GAM 340 Practical Scripting for Games
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Summary
Within the scope of the Unity 3D game engine, scripts are responsible for the bulk of the action that drives a game – responding to player input, controlling timed or triggered game events, driving the physics of game objects, the list goes on. In this course, students will learn to read, modify, and write (from scratch!) custom game scripts to drive the actions of an interactive 3D game that will be created over the course of this ten-week course, with biweekly checkpoints to ensure smooth and consistent development. At the end of this course, students will have finished a complex project worthy of their game development portfolios that they can further customize to fit their own needs.
Students’ success in this course will rely on conscious participation and consistent practice. All assignments in this course (apart from any extra credit assignments) will build upon each other so it will be important to keep up with course content on a weekly basis.
Texts
Software
All of the software used in this course is available free to download online.
I repeat… DO NOT PAY MONEY FOR SOFTWARE FOR THIS CLASS!
Unity 2019.4.17f1
- This is the game engine that will help us turn our game assets into game scenes
- System Requirements
- OS: Windows 7 SP1+, 8, 10, 64-bit versions only; Mac OS X 10.12+; Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, and CentOS 7
- GPU: Graphics card with DX10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities
- Download
Visual Studio Community 2019
- This is the Integrated Development Environment (IDE), or basically, the software where we write the code that becomes our scripts
- System Requirements
- Download
Online Resources & Textbooks
There are no required textbooks for this course, as all course content will be available through lectures, modules, and online resources.
Unity Resources
Textbooks
Students who want to obtain additional resources can check out these books…
- Unity Game Development Cookbook: Essentials for Every Game by Paris Buttfield-Addison
- Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2020 by Harrison Ferrone
Grading
This course will be graded completely on the final project and its checkpoint assignments. No quizzes, no exams. Attendance is not a factor in grading this course, but active participation will absolutely help you keep your grades up!
The Final Project is 40% of the final grade, and each of the four Checkpoint assignments are 15% of the final grade.
Every day that a student’s assignment is late will remove 5% of the points from that assignment’s grade. For example, if a student completes an assignment and earns a 97%, but the project is submitted 12 hours late, the assignment will earn the student 92%.
Prerequisites
GAM 240, CSC 241, CSC 242, or CSC 243
Collaborating && Academic Integrity
You are encouraged to work together on the projects in this class! This is why we have a Discord. Of course, there is a fine line between collaborating and copying. We will all do our best as a class to keep it COLLABORATIVE. Everyone is 100% responsible for their own work, so if you receive some help in your script from a classmate or grab a chunk of code from stack overflow, you will want to refactor the code and make it your own before you submit. We will discuss refactoring in greater detail in class.
Biweekly checkpoint assignments are in place to help keep everyone on track, but there is no shame in falling a little behind. If you feel stuck and feel yourself even starting to feel tempted to plagiarize, reach out for help. Don’t compromise your integrity! It’s easy to get the assistance you need -- ask a question on discord, talk to your instructor during office hours.
A student who submits a plagiarized assignment will receive an automatic F in the class and will be put up for Academic Integrity Violation.
This syllabus is subject to change as necessary during the quarter. If a change occurs, it will be thoroughly addressed during class, posted under Announcements in D2L and sent via email.
Evaluations are a way for students to provide valuable feedback regarding their instructor and the course. Detailed feedback will enable the instructor to continuously tailor teaching methods and course
content to meet the learning goals of the course and the academic needs of the students. They are a requirement of the course and are key to continue to provide you with the highest quality of teaching. The
evaluations are anonymous; the instructor and administration do not track who entered what responses. A program is used to check if the student completed the evaluations, but the evaluation is completely
separate from the student’s identity. Since 100% participation is our goal, students are sent periodic reminders over three weeks. Students do not receive reminders once they complete the evaluation.
Students complete the evaluation online in CampusConnect.
This course will be subject to the university's academic integrity policy. More information can be found at http://academicintegrity.depaul.edu/ If you
have any questions be sure to consult with your professor.
All students are expected to abide by the University's Academic Integrity Policy which prohibits cheating and other misconduct in student coursework. Publicly sharing or posting online any prior or current materials from this course (including exam questions or answers), is considered to be providing unauthorized assistance prohibited by the policy. Both students who share/post and students who access or use such materials are considered to be cheating under the Policy and will be subject to sanctions for violations of Academic Integrity.
All students are required to manage their class schedules each term in accordance with the deadlines for enrolling and withdrawing as indicated in the University Academic Calendar. Information on enrollment, withdrawal, grading and incompletes can be found at http://www.cdm.depaul.edu/Current%20Students/Pages/PoliciesandProcedures.aspx.
Students who feel they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss their specific needs. All discussions will remain confidential.
To ensure that you receive the most appropriate accommodation based on your needs, contact the instructor as early as possible in the quarter (preferably within the first week of class), and make sure that
you have contacted the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) at:
Lewis Center 1420, 25 East Jackson Blvd.
Phone number: (312)362-8002
Fax: (312)362-6544
TTY: (773)325.7296