Lesson Videos

This page contains all of the pre-recorded video lessons posted so far, with the most recent posting listed first. It is, for all intents and purposes, the textbook of this course. You are expected to keep up with these videos. Each class session will indicate the videos that we will have expected you to watch by that point.

We do apologize about the quality of these videos. These are not the professional, YouTube style videos that we made for 1110. For the most part it is your instructor talking through slides. That is because we chose to focus this semester on improving the game engine technology, and not on making the fanciest videos possible.

22. Strategic Planning

In the last video on AI, we move away from simulating individual characters and talk about how we would simulate another player. This is the AI that is necessary for complex strategy games.    Watch ›

30:42 minutes slides no demos

21. Sensing & Perception

Sensing is the most expensive part of the sense-think-act cycle. In this video we show how to optimize this part of the process, so that we can increase the complexity of our NPC behavior.    Watch ›

34:21 minutes slides no demos

20. Character Behavior

When people think about game AI, character behavior is the thing that they usually think of first. How do we control NPCs to move and act without any input?    Watch ›

1:05 hours slides no demos

19. Pathfinding

We return to game programming with a multi-video sequence of game AI. Are first topic is on pathfinding, which is the process of using AI algorithms to move your game characters about the terrain.    Watch ›

54:44 minutes slides no demos

18. Level Design

After several programming lessons, it is time to return to design. With alpha release around the corner, we need to talk about how we do proper level design.    Watch ›

56:49 minutes slides no demos