News
- 2007-07-14: The web page of the autumn 2007 course is opened. If you do not have a user account at the University of Turku, log in as a guest.
- 2006-01-31: The results of the third examination are announced.
- 2005-11-22: The results of the second examination are announced.
- 2005-11-01: The results of the first examination are announced. They can be found on the IT department's official noticeboard on the fifth floor of Datacity.
- 2005-09-21: The second examination is slated for November 21 and the third January 30.
- 2005-06-13: Tentative information on the course: Lectures are held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays 12-2 p.m. in Auditorium (DataCity, 2nd floor). Course begins September 6 and ends October 18. See also the information on the follow-up course Multiplayer Computer Games.
Timetable
Lectures
| Date | Topics | Additional material and links of interest | Note | |
| 1. | Tue, Sep. 6 | Introduction. Definitions. Model-View-Controller. | Slides, Spacewar, International Game Developers Association | Chapter 1 of the lecture notes distributed. |
| 2. | Wed, Sep. 7 | Synthetic players. Multiplaying. Games and story-telling. Game design considerations. | Slides | |
| 3. | Tue, Sep. 13 | Random numbers. Linear congruential method. Analysis and testing. | Slides, Spectral test applet | Chapter 2 of the lecture notes distributed. |
| 4. | Wed, Sep. 14 | Shuffling. Game world creation. Terrain generation. | Slides, Elite, Terrain generation applet | |
| 5. | Tue, Sep. 20 | Rank adjustment tournaments. Elimination tournaments. | Slides | Chapter 3 of the lecture notes distributed. |
| 6. | Wed, Sep. 21 | Scoring tournaments. Round robin. | Slides, How to balance a real time strategy game | |
| 7. | Tue, Sep. 27 | Game trees. Minimax. Partial minimax. | Slides | Chapter 4 of the lecture notes distributed. |
| 8. | Wed, Sep. 28 | Alpha-beta pruning. Principal variation search. Non-zero sum games. | Slides | |
| 9. | Tue, Oct. 4 | Path finding. Grid. Navigation mesh. Graph algorithms. | Slides, Triangulation applet, Dijkstra's algorithm | Chapter 5 of the lecture notes distributed. |
| 10. | Wed, Oct. 5 | Evaluation function. Algorithm A*. Movement realization. | Slides | |
| 11. | Tue, Oct. 11 | Decision-making. FSM. | Slides | Chapter 6 of the lecture notes distributed. |
| 12. | Wed, Oct. 12 | Flocking algorithms. Influence maps. | Slides, Boids, Hunt the Wumpus | |
| 13. | Tue, Oct. 18 | Modelling uncertainty. Recapitulation. | Slides, Evidence theory, Dog Eat Dog, Independent Games Festival | Chapter 7 and Bibliography of the lecture notes distributed. |
| 14. | Wed, Oct. 26 | Lecture examination 12:00-14:00. |
Examinations
The examination dates are:Check the exact times and places here, and remember to enrol in time.
- October 26, 2005.
- November 21, 2005.
- January 30, 2006.
Note: If you are not a student of University of Turku, you must follow these instructions to receive credits.
Lecture notes
Paper copies of the lecture notes (Jouni Smed and Harri Hakonen: Algorithms and Networking for Computer Games, University of Turku, 2005) are distributed in the lectures throughout the course. No electronic version of the lecture notes is made publicly avaible.See also Smed and Hakonen: Algorithms and Networking for Computer Games, John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
Errata
A list of known bugs and errors in the lecture notes is available here.
Syllabus
Outline: The course concentrates on algorithmic problems present in computer games. The aim of the course is to review common solution methods, analyse their usability, and describe possible improvements. The topics cover among other things random numbers, game trees, path finding, terrain generation, and decision-making for synthetic players. The course focuses mainly on single player games, but the topics are extended to cover multiple players in the follow-up course Multiplayer Computer Games.Credits: 4 cp (2 cu)
Prerequisites: Tietorakenteet ja algoritmit [Data Structures and Algorithms] (mandatory), Ohjelmointi II [Programming II] (recommended)
Teaching methods: Lectures (28 h), Tuesdays and Wednesdays 12-2 p.m.
Assessment: Examination
Literature: Lecture notes
Lecturer: Jouni Smed
Schedule: September 6 - October 18
See also: Previous course homepage