Lecture Archive

Click on a title to see the reading and course material.

Lecture 1 › Course Overview
This first lecture an overview of the course. We review the basic design processes, and talk about how this course differs from 3152. We also talk about the difference in expectations for the 4000 and 5000 versions.   Details ›

January 22, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 2 › Mechanics Revisited
This is lecture is a review from 3152. It is intended for students that have not taken that class, or who have forgotten the vocabulary.   Details ›

January 24, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 3 › Mobile Gameplay
While mobile gaming is the largest market right now, it is our experience that many of you do not actually play mobile games. In this lecture, we highly what you should be aware of while brainstorming game ideas.   Details ›

January 26, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 4 › Monetization
Microtransactions are one of the reasons why mobile games have a bad name. But as we see in this lecture, not all monetization needs to be bad.   Details ›

January 29, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 5 › Architecture Revisited
As you get started on your project, it is time to start talking about software. This lecture gives an overview of CUGL and provides a lot of motivation for the lessons that follow.   Details ›

February 5, 2024 slides demos
Lecture 6 › Scene Graphs
For students from the introductory course, scene graphs are one of the biggest changes in the new engine. They provide a stuctured way to organize your images and textures, beyond drawing directly to a sprite batch.   Details ›

February 7, 2024 slides demos
Lecture 7 › Gameplay Modeling
The first major deliverable of the course is the nondigital prototype. In this lecture we talk about how to model a digital game without using software.   Details ›

February 9, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 8 › 2D Animation
Scene graphs are obviously important for UI elements. But should you use them everywhere in your game. In this lecture we show why they are useful for basic animation as well.   Details ›

February 12, 2024 slides demos
Lecture 9 › Mobile Memory
Even though we have moved most of the C++ lectures online, there are some technical details that are of interest to everyone. In particular, there are special issues regarding memory that we need to be aware of when working on mobile devices.   Details ›

February 19, 2024 slides demos
Lecture 10 › Graphics Pipeline
Everyone loves custom shaders. But how do you integrate them into CUGL and how do you get data to the shader. In this lecture we talk about how graphics works in CUGL and how you can extend it to produce cool effects.   Details ›

February 21, 2024 slides demos
Lecture 11 › Mobile Networking
Game networking is a complicated topic. But as we show in this lecture, it is possible in this course provided that you have the proper scope, and the proper support libraries.   Details ›

February 23, 2024 slides demos
Lecture 12 › Game Audio
Simple audio in CUGL is pretty straight forward if you look at the code demos. But as we show in this lecture, CUGL is capable of so much more, provided that you understand how game audio works.   Details ›

March 4, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 13 › Multithreading
Most of you will write your games using a single thread of execution. But sometimes performance constraints demand we add another thread. This is not as hard as you think it is.   Details ›

March 6, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 14 › 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.   Details ›

March 18, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 15 › Procedural Content
Procedural content is always something that people strive for, because it can make your game infinitely replayable. But as we show in this lecture, this is harder - not easier - than traditional level design.   Details ›

March 20, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 16 › Marketing and Business
The in this lecture, we talk about getting your game out there, so you can be next Family Style. You cannot just release your app to the App Store if you actually want people to play it. You have to promote it.   Details ›

April 12, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 17 › Game Analytics
We used to have a classed called CS/INFO 4154: Analytic-Driven Game Design. The loss of this course was a big blow, as this is really the direction of modern game design. In this lecture we try to touch on some of the topics covered by that course.   Details ›

April 22, 2024 slides no demos
Lecture 18 › Analytic Instrumentation
Now that you know what game analytics is, it is time to think about how you can implement it in your game. While it does reuquire some significant work, it is more feasible than you think it is. You just need a server with a SQL database on it.   Details ›

April 24, 2024 no slides no demos