International Game Developers Association

Programming for Games 1 - a module on BSc Computer Games Software Engineering at Northumbria University, in Newcastle, England

Games Education
Course

Table of contents 1 Teachers 1.1 Instructors 2 Course Background Information 2.1 Location 2.2 Classification 2.3 Student background needed 2.4 Course prerequisites 2.5 Time periods 3 Course Structure 3.1 Course description 3.2 Course learning objectives 3.3 Week by week topics 4 Course Materials & Facilities Used 5 Analysis of learning methods 5.1 What worked 5.2 What didn't work

[edit] Teachers

[edit] Instructors

• Dan Hodgson
• Chris Rook

[edit] Course Background Information

[edit] Location

Northumbria University City Campus, Newcastle, England

[edit] Classification

See: Areas for classifing for your course.

Games Programming

[edit] Student background needed

Students are not expected to have any previous programming experience, but should have reasonable computer literacy and a competence in Maths. This module is only offered on BSc Computer Games Software Engineering, year 1.

[edit] Course prerequisites

None

[edit] Time periods

The module is delivered over 12 weeks (one semester) with the following contact time each week

• Two 1-hour lectures
• One 2-hour lab session

[edit] Course Structure

[edit] Course description

This is an introductory module of C++ programming, teaching the very basics, using games examples.

[edit] Course learning objectives

By the end of the module, students will be able to :

• Formulate solutions to a number of basic programming problems, using standard algorithms.
• Make effective use of fundamental data types, arrays and structured programming control constructs.
• Write a program that can take user input and display text output.
• Write a program that can perform mathematical calculations.

[edit] Week by week topics

Week	Topic
1	Programming and compiling.
2	Instructions. Input and output.
3	Variables.
4	Data types and casting.
5	Loops.
6	Functions
7	Arrays
8	Strings
9	Reference types.
10	Algorithms.
11	Style + stepwise refinement
12	Consolidation

[edit] Course Materials & Facilities Used

Here you can link to and/or describe books and other materials you used for this course. Feel free to create new pages for each item here if a page for it does not yet exist.

Books

Programming and Problem Solving with C++ (Dale, Weems & Heddington)

Software (engines, tools)

Microsoft Developer Studio .NET as a C++ development environment.

Syllabus

20% The use of a programming environment to write, compile and execute a simple program and to locate programming errors. 40% Features of the programming language: variables, data types, control structures, arrays, user input and screen output, simple file input and output. 40% Algorithms for common situations (such as searching and sorting of arrays, insertion and deletion from sorted lists, searching for largest values in list, read-ahead loops, random number generation) and their implementation in the programming language used.

Assessment strategy

Assessment is by 3 individual programming assignments.

Case studies

A case study ("Lost Island": a text adventure) is used throughout the module.

[edit] Analysis of learning methods

[edit] What worked

Teaching programming fundamentals in a rigorous fashion gives a good foundation for the future. In general we expect a lot of students and this tends to motivate them to do well.

[edit] What didn't work

Nothing we can put our finger on right now

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