-6844, ASH 216, ifay@hampshire.edu
Office Hours: By appointment. A sign up sheet is available digitally.
Course Email List: cs181@lists.hampshire.edu
TA Email List: cs181tas@lists.hampshire.edu
TAs: Jen Maxwell, Isaiah Mann
TA Office Hours: ASH 126
Saturday: 1pm - 3pm (Jen)
Sunday: 1pm - 2pm (Jen), 4pm - 5pm (Isaiah)
Tuesday: 6pm - 8pm (Isaiah)

Projects

Project details will be posted here when they are available.

Project 1 - Mining
Mining Project Submission Spreadsheet (find the tab with your name)
Mining Part 1 - Walkthrough
Mining Part 2 - Walkthrough
Mining Part 3 - Walkthrough
Mining Part 4 - Walkthrough

Project 2 - Transportation
Transportation Project Submission Spreadsheet (find the tab with your name)
Transportation Part 1 - Walkthrough
Transportation Part 2 - Walkthrough
Transportation Final - Walkthrough

Final Project
Color Plus (Normal Difficulty)
Block Shift (Hard Difficulty)
Final Project Submission Spreadsheet (find the tab with your name)

Unity UI Walkthrough

Random Cube Color Walkthrough

Coroutines - Movement Walkthrough

Useful Links

Excellent Unity tutorials
Unity answers (a forum for technical Unity questions)
Script reference
How to setup your own Hampshire website

When I taught an advanced class previously, the students compiled a document of Unity Tips and Tricks. I strongly encourage you to continue editing and improving this document for future classes!

Slides from this class:
01 Intro
02 Programming vs Math
03 Mining Part 3
04 Mining Part 3 cont
05 Mining Final - for - arrays - cupcake
06 Transportation and survey feedback

Slides from a previous game design class:
Programming for Game Designers
Programming for Game Designers, Part 2
Programming for Game Designers, Part 3
Programming for Game Designers, Part 4

Bonus Info

Email Lists
If you want to know about Game Development at Hampshire and in the Five Colleges, join the Game Development email list. You may also want to join the Game Jobs or Game Jam email lists. Programmers might want to join the Computer Science list, and artists might want to join the Animation list. In fact, you might just want to browse all the lists at Hampshire and find lists that appeal to you.

Game Jam
The Pioneer Valley Game Developers (PVGD) are hosting a free game jam at TopatoCon. I highly recommend participation in any game jam, and I suspect this will be a good one. Anyone who attends should tell me and I'll reflect it in your evaluation/grade. First year students can also get CEL-1 credit.

Game Gatherings
Play and analyze board and card games. I'll announce this each week on the GameDevelopment email list, referenced above.
Thursdays, 1pm - 3:30pm, Library (2nd floor training room, Room 205)
The event is open to everyone, and first year students can get CEL-1 credit.

Game Analysis: D&D Miniatures (DDM) League
Explore game design concepts within the D&D Miniatures (DDM) game. No experience necessary.
Cost: $20 (and possibly some free spots)
For more information and to enroll, join the DDMLeague e-mail list.
The event is open to everyone, and first year students can get CEL-1 credit.

Game Library
We are fortunate that the Hampshire library has an ever-growing collection of board games and digital games. Students, staff, and faculty members have access to this great resource. Please make use of it, and feel free to give feedback to Ira on your experience.

The Quarters
The Quarters is an incredible arcade + restaurant. They have my full support, and their food is excellent and reasonably priced. If anyone beats my high score on Arkanoid, please let me know.

Word Snack
In Fall 2014, I co-taught CS307 Interdisciplinary Game Studio with Chris Perry. A team of 34 students, staff, faculty, and community members designed, developed, and published a game in one semester. We had students from all Five Colleges, and I'm proud of the result. We had lots of different roles on the team. If you like word games, or if you're curious to see what's possible in a hard-working semester, check out the free game or watch the 60 second trailer video here: Word Snack

Game Stores
For some projects or just general fun, it may be useful for you to be aware of nearby boardgame stores.

Previous Survey Links

Enrollment Survey

Mining Survey

Skills Survey

Transportation Survey

Project Survey

Skills Survey