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Meta-Information: Presentations

Giving a talk Writing a game proposalGame HistoryGame Genres

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Giving a Talk

What to say and How to say it Getting through to the audience Visual and Aural aids Question Time

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What to say & How to say it

Communicate Key ideas Don’t get bogged down in details Structure your talk Use a Top-Down Approach

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The Introduction

Define the problem / issue / thingy Motivate the audience Introduce terminology Discuss earlier work Emphasize your new work contributions Provide a road-map For very short presentations, economize

on this section

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The Body

General– Abstract the major results / thoughts /

plans– Explain the significance of the results

Technicalities– Talk about the vital details that make the

general points true Conclusion

– Hindsight is clearer than foresight

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Know your audience

Who are they--– The Public?– Scientists?– Computer Scientists?– Computer Scientists in your area?– Classmates?

The more expert or familiar the audience, the more you can focus on details

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Getting Through

Use repetition Remind the audience Don’t Over-Run! Maintain eye contact Control your voice Be well-groomed! Avoid anxiety by Practice!

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Visual & Audio Aids PowerPoint slides

– Don’t overload them– Don’t write sentences– Allow 1-2 minutes per slide– Don’t cover slides

– No special fonts!!!

Don’t animate text!It’s irritating!!You waste time waiting for the text to show up

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Visual & Audio Aids

Use pictures! Show a picture as soon as

possible!

Use overlays for stop-frame animation of algorithms

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Visual & Audio Aids

Use pictures! Show a picture as soon as

possible!

Use overlays for stop-frame animation of algorithms

Use animation if appropriate

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Visual & Audio Aids

Beware the microphone– Don’t beat your chest!– Try turning it off while you are putting it

on or taking it off Test your video

– Cue it up– Be ready to switch from source to source– Be ready to adjust sound

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Question Time

Request for Information Implied request for adulation

– Come up with a complimentary answer Malicious question

– Be prepared– Be ready to take them off-line– “I don’t know”

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How to write a Game Proposal

Today’s games have a production team– Artists– Designers– Musicians– Programmers– 20-100 experienced people

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How to write a Game Proposal

Think Small

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Think Small

Really, I mean it

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Do One Thing Well

Make the game stand out in one way Don’t do a mediocre job in all things

Do NOT to lots of levels in the game– One level will do nicely

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Do One Thing Well

Possible areas– Great graphics– Witty sounds– Clever puzzles– Compact concept

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Understand your Tools

The various tools have strengths & weaknesses

Don’t fight the tool Understand what the tool is good for

and tailor your project for that tool Also.. Don’t fight your team’s skills

– It’s understood that your team may be CS heavy

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Plan in Layers

Detailed development schedule:– Functional Minimum– Your Low target– Your Desirable target– Your High target– Your Extras

•Maybe do these after the term is done

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The Proposal

The game description– 5 pages of text– 1-3 pages of sketches/ mocked-up screens

Layered Development Schedule– As on previous slide

– Also state who is responsible for what Assessment

– What One Thing will be cool about your game

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The Presentation

7 minutes In class– Describe your game– Argue for the One Cool Thing– State what your primary development

environment will be and why– Show your development schedule

• Indicate why you think it’s do-able

Practice your talk!

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Game History, Genres

Space Invaders… Pong… Grand Theft Auto…Action, Adventure, Puzzle, etc

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History

Spacewar 1962– PDP-1– 2 Ships controlled by 4 buttons each:– Rotate left, right, thrust, fire– http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/

projects/spacewar/ Adventure 1967

– Text-based adventure– “You are in a maze of twisty little

passages”

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History

Pong 1972– First arcade hit

Home version of Pong 1974 Fairchild Channel F 1976

– Cartridges! Hardware “Crash” 1977

– Millions of Pong clones saturate the market

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Some examples

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History

Space Invaders 1978 Activision 1979

– First software house makes Atari 2600 Cartridges

Asteroids 1979– Record score: 100,000,000– Two guys played it for a

week in 1982

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Asteroids (Clone)

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Arcade Games 1980 Defender Missile Command Battezone Tempest Popular with Men AND

Women:– Pac-Man– Frogger– Centipede

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Defender / Stargate

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Missile Command

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Centipede

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Arcade Games 1981-83

Donkey Kong Q*Bert Tron Zaxxon Joust Pole Position Punch-Out

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Joust

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Pole Position

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Home Games Late 70s Early 80s

Atari 2600– 1.18MHz 6507, 128 bytes RAM, 4KB ROM

Atari 5200 (incompatible cartridge with 2600)– 1.8MHz 6502, 16KB RAM

Colecovision Mattel Intellivision Bally Astrocade

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Software Crash of 1983-84

Market of 1982: $3 billion Market of 1985: $100 million Millions of clones and lousy

cartridges– No rating system– No licensing system– Consumer confusion!

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Mid 80s

8-bit Home Games:– Nintendo Entertainment System

(NES)• 1.8MHz 6502 256x240 pixels• Released 1986• Most popular toy of 1988• Mario Bros.

– Sega Master System• Released 1986

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Late 80s

16-bit Home Games – Sega Genesis

• 7.8MHz 68000 + 4MHz Z80, 1MB Rom, 64KB Ram

• Released 1989

– NEC TurboGrafx-16• 16MHz 65802

Game Boy Tetris

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Early 90s

Super NES (16 bit), 1990– 3.58Mhz 65C816, 128KB Ram

Game Gear Software

– Street Fighter 2• First decent fighting game

– Super Mario Bros. 3– Sonic the Hedgehog– Mortal Kombat 1992

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Mid 90s

Sega CD (1992) PC CDROM (1994)

Software– NBA Jam (1993)

• Earned $1 billion in arcades• First franchise

– Virtua Fighter (1995)

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Mid 90s

Playstation (1995)– 33 MHz R3900 32bit CPU – 24 bit framebuffer

Sega Saturn (1995)– Two 28.8MHz 32bit Hitachi SH2s – 24 bit framebuffer– Hardware textures

Nintendo 64 (1996)– 93MHz R4300 64bit CPU

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Mid 90s

Networked Games Ultima Online, Everquest, etc

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Late 90s Sega Dreamcast (1999)

– 200MHz 128bit NEC PowerVR Playstation2 (2000)

– 294MHz R12000 CPU, – 3.2GB/sec memory b/w, 6.2GFlops peak

XBox (2001)– 733MHz Celeron– nVidia GeForce4– 6.4GB/sec memory b/w, maybe 1TFlops peak

GameCube (2001)– 485MHz PowerPC– Flipper (ATI) Graphics (on-chip DRAM)

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Late 90s

Software– Very strong 3D!– Decent sports games– Soul Caliber, Shenmue …

PC Software– Graphics no longer 100% of the challenge– Consumer demand for 3D causes cheap

3D graphics!

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2000’s

Cell phone games– DoCoMo phones 2001– Java J2ME, BREW 2002

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Game Genres

Name some!

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Genres

Action 1st Person Shooter Adventure Fighting Puzzle Racing Role-Playing

Simulations Sports Strategy

Music Dance Artificial Life Quiz Show

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2D Action Games

Shoot the horde of aliens– Shoot the horde of aliens

• Shoot the horde of aliens– Shoot the horde of aliens

• Shoot the horde of aliens

Space Invaders, Galaga, Defender/Stargate,

Mario Bros

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1st Person Shooter

3D Shoot the horde of aliens– 3D Shoot the horde of aliens

• 3D Shoot the horde of aliens– 3D Shoot the horde of aliens

• 3D Shoot the horde of aliens

Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Half-Life, Max Payne

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Adventure

Follow the trail Solve puzzles Nice scenery Inventory Learning Examples: Zelda, Metroid, Myst,

Shenmue

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Fighting

Pluses:–KILL!!!– Short games– Stress reliever, flow experience

Minuses– Arcane knowledge– Limited virtual space– Clone factor

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Puzzle

Solving the puzzle is the primary goal

Gives feelings of mastery

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Racing

First past the post Fairly strong simulation element Fine motor control

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Role-Playing

3rd person adventure Strong story component (potentially) Learn the virtual world/environment Players are free to act within the

world’s constraints Diablo, MMORPGs (EverQuest,

UltimaOnline…)

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Simulations

Flight Sim SimAnt, SimCity, Railroad Tycoon,

Roller Coaster Tycoon, ... Focus on details Training could be the goal

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Sports

Armchair coach Abstract war Abstract team fighting games

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Strategy

Same components as Sim games Historical simulation Puzzles may play a part A light story element No twitch in turn-based strategy

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Music

“Name that Tune” Repeat a piece of music that the

game plays for you Play along musically

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Dance

Dance Dance Revolution Dance kiosk type games (popular in

Korea!)

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Artificial Life

Tamagotchi, Creatures, Black & White