My name is Gregory MacDonald, your professor for the semester.

Please thoroughly familiarize yourself with this syllabus and schedule as well as the materials in Blackboard. These materials are absolutely critical to success in the course. I recommend that you NOT print the schedule and other course material but rather access it periodically online to check for changes and updates.

Email me with questions. I usually respond within 24 hours except on weekends when I do not monitor my ACC inbox.

Quick Start

1. Set a timer for one hour to read the Syllabus (including links), Schedule (see link below), and Blackboard (Bb) content.
2. In Bb, select the Assignments tab on the left. Complete the Orientation Exam. 
3. Begin work on the first assignment.
4. Maintain a daily commitment to studying and coding.

Visual Studio in Unity

Visual Studio Community is included in the Unity Installation. You may want to uninstall any version of Visual Studio you have on your machine prior to installing Unity.

Microsoft Dev Tools for Teaching 

All students enrolled in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses at ACC are entitled to free development software from Microsoft. See these instructions for creating an account and accessing the available software. Use of the MADTT program is not required. You may download the latest stable Community (free) version of MS Visual Studio directly from Microsoft.

Write Code!

In each of the chapters/videos you will find ‘hands-on programming examples’ or tutorials. I strongly encourage you to code the examples and get them working per the instructions. It is far more valuable to code the examples than simply review them. The examples are usually highly representative of your programming assignments.

Keep in mind that each assignment is primarily designed to exercise knowledge and develop skills associated with the topics covered in that section.

Tutoring

Click here for Tutoring Services.

Tutoring is generally limited to introductory material. Unless you have a substantial amount of programming experience, this course will likely require a significant amount of time and effort. It is HIGHLY recommend that you begin with and maintain a consistently purposeful commitment.

Blackboard

Students must access the course in Bb during the 1st week of class to be counted as "Attending".  If a student does not access the course in Bb during the 1st week of class s/he will be classified as "Never Attended" and will be ineligible for financial aid and automatically dropped from the course.

OER (Open Educational Resources) are used in this course and are listed in the Blackboard classroom under Resources. Materials are organized into "chapters" which are referenced in the schedule.

Purchase of a textbook is not required.

Course Description
The course covers an introduction to game scripting. It will both be an introductory programming course and an intro to game modification and design using scripting languages.

Course Rationale
This course is aimed at the student who is interested in pursuing a career in game development, design, or programming. Students are provided an opportunity to obtain game programming experiences. Practicing professionals may upgrade their job skills.

SCANS=Secretary’s Commission Achieving Necessary Skills

1.1 Effective Time Management
2.1 Participates as a Members of a Team
3.0 Information
3.1 Acquires and Evaluates Information
3.2 Organizes and Maintains Information
3.3 Uses Computers to Process Information
4.0 Systems
4.1 Understands Systems
4.2 Monitors and Corrects Performance
4.3 Improves and Designs Systems
5.0 Technology
5.1 Selects Technology
5.2 Applies Technology to Task
5.3 Maintains and Troubleshoots Technology
6.0 Basic Skills
6.1 Reading
6.2 Mathematics
6.4 Listening
6.6 Speaking
7.0 Thinking Skills
7.1 Creative Thinking
7.2 Decision Making
7.3 Problem Solving
7.4 Mental Visualization
7.5 Knowing How to Learn
7.6 Reasoning
8.0 Personal Qualities
8.1 Responsibility
8.2 Self-Esteem
8.3 Sociability
8.4 Self-Management
8.5 Integrity/Honesty

Unity Game Development Platform

• 3D Game Development
• Asset Importing
• Asset Organization
• Components
• IDE Experience
• Landscapes
• MonoBehaviour Class
• Object Pooling
• Position, Rotation, Scale
• Prefabs
• Scenes
• Sprites
• Textures
• Transform

C# Game Development Scripting Language

• Arrays
• Collections
• Data Types
• Decisions
• Fields
• Interfaces
• Iteration
• Error & Exception Handling
• Functions
• Methods
• Object Oriented Principles
• Properties
• Strings
• Virtual Methods
• Visual Studio IDE Experience

Course materials including video lectures and online websites are located in blackboard under Resources. Assignments are located under the "Assignments" link in Blackboard. The final week is slotted for working on replacement projects but replacements can be worked on and submitted at any time.

Coursework consists of an orientation exam for 10 points and 9 programming assignments, also for 10 points each. There are no mid terms or finals. Assignments are due by midnight of the due dates listed in the schedule. These are hard deadlines, however you can redo up to two assignments before the end of the class.

Grades are in the usual range; 90's, 80's, 70's, and 60's are A's, B's, C's, and D's respectively with anything below a 60 earning an F.

Posting of Assignment Grades

Assignments (e.g. programs) are typically graded the day after the due date. On occasion, it may be an extra day. Grades in Blackboard (Bb) are accessible via My Grades & Due Dates.

Withdrawal

The withdrawal deadline is November 21.

A withdraw may be automatically initiated if a student becomes more than two assignments behind the course schedule. (If you become two assignments behind in the course, you should send me an email stating your desire to remain in the course and describing a plan to resume progress.)

Incomplete

An Incomplete may not be used as a shelter from a potentially low grade. A student who qualifies for an incomplete may request an “I” (Incomplete) at the end of the semester only if ALL of the following conditions are satisfied:

1. The student is unable to complete the course during the semester due to documented extenuating circumstances.
2. The student must have completed at least half the course and earned a grade “C” or higher.
3. To remove an “I”, the student must complete the course two weeks before the end of the following semester or usually much sooner based on direction of the professor.

Student Conduct

Student conduct must be in accordance with policies in the ACC Student Handbook.

Computer Time

Scheduling of computer time is the student’s responsibility. I encourage students to configure and use their own machines due to the associated learning and customization opportunities.

Academic Dishonesty

Plagiarism, cheating, copying the work of others, and/or making false statements on official ACC course documentation are serious offenses and may be punished by results such as but not limited to: failure on exam/assignment, failure in the course, withdrawal from the course.

Notification of Final Course Grade

The final course grade is updated in Online Services by the ACC Student Records Office a few days after the semester ends. Contact the ACC Student Records Office for the exact date.