This course emphasizes the practical aspects of creating computer games through a combination of block week lectures and a semester long group project.
All lectures will be in the block week. Lectures will be co-taught by the course instructor and industry professionals, who will provide their insights and experiences. A group project will span the entirety of the Winter 2024 semester.
Instructors: Nigel Brooke (Steamclock Software), Alexei Pepers (Gardens Interactive), Richard Zhao
Guest Speakers: Séamus Epp, Matthew McConnell
Course outline: Here.
Course schedule: Here.
Course material website: https://d2l.ucalgary.ca/
To get an idea of how this course was run in the past, see Winter 2023 website.
Lectures: Tuesday January 2 – Saturday January 6, 2024 (9:00am to 5:00pm, with an hour break for lunch) in ICT 516.
Note that this course consists of lectures during a 5-day block week. Every day in the block week is equivalent to roughly 3 weeks of regular lectures. Students must attend every day in the block week to receive a passing grade in the course. This means that you will have a full day of classes on a Saturday.
During the regular Winter 2024 semester, your TA will meet with each group every week to support the group project: Fridays 11am to 12:50pm in MS 139.
Students interested in taking CPSC 585 are advised that admission into this course requires permission of the department. To express interest in taking the course, submit the sign-up form here. Deadline: December 8, 2023.
Admission decisions are expected to be reached by December 8, 2023.
No, as long as the student is not on academic probation.
No.
CPSC 453 - Computer Graphics. SENG 300 and CPSC 457 are also encouraged but not officially required.
No.
We need to confirm that the students taking CPSC 453 in Fall 2023 have completed the course.
No. CPSC 585 is open to all students who have successfully completed its pre-requisite course, CPSC 453.
Admission decision is based on a combination of academic record (how often have you failed/withdrawn from courses?), your interest (have you taken courses relevant to game programming?), and the information provided in the application form. Basically, the more you can show you are prepared to work on a 4-month-long game project (and not quitting half way and hurting your groupmates), the stronger your application is.
CPSC 585 does not have any written exams. The course is group project-based.
Typically, there will be 4 groups of 5 students each.
No. This course is about creating a game from scratch. I teach another course, CPSC 599.11 Applied AI in Games, that uses the Unreal game engine.
More questions? Email Dr. Richard Zhao (richard.zhao1 at ucalgary.ca).