Minueto, an undergraduate teaching development framework

• Main Author: Denault, Alexandre
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 2005
• Subjects: Computer Science.
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=84023

In the last decade, the video game industry has shown unparalleled growth, both in revenue and in development complexity. Modern video games are built using powerful game development tools. However, given their complexity and scope, these tools are ill-suited for the undergraduate academic environment. === Minueto is a platform independent game development framework specifically designed for undergraduate students. Originally developed to help students of the course COMP-361 for their game programming project, Minueto offers a simple object-oriented API that is ideal for any 2D game development. Minueto's simple design allows students to quickly learn the framework and avoid the overhead typically associated with graphic programming. Extra effort was spent writing multiple types of documentation, each of them corresponding to different learning techniques. Minueto was first implemented in Java and used by the students of the Winter 2005 term. There was an impressive increase in the overall quality of the 2005 projects if compared to the 2004 projects. A significant decrease in the number of graphic programming complaints from the students was also noticed. This indicates that Minueto successfully reduced the graphic programming burden from the students, and allowed them to focus on the content of the game.