Computer Games Laboratory (IN7106, IN710615)

Time, Place: Wednesday, 16:00 - 18:00, room: MI 02.13.010 (in-person)
(Only on days with milestone submissions, see detailed schedule below)
Supervision: E. Franz, G. Kohl
Begin: Mandatory kick-off meeting: October 19th 2022 at 16:00, room: MI 02.13.010
(No matching system needed, please carefully read the registration section below!)
Details: Main wiki: https://wiki.tum.de/display/gameslab2223winter/Home
This course is open only to master students in Informatik: Games Engineering. The module comprises lectures, programming exercises, and student presentations
Final pres.: The final presentation of results will take place during the demo day (7.2.)
Prerequisites: Bachelor Informatik: Games Engineering

Description

This is a practical course which involves a hands-on approach with neither traditional lectures nor exercises. Instead, we will meet ca. once every two weeks to discuss technical issues and to track progress via milestones. Students can utilize available game engines, yet we will make sure that a considerable own programming effort will be invested. While development will take place on PCs, students are free to choose the target platform of their final game.

At the end of the course, all results will be presented to the public at the Demo Day.

Prerequisites

  • Good programming skills (course projects are written in C# or C++)
  • Students should have succesfully passed the major games lectures from Bachelor Informatics: Games Engineering (esp. Realtime Computer Graphics and Game Physics)
  • This practical is open for students of Master Informatics: Games Engineering only

Organization

Regardless the content of the game, the development process must adhere to the guidelines proposed below. Students are encouraged to design a game that has strong links to one of the areas of specialization in the curriculum of the Master program Informatik: Games Engineering.

After choosing their favorite area of specialization, the students plan the project and prototype the intended game. Then, the game is implemented and iteratively improved via playtesting until it is ready to be presented at the end of the semester. Teams from different areas can also join to create an even more complex game.

Registration

This practical course does not use the regular TUM informatics matching system you might know from other seminars and practicals. In order to attend the Computer Games Laboratory, make sure to participate in the mandatory project kick-off meeting to form groups (it might take place before the semester starts because of the tight milestone schedule), and also join the mandatory milestone meetings afterwards. If you are unable to attend the kick-off meeting, send an email to Erik Franz or Georg Kohl beforehand to discuss if you can participate nevertheless.

It is not possible to join later during the semester as the game development projects have to be planned from the first milestone at the beginning of the semester. Note that you should not sign up for this course until you are sure you will fully participate. If you drop out, this can cause significant problems for your other team members!

Timeline

The following table gives an overview of all meetings during the semester. On all weeks that are not mentioned there is no class. For the contents of the report and the team presentations see the project structure document below (or have a look at the previous course instances).

milestone / lecture date team presentation in class to publish on the wiki
(due tuesday before presentation)
Kick-off Meeting
Lecture:
Softskills
19.10.   Form groups and send email with all members to
erik.franz@tum.de and georg.kohl@tum.de by 21.10.
1. Milestone: Game idea
Lecture: Prototyping
09.11. Game idea Report: Game idea proposal Slides: Game idea
2. Milestone: Prototype 23.11. Prototype Wiki: Mutual critiques until 12.11.
Report: Prototype
Slides: Prototype
3. Milestone: Interim demo 14.12. Interim demo Report: Interim results
Slides: Interim results
4. Milestone: Alpha release
Lecture: Playtesting
11.01. Alpha release Report: Alpha documentation
Slides: Alpha release
5. Milestone: Playtesting 25.01. Playtesting Report: Playtesting results
Slides: Playtesting results
6. Milestone: Final release 08.02. Final release Report: Final documentation
Slides: Final release
Gameplay video
Compiled final game version
Demo Day: Live presentation 07.02. Demo day (in-person) Details at http://in.tum.de/demoday