COMP4002/GAM Games Revision Exam Changes 24 hours/1 hour Marked out of 100 Answer all questions Read all questions and pay attention to the wording Knowledge Bookwork, recall of factual information Comprehension Or ‘understanding’, where students are asked to perform such actions as to describe, explain, classify ideas or concepts Application Undertake an ‘unseen’ task by using knowledge in a new way Categorising Games What is a game Games as a subset of play Play is a component of games Design philosophies Simulation, narratology, ludology Genre classifications Mechanics and Core mechanics Define Examples Pervasive and Serious Games, Gamification Meaningful Play Actions and outcomes Discernable, integrated, descriptive, evaluative What Understanding Interactivity Cognitive, functional, explicit, cultural Meaningful choice Micro Macro Failure states > Anatomy of choice Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics Elements of Game Design Formal Elements of Game Play x8 Dramatic Elements of Game Play Challenge Pure and applied Uncertainty and risk Play Premise Narrative Progression and Balance Flow Elements of enjoyment Dimensions of challenge Expected increase in skill Progression Mechanisms for Poor forms of progression Balance Dominant strategies Transitive and intransitive relationships Dynamic balance Feedback mechanisms Premise and Narrative Narrative components Premise vs story Characters Conflict Dramatic Arc Storylines Linear, branching, concurrent Game Architectures Separation of work Data-driven design Components and subsystems What’s in a game engine Game Loops Different kinds Software design patterns MVC vs Component Multiplayer Software design patterns Client-Server architectures Issues with real time Lag, bandwidth, reliability Approaches for Replication, authority, prediction Physics and Motion Kinematics and Dynamics Issues and errors Collision Detection Issues and approaches Collision Resolution Approaches and approximations Q1 (17/18) This question concerns player experience. a) By giving a general example, state and describe the three values that can be used to quantify the difficulty of a game at any given time. With a diagram describe and illustrate how these might be expected to change over time, and state a particular property of this change that is required to avoid the player becoming bored. [5 marks] b) In broad terms, categorise the dramatic elements of
game design of an existing video game that you have experience of playing. [5 marks] c) Describe and illustrate how the level design or sequence of levels in the game give rise to an appropriate sense of progression for the player. [5 marks] Q2 (18/19) This question concerns principles of game design a) State what is meant by the term “core mechanic” and give an example from a game of your choice. [3 Marks] b) Tracey Fullerton identifies 8 formal elements that can be used to describe a game as a formal system. State and briefly describe these elements with reference to the game from your answer to part a). [4 Marks] c) A balanced game can be said to be one in which the success of the player is largely determined by their skill. You are designing a role-playing game that will allow the player to select between one of three characters –a warrior, a wizard/mage and a rogue/thief. Define, describe and categorise an appropriate relationship between these characters. In your answer, you should highlight appropriate orthogonal capabilities or features, drawing a pay-off matrix that demonstrates that the features are balanced, and describing how these features might be used in a game play scenario. [8 Marks] Q3 (16/17) This question concerns the architecture of a game. a) State the four main components of a typical game that is implemented used a data-driven design. [4 marks] b) Game engines often make use of a model-view-controller architecture. Describe the responsibility of each element in this design pattern when applied to a game engine design. [4 marks] c) You are implementing a role-playing game with different character classes; warriors, archers and wizards, and a number of weapons and abilities; swords, arrows and spell casting. Describe how you would model these classes in a game engine such as Unreal, including a diagram of the various class hierarchies and identifying both the is-a and can-it properties of each class. [7 marks] Q4 (14/15) This question concerns the implementation of game engines and systems. a) State the structure of a typical game loop for a game engine. [3 marks] b) Explain how decoupling fixed-updates from rendering can be used to provide smooth but deterministic game play experience on a variety of different computers. [4 marks] c) You are implementing a networked, multiplayer game that requires quick movements and fast, synchronised gameplay. Describe how you would structure the architecture of the client and the server in order to ensure speed, synchronisation and reduce bandwidth requirements. [8 marks]