Harvey Mudd College
Computer Science

CS121: Software Development

Lecture:

T&Th 1:15-2:30, LAC

Professor:

Z Sweedyk, 1249 Olin, x78360

Mail: z@cs.hmc.edu

Office hours: see my schedule

Course mailing list:

cs-121-l@hmc.edu

Course wiki:

TBA

Tutors/Graders:

Hannah Hoersting
Asa Ellet
Kevin Oelze

What This Course Is About

The objective of this course is to introduce you to the theory and practice of software design and development. You will study the stages of development from requirements specification and analysis through design, implementation, and testing. You will study ways to organize and manage these stages. You will also learn principles of software design including design patterns and anti-patterns. You will apply these principles and techniques in the design and development of an educational computer game.

We focus on games for several reasons. Games are fun projects and most students have a strong sense of what constitutes a good product. More importantly, games require solutions to a broad range of problems that rarely show up in a single software project. Games are real-time systems with stringent performance constraints. They require good user interface design. They typically use computer graphics and sound. Games can draw on other areas of computer science as well, such as artificial intelligence, computer networking, and computer art. And they often involve the modeling and simulation of physical systems, which requires concepts from mathematics, engineering, and physics.

Game Requirements

• 2D
• Client
• Players
• Educational or socially relevent
• Platform, engine, etc. is up to you

Textbooks

UML Distilled (3rd Ed.) by Martin Fowler, Addison-Wesley

Design Patterns by Erich Gamma etal., Addison-Wesley

Software Engineering for Game Developers, John P. Flynt with Omar Salem, Thomson Course Technology

Schedule

Date	Due	Topic	Links	Assignment
Tues 9/2/04		Introduction
Thur 9/4/08		Introduction to Software Development (ppt), (pdf)	Software's chronic crisis quiz Gibbs: Software's Chronic Crisis
Tues 9/09/08		Software Methods (ppt), (pdf) UML Intro(ppt), (pdf)
Thurs 9/11/08		GTGC Domain Analysis/Use Cases	Grand Theft Go Cart	Prototype 1
Tues 9/16/08	Paper Prototype	Playtesting and feedback Goal analysis(ppt), (pdf)	Keller:Goal Driven Project Management
Thur 9/18/08
Tues 9/23/08	Prototype presentation	Playtesting and feedback		Presentation Evaluations