PROD323-21S1 (C) Semester One 2021

Game Engines and Artificial Intelligence

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 22 February 2021
End Date: Sunday, 27 June 2021
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 7 March 2021
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 14 May 2021

Description

In this paper, students will learn about game engine design through the use of existing engine source code. Students will extend existing functionality through the use of programming techniques. In addition, students will become comfortable designing and creating game-based artificial intelligence (AI) constructs.

Learning Outcomes

  • Theoretical Learning Outcomes
    Students will:
  • Be able to explain the evolution of AI in the gaming context.
  • Understand and be able to apply various AI methods such as Minimax and Monte Carlo tree
           search in board games, kinematic movement algorithms, Dijkstra, A*, and hierarchical
           pathfinding, behaviour trees, and Markov systems.
  • Gain a basic understanding of Naïve Bayes Classifiers, decision tree learning, reinforcement
           learning, and neural networks.
  • Have a better understanding of the procedural content generation and be able to provide
           examples of its application in games.
  • Learn the functionalities of the game engine components covered in this course and how
           they work together such as human interface devices, gameplay systems, and physics
           engine.
  • Be able to explain the basics of game networking.

    Practical Learning Outcomes
    Students will:
  • Be able to implement and modify AI methods learned in the Unity engine.
  • Be able to debug and optimise in the Unity development environment.
  • Learn how to create basic plug-in for Unity.
  • Be able to use Havok physics with the Unity engine.

Prerequisites

Course Coordinator

Thammathip Piumsomboon

Course Administrator

Alison Lowery

Assessment

Participation (1% each)  Weekly (excl. 7, 12)               10%                
(each presentation worth 5%)      
Laboratory (2% each)     Weekly (excl. 6, 12)              20%
(each challenge worth 5%)
Assignment 1                 Week 7                                20%
Assignment 2                 Week 12                              20%
Final Test                       Week 12                              30%

Textbooks / Resources

Recommended Reading

De Byl, Penny; Holistic game development with Unity : an all-in-one guide to implementing game mechanics, art, design, and programming ; Third edition; CRC Press, 2019.

Gregory, Jason; Game engine architecture ; Third edition; CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018.

Millington, Ian; Artificial intelligence for games ; Elsevier ; , 2006.

Yannakakis, Georgios N. , Togelius, Julian., SpringerLink (Online service); Artificial Intelligence and Games ; Springer International Publishing : Imprint : Springer, 2018.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $877.00

International fee $4,438.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Product Design .

All PROD323 Occurrences

  • PROD323-21S1 (C) Semester One 2021
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