CS/INFO 3152: Introduction to Computer Game Development

Course Labs

This page contains the instructions for the various labs that are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the semester. These labs are broken up into the following categories:

[ENGRC Labs] [Critiques] [Game Labs] [Lab Accounts]


ENGRC Labs

The ENGRC labs are part of the companion course ENGRC 3152. They are intended to help you both prepare and revise the numerous documents involved in this course. Most of the time, these are in-class activities intended to help you with an associated assignment. As a result, there is often nothing additional to turn in. However, in a few cases, we do want a separate submission for the communication lab. You should pay attention to these.

Lab Task Date Location
ENGRC Lab 1 Team Formation 01/21/20 In-Class
ENGRC Lab 2 Idea Formation 01/28/20 In-Class
ENGRC Lab 3 Concept Workshop 02/04/20 In-Class
ENGRC Lab 4 Paper Prototyping 02/11/20 In-Class
ENGRC Lab 5 Outlining Milestones 02/18/20 In-Class
ENGRC Lab 6 Gameplay Workshop 02/20/20 In-Class
ENGRC Lab 7 Architecture & Design Exercise 02/27/20 In-Class
ENGRC Lab 8 Architecture & Design Workshop 03/10/20 In-Class
ENGRC Lab 9 Working Remotely 03/12/20 In-Class
ENGRC Lab 10 Design Patterns 04/06/20 Discord
ENGRC Lab 11 Document Revisions 04/07/20 Discord
ENGRC Lab 12 Composite Challenges 04/08/20 Discord
ENGRC Lab 13 Level Design 04/22/20 Discord
ENGRC Lab 14 Final Portfolio 05/06/20 Discord

Playtests and Critiques

While ENGRC labs are about working together with your group, critiques and playtesting are where you share your work with others. All of the teams have very different games and are focusing on different things. That is why you learn so much more when you come together and critique each other's work.

Lab Task Date Location
Critique 1 Architecture & Visual Design 02/28/20 In-Class
Playtest 1 Gameplay Playtest 03/05/20 In-Class
Critique 2 Level Design 04/10/20 Discord
Playtest 2 Pre-Beta Playtest 04/17/20 Discord
Critique 3 Code Walkthrough 04/20/20 Discord
Playtest 3 Beta Playtest 05/01/20 Discord
Critique 4 Game Feel 05/04/20 Discord


Game Labs

The game labs are individual labs to provide you with a "quick start" in the class. They introduce you to topics well before we cover them in lecture, so that you can already start thinking about them in your game design. Remember that students enrolled in the CS listing must do the programming labs. Students enrolled in INFO may work on either of the required labs below, but should only submit one lab to be graded.

In addition to the required labs, we have listed some optional labs. These are not to be graded, and there is no place to turn them into CMS. They are simply provided if you wish to learn more about another topic.

Lab Required (one only) Deadline
Lab 1 Coding: LibGDX Design: Storyboarding 01/29/20
Lab 2 Coding: Pathfinding Design: Art Assets 02/05/20
Lab 3 Coding: Optimization Design: Animation 02/12/20
Lab 4 Coding: Physics Design: Level Design 02/19/20


Lab Accounts

Game development in this course will take place in two labs: Uris CL3 and Gates G33, the CIS undergraduate computing lab. These labs are not just for programmers. All lab computers now have the complete Adobe Suite. For those of you familiar with past years of the course, this means that we no longer need to separate groups during lab time.

You should have immediate access to Uris CL3, which is the intended lab for this course. As many of your know, Gates G33 has become very crowded with the increase in CIS majors. Furthermore, this lab was upgraded this year just for us, and we have reserved times in the lab outside of class. Even if you do not use the computers, this lab is great for collaboration and has private tables for you to work around.

With that said, we will be giving everyone access to G33 as well. This lab is not run by CIT, and so you cannot access those machines default. Instead, you will to have your net-id activated to work in these labs. We plan to have everyone activated by the second or third week of class. If your account is not activated by that time, please contact Amy Elser as soon as possible to resolve this.


Submission Guidelines:

Submissions are made using CMS.

There are a few guidelines for submissions:

  • They should be coherent and understandable.
  • They must be in the correct format (typically .pdf or .zip).
  • All academic integrity rules apply.