Course syllabus
Course-PM
DAT380 / DIT468 Current Trends in Gaming LP2 HT22 (7.5 hp)
Course is offered by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Contact details
- Pauline Belford, pauline.belford@chalmers.se
- Lecturer, Modules 1 - 3, Course Responsible
- Natasha Mangan, natashab@chalmers.se
- Lecturer, Module 4.
- Georgios Diapoulis georgios.diapoulis@chalmers.se
- Teacher, Modules 1 - 4
- Arturs Umbrasko
- Teaching Assistant, Modules 1 - 4
Course purpose
There are many technological and societal trends that impact on the design of games. Gaming is a discipline in which the state of the art changes regularly and with great speed. This course is focused on identifying currently important trends in the industry and exploring new and novel technologies with the aim of enabling students to develop familiarity with important concepts. This course is intended to be responsive and aligned with external trends in the industry, and so its content will vary on a year-by-year basis in line with that aim.
Schedule
See the course calendar or TimeEdit for rooms and times, but the general pattern is:
- Tuesday 9:15 to 12:00 - Lecture
- Wednesday 8:15 to 10:00 - Some Lectures at Lindholmen (Modules 1 - 3), sometimes a drop-in class via Zoom.
- Module 1 -3, Pauline's Zoom Room
- Module 4 - Natasha's zoom room.
- Friday 9:15 to 12:00 - One or two Lectures, one group presentation slot, otherwise supervised group work
The rooms change week to week, so keep an eye out for that. Most of the time we have Jupiter 121, 122 or SVEA 239, but some of the sessions are in other rooms in SVEA, and a few are in Jupiter. Titles of sessions (Lecture / Group Work / etc) are provisional and may change. Times and places shouldn't change from what's in the calendar, but transcription errors can creep in. The Calendar should be fully populated for the course. TimeEdit can be used to double check the room numbers, but go by what the Calendar says in terms of times.
Also note that most Wednesday sessions are virtual (via Zoom) unless otherwise stated in the Calendar. The room booking in TimeEdit means that the room is available if you want to use it to join the Zoom call, but the room will not be staffed.
Course literature
Each module has its own course literature, see each respective module. Please note that literature from module 1 is expected to be used as appropriate for assignments in the later modules, and such appropriate use is part of the grading on the assignments in all modules.
Course design
The course is divided into three separate modules:
- Module 1 - Creativity methods
- Module 2 - Interactive Physics Assets in Unity
- Module 3 - Generative AI in Game Design
- Module 4 - AR
The first module introduces theories and methods regarding creativity and provides a foundation for the work in the later modules. Module 2 focuses on using physics systems in Unity to create interesting experimental game assets. Module 3 is a mix of investigation and experimentation with regards to current and potential uses of generative AI in designing and developing computer games. Module 4 looks at how those assets created in Module 2 or 3 might be incorporated into an augmented reality world.
Student Representatives and Course Evaluation
Information regarding the course evaluation process at Chalmers.
Information about being a student representative.
These are the Chalmers student representatives for this course:
Edesa Filios constantina.edesa.filios@gmail.com
David Hagberg hagberg.david@gmail.com
Joel Hilmersson batsman@chalmers.se
Plus more TBA?
These are the GU student representatives for this course:
TBA - Please email me if you are a GU student and would like to be a course representative
Learning objectives and syllabus
The course has the following learning objectives divided into three categories. More specific learning objectives for each module are listed in the respective pages.
- Examine current technological and social trends in gaming.
- Apply creativity techniques with the intention of exploring innovative new gameplay concepts
- Analyse the potential opportunities and threats associated with contemporary gaming trends
- Implement game designs to explore novel, emerging techniques
- Assess the ethical and societal impact of contemporary trends in gaming
The syllabus for DAT380 can be found here. The course plan for DIT468 can be found here.
Examination form
GU and Chalmers
The course has the following grades: U, 3, 4, & 5. These grades are also given for each assignment in the course. In order to receive a passing grade on the entire course, a student needs to receive at least a 3 on all assignments. The course grade given will be a weighted average of the grades on the modules.