This special-topics course introduces students to the process of creating computer games in a multidisciplinary team setting, covering design, logic creation, asset creation, and testing. The course is designed to provide students with an experience similar to working in a game studio, and would be of interest to anyone looking to enter the games industry, or wanting to know how to make games as a hobby, or just exploring their options.
Course material website: https://d2l.ucalgary.ca/
Lecture times: Monday, Jan 4 to Friday, Jan 8, 2027 (9:00am to 5:00pm, with an hour break for lunch).
Nothing! This is Game Development for Everyone. All are welcome. Open to any majors, including arts, business, education, etc.! Any knowledge required will be taught in the course. You don't need to know how to code to be in this course!
It means all the lectures will be in one week (Monday January 4 - Friday, January 8, 2027). Lectures are 9:00am to 5:00pm, with an hour break for lunch.
Yes. The one week of lectures will be in-person as in-class work is required.
Yes, attendance is mandatory. 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.
During block week, students will be divided into groups. Students in each group will work together in game creation activities. You'll learn to design and make games in groups!
A laptop. Since students will be making games in class, having a laptop would be a good idea. Please reach out if you don't have a laptop.
No exams (no midterms or finals or tests). Grading is based on in-class group activities during the block week (50%) and a game development project where you make a game (50%). It is designed to be low stress, but to pass the course, students need to participate in activities during block week.
Contact an advisor in the Undergraduate Science Centre. An advisor can enroll you and you do not need permission from me.
CPSC 585 is a much more advanced course in game programming only for computer science students, where students are required to know computer graphics programming (OpenGL) to be able to create a game from scratch. CPSC 399.8 is a course for everyone where students will use existing game engines and do not need to know how to code to enroll in the course.
Yes. Unreal engine is used.
No. There will be lectures introducing all students to Unreal and game creation in Unreal. No prior knowledge is necessary.
Not sure yet. Special-topics courses (399) are offered based on interest. There are different topics in 399, noted by its topic number. For example, 399.8 is Game Development. If there are not enough interests from students on a topic, it may not be offered again.
CPSC 586: Game AI, CPSC 453: Computer Graphics, CPSC 585: (Advanced) Game Programming, CPSC 587: Computer Animation.
More questions? Feel free to email me (richard.zhao1 at ucalgary.ca).