Coursera course on game development using Python (first homework due tomorrow)

https://www.coursera.org/course/interactivepython

by bcjordan • 14 years ago

54 24 14 years ago

zemanel• 14 years ago

well, just signed up.

My first programming experiences were actually small games for the TI-83, a humble dream soccer and a bowling game.

PC's were very expensive around '95, a fact which also lead me to take computer science for having access to them at school and obviously, gaming :-) Warcraft, Dune 2, Lost Vikings and the sorts.

After my first job and subsequently, that fascination on developing games faded away under other things like e-commerce, corporate applications and messing with Linux also sinked a large deal of my spare time etc but haven't yet lost hope of finding a way into it.

eduardchil2• 14 years ago

Almost missed that, thx.

jiggy20112• 14 years ago

First homework due tomorrow!

That brings back some unpleasant memories. When I was a CS undergrad something the professors would enjoy doing was assigning problem sets on the very first lecture of a module that were deliverable by the next lecture (often the next day). I assume it was a mechanism for figuring out people's learning rates.

Of course it was great fun beginning a new term and having 2 or 3 such classes on the first day.

zachgalant• 14 years ago

If you really want to learn game development on the web, you should check out http://codehs.com

You learn how to make games that run in HTML5 Canvas using JavaScript, and there are custom libraries that make graphics and user interaction much easier to deal with.

Also, you can take the class at your own pace, so no need to worry about artificial deadlines.

nosecreek• 14 years ago

It looks like Udacity is doing a similar course in the new year: http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs255/CourseRev/1

ekianjo4• 14 years ago

In the recent news about the course, a headline reads: "Make a student tutorial video, Win an iPad" (https://class.coursera.org/interactivepython-2012-001/class/...) - Sounds wierd to give a non-programmable device to someone who is following a course on interactive programming. Someone did not get the point.

100984• 14 years ago

In what universe is iPad non-programmable?

michaelt2• 14 years ago

In the universe where, to program it, you need a fully fledged computer to do the development on?

ekianjo4• 14 years ago

Try to write a python script and run it natively on the iPad, and we'll talk again if we live in the same universe.

eduardchil2• 14 years ago

In what universe is an IPad not something nice to win?

100984• 14 years ago

I think Coursera needs to do a course on game engine architecture with real-world examples (idtech, ogre).

freehunter• 14 years ago

The problem that I see with that is, these engines are difficult to do in one class. Generally, learning that is a full two-year program involving programming, logic, math, 3D design, etc. Using 3D engines gets difficult to teach in a 7 week course unless the student already knows quite a bit.

jiggy20112• 14 years ago

Should be enough time to understand and implement a basic raycasting engine ala Wolf3D/Doom though.

ichinaski• 14 years ago

Great. Just signed up. Anyone knows of a similar courses/tutorials for C++ Game dev?

VinzO• 14 years ago

I am also very interested, but could not find this kind of course

mtoddh• 14 years ago

There's the Game Institute (http://www.gameinstitute.com) but they're not free...

tangue2• 14 years ago

Wow, it seems that they're generating js + canvas games straight from Python (the tool used in the course is http://www.codeskulptor.org/ ). Never heard of it before

stargazer-3• 14 years ago

They seem to have built it by themselves this summer.

tangue2• 14 years ago

Okay, I had a look and it and its clearly for educational purposes only. Indeed this course is more a "fun" introduction to programming ("what's a function" ... ) than a real course on building games.

Coursera course on game development using Python (first homework due tomorrow)

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