CS 428/528 Take-Home Midterm
Due: Friday, March 13, 5:00pm
This is an individual exam. Turn in an electronic copy in PDF format
via bblearn.
You may read anything you want, but do not discuss your solution or consult
anyone (other than Dr. J, and with him, only if you need to clarify or
disambiguate). Note: this exam is designed to be completed by you in 2-3
hours' time, and the level of depth of answers expected is capped at that
amount. If you have more time than that available to spend on my class,
please work on your homework. However, it is up to you to decide
how much time the problems deserve. There is no page limit, but if your
solution to either problem exceeds 10 pages, you may have overdone it
(unless you are in CS 528).
Question #1: 3D vs. 2D (50 points)
Explain the differences in 3D games as compared with 2D games. Your answer
should touch on game design, the user experience, the type(s) of game
mechanics and genres possible, and especially, the differences (if any) in
the size and complexity of the implementation effort necessary. Give
examples where appropriate. You may use personal experience as well as
credible information sources that you cite.
Question #2: Multi-user vs. Single-user (50 points)
Explain the differences in networked multi-user games as compared with
single-user games. Your answer should touch on game design, the user
experience, the type(s) of game mechanics and genres possible, and
especially, the differences (if any) in the size and complexity of the
implementation effort necessary. Give examples where appropriate. You may
use personal experience as well as credible information sources that you
cite.
528 Students
CS 528: your answer should be more thorough and may require more time, than
typical CS 428 submissions. Be sure to address the issue of scalability (to
larger number of game entities in question #1, and to larger numbers of
users in question #2).