CS12 Reading and Assignments

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Below is a list of the required reading and homework assignments for each class meeting. The date listed is the class date that the work is due. You should always be reading one or two days ahead since some of the reading is necessary for completing assignments due on the same day. Many of the texts are also available in Sawyer and Schow for follow-up reading if you want to learn more than the selection that was assigned.

Check this web page regularly; readings will be updated as the class progresses.

• Wed, Jan 3 (First day, no assignment due!)
  
  
• Fri, Jan 5
  1. McGuire and Jenkins, Proposal and Summary, ch 3, Game Development
  2. CS12 Course web page
  3. German-style board game entry from Wikipedia
  4. Minimum of six hours of gaming
  5. Complete two Overview Worksheets for preexisting commercial games (see reading for instructions). Templates are linked above.
  
  
  
• Mon, Jan 8
  1. McGuire and Jenkins, Introduction, ch 1, Game Development (exercises optional)
  2. GDC: Experimental Gameplay 2006 from Gamasutra, March 30, 2006
  3. What to Look For While Playtesting section of Steve Jackson playtesting page
  4. Minimum of ten hours of gaming
  5. Two Overview Worksheets for preexisting commercial games
  
  
  
• Tues, Jan 9 (not a class day!)
  Final project proposals due by e-mail to morgan@cs.williams.edu or in my mailbox (TCL 3rd floor, across from the secretary's office) by 4pm. Requirements (read this carefully):
  1. Proposals must follow the Proposal and Summary format exactly, as described by the reading chapter. Fill out every field and conform to the page length requirements.
  2. Proposals must be typed.
  3. One proposal per game, per group.
  4. Each group must propose three games. I'll approve one or more of them, and you choose one from what I approved.
  5. Each person must be in exactly one group. Exception: if you have a large group you can submit one whole-group proposal and two sub-group proposals that you'll break up and do as an alternative. Indicate that you're doing this so that I don't approve only one of the sub-group proposals.
  6. Groups may be any size (even 1 or 21 !)
  7. Put all of your names on the proposals.
  8. Everyone in the group must be a registered class member.
  9. The game must be playable by the people in the class in less than one hour.
  10. The game must be constructible by your group by Jan 25.
  11. The game must have a small materials budget (i.e., use reasonable amounts of the materials seen in class like counters, timers, and dice; resources on campus like the color large-format printer; and small amounts of special materials purchased just for you). You may purchase other materials using your own money, but I am prepared to provide ``reasonable'' materials for you at no cost.
  12. If some part of construction requires unusual skills or feats (e.g., programming, original music, obtaining an large quantity of costume jewelry), attach a third page explaining why your group will be able to accomplish that within the confines of the other requirements.
  
  
  
• Wed, Jan 10
  1. McGuire and Jenkins, Design Document, ch 2, Game Development
  2. Six hours of gaming
  3. Typed 2-page analysis of two mechanisms in one game. This should be a commercial game that you have not yet written a summary for. Examples of mechanics are "Poetic Justice: giving the losing player offensive weapons" and "Secret Passages: high-risk shortcuts" in MarioKart. You may team up with one other person on this assignment. Describe:
     • Other games in which the same mechanisms appear.
     • The gameplay reason that the mechanisms are necessary.
     • Alternatives that could have been employed.
     • Strategy that arises from the mechanism.
     • Basic guidelines for making the mechanism balanced and useful for gameplay. You can argue this all in text, use graphs and diagrams, or use probability and mathematics as I have done in the following example:

       "In MarioKart, the probability of successfully taking the shortcut must be designed to decrease proportionally to the amount of track it cuts off, otherwise the shortcut is not worthwhile. On most levels, the shortcut trims about 25% of the track (i.e,. makes my lap time 75% of the original). I observed that I was able to make the shortcut about 70% of the time, and when I tried and missed it my lap time was about 10% slower than when I didn't evern try. Therefore attempting the shortcut makes my net lap time (success lap time x success chance) + (failure lap time x failure chance) = (75% x 70%) - (110% x 30%) = 85.5% percent of the original and is worthwhile for players of at least my skill level."

  
  
  
• Fri, Jan 12
  1. Submit one typed Setting design document section per team for your final project game. This should begin with well-written English text, move to additional dotes (or art), and conclude with the result of your brainstorming session.
  2. Submit one 2-page analysis of one aspect of a game. You aren't restricted to analyzing a mechanic this time: discuss a mechanic, a character, a piece of the narrative, a musical event, etc. Work on this by yourself.
  3. Bring your revised, typed Overview for your group game. In general, you should always have the latest copy of your entire design document with you in class.
  4. Cavotta, The Flavor of Magic, Aug 2005
  5. Albert, Introduction to Probability
  6. Counter-Strike Weapons Market
  7. Optional: Rosewater, Bursting with Flavor, Feb 2003
  8. Optional, Browse: Campbell & Keiser, Top 100 Games of the 21st Century, Next Generation, Jul 2006
  
  
  
• Mon, Jan 15
  1. Project:
     1. Have a full design document with you, even though most of the sections are blank. From now on you should always have a copy of the latest version with you in class. You might want to put one person (who has good writing skills) in charge of the whole thing, or divide up responsibility on a section basis.
     2. Completed Status section, including issues and schedule.
     3. Completed Key Developers section.
     4. Early draft of Rule book or Mechanism section; could just be a list of mechanisms
  2. Summary of a commercial game (maybe one related to your project..?)
  3. Koster, A Theory of Fun
     ch 2: How the Brain Works
     ch 3: What Games Are (images only)
     pp 79, 81: Evolution of the 2-D Shooter
  4. Optional: Cifaldi, Are Games Industry Professionals Buying PlayStation 3 or Wii?, Gamasutra, Nov 2006
  
  
  
• Wed, Jan 17
  1. Attend Al Reed's lecture at 2:30pm in TCL 216 on Wed, 1/17/06
  2. Drafts of all sections of the design document
  3. The Sims 2, Jan 2005, Game Developer Magazine
  4. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Apr 2004, Game Developer Magazine
  5. Tresspasser, Jun 1999, Gamasutra
  6. Gish, Dec 2004, Gamasutra
  
  
  
• Fri, Jan 19
  1. Call of Duty Contract and Discussion, Gamasutra, Jan 2007. You can just read the lawyer commentary and page 12 (milestones) of the article
  2. The 400-Project
  3. Change Log Examples (read sections of each, not the whole thing!)
     1. Natural Selection v 3.2 beta 2 Change log
     2. Natural Selection v 3.2 beta 1 Change log
     3. Natural Selection v 3.1 Change log
     4. Natural Selection v 3.0 Change log
  4. Optional: Balancing Games with Positive Feedback, Ernest Adams, 2000.
  
  
  
• Mon, Jan 22
  1. Collected readings on Women and Games:
     Cassell and Jenkins, pp. 10--14
     Brightman
     Tran, pp. 3, 19--20, 22--25
     Hafner, pp. 1--3
  2. Optional: Ochalla, Boy On Boy Action - Is Gay Content On the Rise?, Dec 2006, Gamasutra
  3. Optional: Brathwaite, Sex In Video Games, ch. 1
  
  
  
• Wed, Jan 24
  1. Final projects should be complete by class time. You'll spend the next two days polishing the art and testing minor rule changes.
     1. Final game art complete
     2. Game box (with cover art)
     3. Printed rule book
     4. Printed game design document with all sections complete (even if you have a wiki!) The change log and mechanism analysis sections are what I'm primarily evaluating at the end of the course.
  2. McGuire, Games are Computer Science
  3. Optional: McGuire and Jenkins, Models, ch 8, Game Development
  4. Optional: McGuire and Jenkins, Rendering, ch 9, Game Development
  
  
  
• Fri, Jan 26: This class session will be from 10:30am to 1:30pm in the CS common room (3rd floor of Chemistry), with lunch served. You'll present your games briefly and then we'll play games and vote on awards, like ``most innovative'' and ``best gameplay.''
  1. Final, printed design document due
  2. Two identical, playable copies of your game