Q1GrahamRoberts

Document Q1GrahamRoberts

1. Your Name

Graham Roberts

2. Your field of study?

Computer Science - Game Development

3. In which semester of study are you?

Senior

4. Why are you interested in taking this course?

I see a huge market for learning games and am interested in developing more ideas as to what makes a game fun and educational at the same time.

5. What courses / work activities / background knowledge do you have which might be relevant to this course?

I have taken a number of game development courses that have made me gain interest in participatory learning though games. I have a job creating flash games that is aiming at this same objective which will help with some ideas, since some games are not suited to be developed using flash.

6. Indicate your own digital literacy / fluency:
6.1. Describe your programming experience (languages, projects)

C/C++ - Proficient, done most of my homework assignments at CU the past 4 years in C++ so I am comfortable with it. VB.net - Expert, in my work I have developed extensively with VB.net because of its speed and simplicity. I can quickly create whatever I need. ActionScript - I just started using ActionScript this summer but have quickly picked up and am using it regularly. Mostly I have created small games that are learning based. Some of them can be found on the website: appmsaga.colorado.edu

6.2. What applications are you familiar with (e.g. Photoshop, Canvas, Dreamweaver,...)?

I am more of a programmer than an artist, but I have used Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Flash, and paint.

7. Give a brief description of the most important book / article which you have read with respect to the topic of the course.

Not a book or article but one weblog I found interesting lately was regarding using genetic programming to make sketch-like copies of famous pieces of art. The weblog can be found at: http://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming-evolution-of-mona-lisa/. It uses layers of semitransparent polygons to create an approximation to the input image. I think that this shows an interesting application mixing art with programming.

8. What do you hope and expect to learn from this course?

I hope to gain more insight on how collaboration and the web 2.0 process may relate to games and how we can use this change in software, to make it more interesting and interactive for the end user.