Computer Science Undergraduates Complete Multiplayer, Online Games

June 23, 2004 / By Doug Ramsey

CSE professor Geoff Voelker explains CSE 125. [Video]Length: 12:20 Ed Wu summarizes his team's game, Geteilte Stadt (A City Divided). [Video] Length: 15:16 Zhao Yong Liu introduces the game Kampus Kombat. [Video]Length: 10:30 The game, Little Johnny Has Cirrhosis, is explained by Justin Klein. [Video] Length: 11:51 Andrew Wood introduces the game Mars atTTACK. [Video] Length: 6:21 The game G1S is showcased by student Santos Cordon. [Video]Length: 10:54

San Diego , June 23, 2004 -- Earlier this month, five teams of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) students showcased their respective online, multiplayer games to a packed audience in Peterson Hall on the UCSD campus. The games were part of CSE 125, a project-based course on Software System Design and Implementation, taught each spring by CSE professor Geoff Voelker (and TA'd this year by CSE 125 alum John Rapp).

"The goal of CSE 125 is to experience the design and implementation of a large, complex software system in large groups," says Voelker. "Each team of five or six students - most of them seniors - was tasked with creating from scratch a distributed, real-time, 3D, multiplayer game."

The games demonstrated at the end of the spring term included:
" Geteilte Stadt (A City Divided)
" Kampus Kombat
" Little Johnny Has Cirrhosis
" Mars atTACK
" G1S

Streaming video of each team's presentation and their respective games is now available for viewing on-demand (at right).

Emphasis was placed on the development process itself in addition to the final product. Over the course of 10 weeks, the groups decided on the features of their project, specified its requirements, created a design and implementation schedule, implemented it, and gave a public demonstration. At the final demo, audience members were invited to play each of the games while a representative from each group explained the team's approach to designing and building the game.

In his overview of the course, Voelker promised students that they would benefit from software development experience that is closer to what they would find in industry than with more traditional course projects - while producing "a project that you can showcase to potential employers."

For more information on CSE 125 and this year's projects, including the names of students participating on each team project, go to the URLs listed below under Related Links. CSE 125 will take place again in Spring 2005.

Media Contacts

Doug Ramsey, Calit² -- 858-822-5825, dramsey@ucsd.edu