Simple and Effective Topics in Software Games Engineering Courses

DOI: 10.5176/978-981-08-8227-3_cgat08-2

Authors: Kevin JONES

Abstract:

Over the past few years, the School of Computer Engineering has introduced several simple but effective new topics into the teaching of software programming and other simlar courses. These new topics are: industry case study, open-source game editors, programmable tournament, and project-based development. The industry case study allows the students to understand the myriad of factors in the technical and business sides of a real games company; the case study we use is id Software, a standout small company that is one of the true leaders in the games industry. The open-source game editor abstracts the programming details of the platform away form the game, and provides an easy and fast way of creating the domain and objectives of game. Thus, the students can focus their learning on the story-line, game boarding, and psychologically manipulating the player. The programmable tournament allows the students to devise and build game strategy in a multiplayer arena. This is quite effective as a tutorial for assessing the students problem solving and programming skills. Finally, the project demands that the student study and report on the approach to or method of developing games. These new topics are excellent for marrying games development with software engineering, and provide for a wide range of learning and criteria for assessment of the students.

Keywords: ‘business case study’, ‘open source game editor’, ‘programmable tournament’, ‘projectbased development’.