Meta-Information:
Presentations
Giving a talk
 Writing a game proposal
Game History
Game 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
– Don’t
– Don’t
– Allow
– Don’t
slides
overload them
write sentences
1-2 minutes per slide
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
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Small
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Think Small
 Really,
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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
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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/projec
ts/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
version of Pong 1974
 Fairchild Channel F 1976
 Home
– 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
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some!
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Genres
Action
 1st Person Shooter
 Adventure
 Fighting
 Puzzle
 Racing
 Role-Playing

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






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,
Payne
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Doom, Quake, Half-Life, Max
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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,
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Creatures, Black & White
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