Interdisciplinary Game Project, CS 319

This is the official course website for Interdisciplinary Game Project, CS 319, taught by Ira Fay at Hampshire College in Fall 2015.

Basic Info

The most important document for this class is the syllabus. I spent hours crafting it, and I believe it contains useful information, including the course schedule.

Class Sessions: Mondays and Wednesdays 10:30am - 11:50am, ASH 126
Professor: Ira Fay, (413) 559-6844, ASH 216, ifay@hampshire.edu
Office Hours: By appointment via this website.
Course Email List: CS319@lists.hampshire.edu

1:1 Meeting Signup Spreadsheet

Projects

Project details will be posted here when they are available.

Flaming Hoop project.
Bear.obj file if needed.

Project 1: Beauty

Project 2: Virtual Reality

Final Project

Useful Links

When I taught this 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!

Unity tutorials
Excellent Unity tutorials
Unity answers (a forum for technical Unity questions)
Script reference

Video recording and editing software:
- OBS (Recommended! Free, all platforms, open source) How to record in HD (optional)
- QuickTime Player (Mac, on the machines in ASH 126)
- Snapz Pro X (Mac, free trial)
- Camtasia (Mac, free trial)
- Five ideas for Windows (Ezvid, BlueBerry Recorder, Screenr, Rylstim Screen Recorder, CamStudio)
- Editor: iMovie (Mac) or Windows Movie Maker (Win)

How to setup your own Hampshire website

Sample Anonymous Peer Evaluation.doc
Sample Non-Anonymous Peer Evaluation.doc

Intellectual Property (IP) Policy

All materials created in this course will be governed by Hampshire's IP Policy, which is currently in a draft form but still applies to this course. Group work will be jointly owned by all team members.

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 or email Ira.
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 Surveys

I regularly ask students to complete surveys to improve the course and share feedback with me and peers. Here is a reference to old surveys in case you missed one:

Enrollment Survey

Project 1 Survey

Final Project Preference Survey

VR Project Survey

Final Survey