Announcements

  • Office hours have concluded for the term. Please take any final project-related questions you have to Ed or directly to your TF.
  • The final project specification is now available. Your next milestone, the Status Report, is due 2022-12-04T23:59:00-05:00. The implementation itself is due 2022-12-11T23:59:00-05:00.

Description

This course picks up where Harvard College’s CS50 leaves off, focusing on the development of 2D and 3D interactive games. Students explore the design of such childhood games as Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, and Portal in a quest to understand how video games themselves are implemented. Via lectures and hands-on projects, the course explores principles of 2D and 3D graphics, animation, sound, and collision detection using frameworks like LÖVE2D and Unity, as well as languages like Lua and C#. By class’s end, students will have programmed several of their own games and gained a thorough understanding of the basics of game design and development.

Table of Contents

Pong

  1. Watch Lecture 0 on or after Mon 8/29.
  2. Optionally attend office hours.
  3. Work on Project 0, due 2022-09-04T23:59:00-04:00.

Flappy Bird

  1. Watch Lecture 1 on or after Mon 9/5.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Optionally attend office hours.
  4. Work on Project 1, due 2022-09-11T23:59:00-04:00.

Breakout

  1. Watch Lecture 2 on or after Mon 9/12.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Optionally attend office hours.
  4. Work on Project 2, due 2022-09-18T23:59:00-04:00.

Match 3

  1. Watch Lecture 3 on or after Mon 9/19.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Optionally attend office hours.
  4. Work on Project 3, due 2022-09-25T23:59:00-04:00.

Super Mario Bros.

  1. Watch Lecture 4 on or after Mon 9/26.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Optionally attend office hours.
  4. Work on Project 4, due 2022-10-02T23:59:00-04:00.

Legend of Zelda

  1. Watch Lecture 5 on or after Mon 10/3.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Optionally attend office hours.
  4. Work on Project 5, due 2022-10-09T23:59:00-04:00.

Angry Birds

  1. Watch Lecture 6 on or after Mon 10/10.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Optionally attend office hours.
  4. Work on Project 6, due 2022-10-16T23:59:00-04:00.

Pokémon

  1. Watch Lecture 7 on or after Mon 10/17.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Optionally attend office hours.
  4. Work on Project 7, due 2022-10-23T23:59:00-04:00.

Helicopter Game 3D

  1. Watch Lecture 8 on or after Mon 10/31.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Optionally attend office hours.
  4. Work on Project 8, due 2022-11-06T23:59:00-05:00.

Dreadhalls

  1. Watch Lecture 9 on or after Mon 11/7.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Optionally attend office hours.
  4. Work on Project 9, due 2022-11-13T23:59:00-05:00.
  5. Review the final project specification and start thinking about your Proposal, which is due 2022-11-20T23:59:00-05:00.

Portal

  1. Watch Lecture 10 on or after Mon 11/14.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Optionally attend office hours.
  4. Work on Project 10, due 2022-11-20T23:59:00-05:00.

Portal Problems

  1. Watch Lecture 11 on or after Mon 11/21.
  2. Attend one or more sections.
  3. Work on the final project:
    • The status report is due 2022-12-04T23:59:00-05:00.
    • The final implementation is due 2022-12-11T23:59:00-05:00.