Video Game Development at the University of Michigan

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Interview with Christopher Erb, Director of Marketing for

Madden Football

The questions are in bold. His answers are not direct quotes, but reconstructions of his main points that I took notes on.

1. The basis of the paper is proving a correlation between the attendance at NFL and NCAA football contests and the sales of Madden and NCAA football video games, because this would imply a correlation between the two. However, through my research I have been unable to come up with solid numbers of units sold over the course of every year. Do you know the unit sales for Madden and NCAA football over the last couple…

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Dev Session Notes 10/12/06 - WSoft 101 Intro (Zenilib

Tutorial 1)

WSoft 101 Intro (Tutorial 1):

  • Zenilib is a 3D game development library written by Mitchell Bloch. It uses OpenGL and Direct3D interchangably. The basis of WSoft101 will be learning the basics of game programming using this library.
  • Download the source code and supporting files from The Zenipex Library Homepage. This is also where you can find the doxygen-based documentation.

To compile in Visual Studio / Xcode:

Follow the Start Guide if you haven't already.

Rendering a triangle:

  1. In Visual Studio open "Application/Source Files/Gamestate_One.cpp"
  2. Find a spot before the line containing…

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Dev Session Notes 10/05/06

Update on Wolverine Trail
- Mapping out path of student (from Baits to Football game), and diversions.

Update on Real Dreams
- Updated character sets
- Still looking for more characters to put in the game (wants a lot of them for classroom scenes, etc.)

New game idea
- Gradius/R-type (-like) game (overhead view/2-D shooter)
- Your ship is composed of two disconnected pieces, need to rotate ship in order to dodge obstacles (the space between the two pieces is invincible)
- Awaiting further suggestions: adonald at umich dot edu…

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Dev Session Notes 09/21/06

Notes 09/21/06

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The Binary Zoo: All of the Colors with None of the Drugs

Not too long ago, I was asked to check out a game called mono, a free game created by a studio called the Binary Zoo. Since I'm always up for playing new games (especially free ones) I decided to give mono a try. The result was, simply put, amazing. The well polished style and simplicity of mono and all of the other games created by Binary Zoo has inspired me to spread the word about these fun (and free) games.

The Binary Zoo

The home page of binaryzoo.com states: "Our aim is to produce fun games with original twists."…

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Welcome To Wolverine Soft

Hello and Welcome to the 7th year of Wolverine Soft.

We exist with the goal of being video games at the University of Michigan. We wish to be a resource for any game developers, artists, programmers, enthusiasts, or players at the University.

The primary focus of our group is to make video games. While it sounds like a daunting task, even someone with no formal skill can still play an integral role in a game project. And those skills can lead to personal growth, a fun time, and even a job in the game industry.

If you are aiming…

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Skill-less multiplayer games?

Nintendo claims the Wii will appeal to inexperienced gamers, and so far, all their actions seem to indicate they still firmly believe that. However, it's a fairly basic idea that the most skilled players will win in pretty much any game (except in some cases of bad luck). I then started to wonder whether there are any existing games where even a relatively unskilled player can do well, assuming their skilled opponents are not godly in comparison, that is. I decided to examine various multiplayer games I've played/have seen played often to see if a newbie (to games in general)…

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Let's Be Fair Here

It seems like no matter where you go on the internet to read information about the PS3, you can't escape some jackass's comparison of the PS3 to the old 3DO. I doubt that most (if any) of the people who make these idiotic comments have ever actually played anything on the 3DO. Most likely, these people simply read an article in some poorly written game magazine in which the article's author thought it would be clever to bash an obscure game system. These readers, also desiring to appear clever, think they will be clever if they parrot such comments. As…

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Open Source

Open source is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of video games. After all, not many people play Tux Racer or Arianne RPG on a regular basis. On the other hand, Ridge Racer and World of Warcraft are extremely popular. Actually this is an unfair comparison because the open source games listed were not financially backed projects.

Why aren't there financially backed video game projects that are open source? The simple answer is that potential investors see no way to make money on open source games. After all, why would anyone pay for…

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Audio Games

Sound In Games

With the new generation of consoles coming out, it seems like there is a big debate about new technology, blue ray capability, processing power, etc. But who is pushing the audio envelope? How many people can tell you if their favorite game can support 5.1 surround or more? Can most games even do more than stereo? The only game in recent memory that I remember talking about audio in an interview was Doom III. In the article the interviewee mentioned how you could hear things sneaking up on you in the game. My basic point is…

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