2-D and 3-D XNA/XBOX Game Development
Tutorials
for
Sophomore and Junior Computer Science
Laboratory Courses
Dr. Tom Goulding,
goulding@dwc.edu 603-577-6561
AMOUNT REQUESTED: $10,000
ABSTRACT
Daniel
Webster College (DWC) has had a long tradition of utilizing game projects as
part of its curriculum to attract students to its disciplines in Computer
Science and Gaming & Robotics programs.
That tradition has resulted in a 300% increase of deposits to our
science programs for the fall of 2007.
This journey toward re-energizing the computer science program began
five years ago, when
Dr. Thomas Goulding, the principal investigator for this
proposal, believed he could train small teams of four or five freshmen with no programming experience, to develop complex games in C++/MFC (now C#.NET) during their first
two semesters in college.
This
level of accomplishment now sets the stage for truly remarkable performances in
XNA game development. At our May 2007
student showcase the Aurora Sector 3-D game was
demonstrated by two juniors, Roger Bocksnick and
Jonathan Podsiedlik.
XNA
XNA Aurora Sector: User Defined Levels,
MultiPlayer and Shaders
Demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOZR8oiLkGM
XNA Aurora Sector: Single Player Discussion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWJeQG8pPCY
This
multi-player space based racing game with armed competitors illustrates the
level of software complexity and artistry which is possible by just two
students grounded in independent learning, teamwork and sound software
engineering practices. These demanding
product development feats also require a system of organized knowledge acquisition.
We propose to develop the laboratory exercises that will allow students everywhere
to achieve this level of game development during their college experience. The
materials will be broadly distributed without restriction and will be written
by the student developers of Aurora Sector under the guidance of the Principal
Investigator and other DWC faculty.