COSC 3550
Programming Computer Games
Spring, 2010


Course Description:
This course will explore the algorithms, data structures, and tricks used to program computer video games. We will be programming in Java and focussing on arcade-style video games (new and "classic") rather than text-based adventures or strategy games such as chess.

Course Syllabus

Homework Assignments

Finals Week office hours: 2-4PM Mon, 10-11:30AM Tues

SECOND EXAM (On-line exam)
The second exam will be on the computer, in class, on Wednesday, Mar 31. Anything we've studied so far this semester is fair game. If you want a rough idea of what such an exam is like, here's the exam from a couple of years ago. We studied different topics that year, so some of these questions might not seem familiar.

Class Demos
This is a link to a directory of class demos stored by date. They are not intended to be self-explanatory (although they might sometimes be), but rather are created as visual aids to the lectures. I'm making them available here so you can play with them and study the examples further after class. In other words, I can't imagine how you would take intelligent notes on some of this stuff, so here are my "animated notes".

Study Topics for Exam 1

Neat Sites
This page contains links to various interesting web sites related to Computer Game programming.


Java3D API

Navigation keys
This is a list of what various keys do in the KeyNavigatorBehavior of Java3D.

Java API

Brackeen book website

Davison book website


This site created and maintained by Dr. Michael C. Slattery of Marquette University.
You can contact me at mikes (a) mscs.mu.edu.