109812 - ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF APPLICATIONS AND VIDEOGAMES

Subject type: Optional

Coordinator: Adso Fernández Baena

Trimester: Second term

Credits: 6

The materials can be provided in Catalan as well as in Spanish or English. 

The subject is designed for profiles of technology-oriented students (developer profile) who want to delve into the programming of games and the most advanced languages. The student will learn to program with the C ++ language and through this, will understand the concepts of memory management and other characteristics of object-oriented programming. With this, the student will deepen and consolidate the concepts of programming seen throughout the degree. Projects will be created directly on Visual Studio without any other engine or intermediate engine, thus giving a view of the code and its organization at a lower level.

The sessions will be mainly theoretical where the concepts will be presented with practical examples. In order to achieve the knowledge of the subject, several practical exercises will be evaluated on the one hand during the course, together with an individual final practice and a theoretical exam. 

The subject is contextualized within the branch of video game development. It is related to the subjects of game development, game engines, programming with interpreted languages ​​and advanced graphic programming (optional).

This subject has methodological and digital resources to make possible its continuity in non-contact mode in the case of being necessary for reasons related to the Covid-19. In this way, the achievement of the same knowledge and skills that are specified in this teaching plan will be ensured.

The Tecnocampus will make available to teachers and students the digital tools needed to carry out the course, as well as guides and recommendations that facilitate adaptation to the non-contact mode.

At the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• E6. Develop video games in high-level programming languages ​​in graphics engines, based on specifications.
• E6.1. Design the software architecture of a video game according to specifications.
• E6.2. Interpret the analysis of the software for further development.
• E15. Design and plan quality assurance strategies, testing and data analysis of video games and interactive products.

The subject uses the following work methodologies:

1. Master class
2. Collaborative learning
3. Problem solving
4. Question-based learning
5. Non-contact tutorials

Topic 1. Computer Architecture

1.1. Turing machine

1.2. Architecture Von Newmann

1.3. X86 assembler

Topic 2. Introduction to C ++

2.1. Historical introduction

2.2. Low vs high level

2.3. Structure of a project

2.4.Microsoft Visual Studio

Item 3. Basics of C ++

3.1 Variables

3.2. Functions

3.3. Pointers

3.4. Arrays

3.5. Memory management

3.6. Keywords

3.7. Strings

Subject 4. Orientation to Objects

4.1. Classes

4.2. Inheritance

4.3. Namespaces, scopes and validity

Topic 5. Advanced C ++

5.1. Smart Pointers

5.2. Pointers to functions

5.3 Lambdas

5.4. castings

Subject 6. Projects in C ++

6.1. Precompiled headers

6.2. Data structures

6.3. Files

Item 7. Good Practices

7.1. SOLID Principles

Item 8. Practice

With the aim of collecting evidence of the achievement of the expected learning outcomes, the following activities of an evaluative nature will be carried out (related to all the common competences):

• A1. Exercise in class: Turing machine (Evidence of learning outcome E.6.1)

Realization of a program with punched cards using the logic of the Turing machine.

• A2. Exercises at home: Human Resource Machine (Evidence of learning outcome E.6.2)

Solving several specific problems in the game Human Resouce Machine with the logic of assembly language.

• A3. Exercises at home: Perfect Numbers (Evidence of learning outcome E.6.1)

Realization of a first simple program in C ++.

• A4. Exercises at home: Pascal Triangle (Evidence of learning outcome E.6.1)

Realization of a second program in C ++ extending the knowledge to use.

• A5. Exercises at home: Raining Letters (Evidence of learning outcome E.6)

Realization of a first simple game in C ++.

• A6. Exercises at home: Snake (Evidence of learning outcome E.6)

Realization of a second more complex game in C ++.

• A7. Final Practice (Evidence of learning outcome E.6 and E.15)

Completion of a complete game in C ++.

• A8. Final Exam (Evidence of learning outcome E.6.1)

General criteria of the activities:

• The teacher will present a statement for each activity and the evaluation and / or rubric criteria.
• The teacher will inform of the dates and format of the delivery of the activity.

The grade of each student will be calculated following the following percentages:

A1. Exercise in class: Turing machine - 5%

A2. Exercise at home: Human Resource Machine - 5%

A3. Exercises at Home: Perfect Numbers - 2.5%

A4. Exercises at home: Pascal Triangle - 2.5%

A5. Individual Work: Raining Letters - 10% 

A6. Individual Work: Snake - 10% 

A7. Final Practice - 35%

A8. Final Exam - 30%

Final grade = A1 0,05 + A2 0,05 + A3 0,025 + A4 0,025 + A5 0,10 + A6 0,10 + A7 0,35 + A8 0,30

Considerations:

• It is necessary to obtain a mark higher than 5 in the final exam to pass the subject.
• An activity not delivered or delivered late and without justification (court summons or medical matter) counts as a 0.
• It is the responsibility of the student to prevent plagiarism in all its forms. In the case of detecting a plagiarism, regardless of its scope, in some activity it will correspond to have a note of 0. In addition, the professor will communicate to the Head of Studies the situation so that measures applicable in matter of sanctioning regime are taken. .

Recovery:

• It is necessary to obtain a mark superior to 5 in the final exam of recovery to pass the asignatura.
• The mark of the resit exam will be applied only to the mark of the A8 activity.
• In case of passing the recovery, the maximum final mark of the subject will be 5.