Computer gaming
is a vibrant multi-billion dollar industry that offers exciting career
opportunities for computer scientists as well as visual artists. The Rice Computer Science department and Pi Studios, a local computer game company (best known for their work on the Call of Dutyseries) are offering a full-year program designed to expose Rice students to
the theory and practice of computer game creation. This first class, Comp 160, is designed to
provide a hands-on introduction to the basic math and programming skills
necessary to build computer games. In
the last part of Comp 160, student groups will have the
opportunity to construct a prototype of an Xbox 360 game of their own design
and pitch their game concept to a fall jury consisting of the instructor and
two members of Pi Studios.
With
the approval of the jury, student groups may then take Comp 460 (Advanced
computer game creation) in the spring.
In Comp 460, each group will add one or two Visual Arts students and
develop a refined version of their proposed game that includes in-game art and
a complete user interface. At the end of
the semester, each group will demo their games for a spring jury consisting of
three members of Pi Studios including John Faulkenbury, Pi
Studio’s Creative Director. For Visual Arts students interested in
taking Comp 460 as the Visual Arts elective Arts 460, please contact jwarren@rice.edu for more information.
Finally, at the discretion of the spring jury, some
student groups may then be invited to continue work on their games, mentored by
members of PI Studios during the following summer. This mentoring may lead to the game being
eventually submitted to an independent games festival such as the IGF, an
internship for the students at PI Studios or, in a few cases, the game being
pitched by PI Studios to Microsoft for release on Xbox Live Arcade
In Comp 460,
students design and build full-scale computer games based game proposals
generated at the end of the previous semester.
For students taking Comp 160, building these proposals is part of their
class work. For other students who wish
to participate in Comp 460 (such upper level CS students or Visual Arts
students), please contact Joe Warren the week before Thanksgiving to begin the
process of meeting other 460 students and putting together a viable game
proposal for Comp 460.
In Comp 460,
students will usually work in groups of 2-4 with a mixed of CS students and
Visual Arts students. Class time
consists of the student group’s meeting to work on their game. This work may consist of designing the game,
building art, writing code, debugging and play testing. There are three distinct milestones in the
class:
Based on the
opinion of the jury, some students will be offered a chance to work as interns
at PI Studios to continue development of their games. During the summer, the focus will be on
adding a professional look-and-feel to the game and bringing the game to state
where it is suitable to be pitched to Microsoft for Xbox Live Arcade.
Spring 2007 – Harebrained (video)
Spring 2008 – Zenith (video)
Spring 2008 – Quill Lords
Comp 460 is one
of three upper-level computer science classes that satisfy the Engineering
design requirement for Computer Science BS degrees.
Prerequisites:
Enrollment in Comp 160 the previous fall or permission of the instructor
Time and Location:
M 2-4, W F 3-4 Symonds II
Class materials:
USB-compatible wired Xbox
controller, Xbox Live account
Instructor:
Joe Warren
x5728
jwarren@rice.edu
Teaching assistant:
Po-wei Feng
poweif@rice.edu
Lab assistants:
Brian Shields