Advance Diploma in Game Programming

The program is designed to take the students through the advanced computer programming, game-play, graphics, physics, engine and artificial intelligence, and collaborate with a team of like-minded artists and designers to develop a complete game. It’s all part of a complete game students develop that will get them ready to face the demands of the professional game world. The students opting for this course are required to have good C++ programming skills.

Objective

Our goal is to provide students with the focused knowledge and understanding of game development useful in qualifying for entry-level, industry positions as Game Programmer, Artificial Intelligence Programmer, Game Play Programmer, Graphics Programmer, UI Programmer and Game Tools Programmer. Completion of this diploma program will greatly enhance the ability to create program code for 3D graphic display, multiplayer gaming, artificially intelligent opponents, and real time virtual environments.

Programming for Games

Windows

The Windows Programming course is a comprehensive survey of Windows Programming through the use of the C-style Win32 API. The Win32 API is examined in order to gain a full understanding of its nature and scope, with particular attention paid to message-driven architecture and how programming with the Win32 API is different from console techniques. Students also explore dialog boxes, Windows common controls, the Win32 GDI, dynamic link libraries, and multitasking.

Graphics (DirectX & OpenGL)

The course teaches the details of computer graphics, exploring both the theory and application of each algorithm and effect. Students learn with an introduction to basic 2D and 3D game graphics tools and components including common game mathematics, colors and pixels, and computer memory, as well as ray tracing and rasterization techniques and programmable shaders. After reviewing the foundations of game graphics, students will go more in-depth with shading and surfaces, special effects, and rendering nature. Students will also be introduced to Programming GPGPUs (General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units) using CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) / Direct Compute. This is going to be very important in the coming years.

Artificial Intelligence

In the Artificial Intelligence course, students learn how to give intelligence to computer characters, including techniques for searching, game-playing, decision making, and learning. Various techniques for modeling realistic behaviors are also studied.

Game Planning & Architecture

In the Game Planning & Architecture, project teams meet to plan the art and technology for their game. They work together to create a project plan and assess the risks in their project as well as meet with artists to develop prototypes. This course is designed to help the students develop strong communication skills as they work in a team with designers, programmers and artists.

Final Project Creation

The students are divided into different teams to work on their final project. Each team pitches the idea for a complete game to the mentors/industry experts. After getting the approval, the students have the opportunity to work on the game as a team with Game Design and Game Art students through every aspect of the development process, with the end result being a fully playable game that the team develops.