This course introduces students within the domain of game design and development to the fundamentals of computing through problem solving, abstraction, and algorithmic design. Students will learn the basic elements of game software development, including problem decomposition, the design and implementation of game applications, and the testing/debugging of their designs.

This course furthers the exploration of problem solving, abstraction, and algorithmic design. Students apply the object-oriented paradigm of software development, with emphasis upon fundamental concepts of encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism. In addition, object structures and class relationships comprise a key portion of the analytical process including the exploration of problem structure and refactoring. Intermediate concepts in software design including GUIs, threads, events, networking, and advanced APIs are also explored. Students are also introduced to data structures, algorithms, exception handling and design patterns that are relevant to the construction of game systems.

Students will explore the use of an advanced graphics API to access hardware-accelerated graphics in a real-time graphics engine context. The course will involve discussion of scene graphs, optimizations, and integration with the API object structure, as well as input schemes, content pipelines, and 2D and 3D rendering techniques. Students will also explore the advanced use of the API calls in production code to construct environments capable of real-time performance. Students will construct from scratch a fully functional graphics engine, with library construction for game development.

Games and other graphical applications continue to drive forward the development of graphics hardware and the APIs that provide access to that hardware. This course provides students with the opportunity to explore and implement advanced graphics programming techniques for real-time applications such as games, building upon the technology and techniques covered in IGME-540 Foundations of Game Graphics Programming. Students will explore the use of different rendering techniques to increase photo-realism while optimizing their rendering engines for performance. The course allows students to efficiently make use of the latest features found on modern GPUs.

The student will work independently under the supervision of a faculty advisor on a topic not covered in other courses.