Multimodal Media Madness (Summer 2024): Cooperative Handheld Games

  Class Information

Lab

Wed, 14:30 - 16:00

Room: 2222
(i10 Seminar Room)
   
Language German
Credits 7

  Important Dates

Kickoff 10.04.2024
Midterm Checkup 19.06.2024
Presentations 17.07.2024

  Resources

RWTHmoodle

FabLab

Multimodal Media Madness (M3) is our hands-on lab ("Praktikum") for Bachelor students in Computer Science, although we also invite students with strong skills from other disciplines to apply. Build an interactive system with an unusual user interface in hard- and software that creates an awesome user experience! It's a great gateway into our lab's research and teaching focus on User Interface Design, Human–Computer Interaction, and Personal Fabrication.

This course has limited seating. You need to register to obtain a seat in this course.

Instructors

Prof. Dr. Jan
Borchers

René
Schäfer

For any questions about the class, please contact René Schäfer.

Syllabus

This year, you will create a cooperative game on low-cost, hand-held hardware. Creating software within the constraints of hand-held devices poses interesting challenges in power consumption and code optimisation. Making sure that basic human-computer-interaction (HCI) principles are still incorporated within these limits is your goal. During the semester you will learn:

  • The role of HCI in software and especially game design;
  • How to use beginner-friendly ATmega-based Arduino microcontroller boards and the Arduino IDE to program interactive behavior in embedded software;
  • The creation of interactive experiences utilizing libraries like Arcada on the mobile Arduino platform PyBadge.


After some quick introductions to these tools, you'll then have most of the semester to iteratively design digital prototypes and create a game with a focus on games to learn to program.

Schedule

  • Introduction

    • Lab: Introduction, Group Formation

      Wed, Apr 10th

  • Basic Knowledge

    • Lab: Interaction Design, Arduino Basics

      Wed, Apr 17th

  • Prototyping

    • Lab: Storyboards, Prototypes, Asset Ressources

      Wed, Apr 24th

  • Code Demo

    • Lab: Rhythm Game Demo

      Wed, May 8th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Wed, May 29th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Wed, June 5th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Wed, Jun 12th

  • Midterm Presentations

    • Lab: Midterm Presentations

      Wed, Jun 19th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Wed, Jun 25th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Wed, Jul 3rd

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Wed, Jul 10th

  • Final Presentations

    • Lab: Final Presentations

      Wed, Jul 17th

Featured Project

All Projects from 2024

Grading

Lab exercises and assignments will be graded on the following scale:

1.0 Exceptional work that clearly went above and beyond what was given on the exercise
2.0 Exercise was completed satisfactorily as per the assignment specification
3.0 Exercise was completed, but has some problems
4.0 Incomplete exercise
5.0 Little or no effort was put into the exercise

Assignments

To take this course for credit, you must complete all assignments, lab exercises, and the final project. The grade of this course will be a combination of the assignments and final project. Note that you must achieve a cumulative score above 4.0 and complete all exercises to pass the course. You are also expected to be aware of, and abide by, the ethics policy for courses taught at our chair. Assignments/lab exercises will be assigned weekly. They are to be completed in groups as announced in the lab. If you do not complete the lab exercise during the scheduled lab section, you must complete it on your own time and submit it by the due date. Late assignments will be graded 5.0. Exceptions will be granted only for valid (i.e., medical) reasons.

There is mandatory attendance for this course. It is okay to not attend 10% of the lab meetings to pass the course.

Fields of Study

  • Informatik (B.Sc.)/Angewandte Informatik
  • Angewandte Geographie (B.Sc.)/Nebenfach Informatik

Course Allocation and Registration Guide

Number of SWS: P3 (Aachen)
ECTS Credits: 7
Course language: German for all lectures, assignments, and exams

Only 32 seats are available for this course. To get a seat in this course, you have to register for the practical in the appropriate timeframe one semester before the course is scheduled.

Details