Category Archives: 2. Software Development

2. Software Development, Computing Higher

Video Games Awards 2011

Watch the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards LIVE, right here, from 8:45pm on Wednesday 16 March.

Nominations

Action

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Development Team
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Alan Kertz, Kristoffer Bergqvist
Electronic Arts/DICE
BioShock 2
Jordan Thomas, Zak McClendon
2K Games/2K Marin
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Adam Rosas, Scott Bean, Dom Drozdz
Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
God of War III
Stig Asmussen, Todd Papy, Steve Caterson
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Santa Monica Studio
Halo: Reach
Development Team
Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie

Artistic Achievement
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Development Team
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Adam Rosas, Scott Bean, Dom Drozdz
Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
God of War III
Stig Asmussen, Ken Feldman, Cecil Kim
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Santa Monica Studio
Heavy Rain
David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Scott Johnson
Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
LIMBO
Development Team
Xbox Live Arcade/Playdead Games
Mass Effect 2
Development Team
Electronic Arts/BioWare

Best Game
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Development Team
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
FIFA 11
Development Team
Electronic Arts/ Electronic Arts Canada
Heavy Rain
David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Scott Johnson
Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
LIMBO
Development Team
Xbox Live Arcade/Playdead Games
Mass Effect 2
Development Team
Electronic Arts/BioWare
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Koichi Hayashida, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Takashi Tezuka
Nintendo/Nintendo

Family
Dance Central
Development Team
Microsoft Games Studios & MTV Games/MTV & Harmonix
Kinect Adventures
Development Team
Microsoft Games Studios/Good Science Studio
Kinect Sports
Development Team
Microsoft Games Studios/Rare
Kinectimals
Development Team
Microsoft Games Studios/Frontier Developments Ltd
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
Development Team
Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/TT Games
Toy Story 3
John Blackburn, Jonathan Warner, Jeff Bunker
Disney Interactive Studios/Avalanche Software

Gameplay
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Development Team
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
God of War III
Stig Asmussen, Todd Papy, Adam Puhl
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Santa Monica Studio
Heavy Rain
David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Scott Johnson
Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
LIMBO
Development Team
Xbox Live Arcade/Playdead Games
Mass Effect 2
Development Team
Electronic Arts/BioWare
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Koichi Hayashida, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Takashi Tezuka
Nintendo/Nintendo

Handheld
Cut the Rope
Development Team
Chillingo/Zeptolab
God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Ready at Dawn & SCE Santa Monica Studio
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
Development Team
Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/TT Games
Professor Layton and the Lost Future
Akihiro Hino
Nintendo/Level 5 Games
Sonic Colours
Development Team
SEGA/Sonic Team
Super Scribblenauts
Joseph M Tringali, Marius Fahlbusch, Jeremiah Slaczka
Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/5th Cell

Multiplayer
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Development Team
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Alan Kertz, Kristoffer Bergqvist
Electronic Arts/DICE
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Adam Rosas, Scott Bean, Dom Drozdz
Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
Halo: Reach
Development Team
Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Development Team
Electronic Arts/Criterion Games
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Development Team
Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment

Original Music
Alan Wake
Petri Alanko
Microsoft Games Studios/Remedy
Fable III
Russell Shaw
Microsoft Games Studios/Lionhead Studios
Heavy Rain
Normand Corbeil
Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
James Bond 007: Bloodstone
Richard Jacques
Activision Blizzard UK/ Bizarre Creations
Mass Effect 2
Jack Wall
Electronic Arts/BioWare
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Koji Kondo
Nintendo/Nintendo

Social Network Game
Bejeweled Blitz
Jon David, Heather Hazen, Jason Kapalka
Popcap Games/Popcap Games
Farmerama
Tobias Reisberger, Jan-Michel Saaksmeier, Marten Schröder
Bigpoint/Bigpoint
FIFA Superstars
Development Team
EA Sports/Playfish
My Empire
Development Team
Playfish/Playfish
Zoo Mumba
Tobias Reisberger, Eduard Röhrich, Jan-Michel Saaksmeier
Bigpoint GMBH/Bigpoint GMBH
Zuma Blitz
Isaac Aubrey, Jon David, Jason Kapalka
PopCap Games/PopCap Games

Sports
F1 2010
Development Team
Codemasters/Codemasters Birmingham
FIFA 11
Development Team
Electronic Arts/ Electronic Arts Canada
Football Manager 2011
Development Team
SEGA/Sports Interactive
Gran Turismo 5
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Polyphony Digital Inc
International Cricket 2010
Development Team
Codemasters/Trickstar Games
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011
Shingo Takatsuka, Naoya Hatsumi, Jon Murphy
Konami/Winning Eleven Productions

Story
Alan Wake
Development Team
Microsoft Games Studios/Remedy
BioShock 2
Jordan Thomas, Zak McClendon
2K Games/2K Marin
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Adam Rosas, Scott Bean, Dom Drozdz
Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
Fallout: New Vegas
John Gonzalez, Eric Fenstermaker, Travis Stout
Bethesda Softworks/Obsidian Entertainment
Heavy Rain
David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Scott Johnson
Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
Mass Effect 2
Development Team
Electronic Arts/BioWare

Strategy
Civilization V
Jon Shafer, Dorian Newcomb, Brian Wade
2K Games/Firaxis
Fallout: New Vegas
Josh Sawyer, Frank Kowalkowski, Justin Reynard
Bethesda Softworks/Obsidian Entertainment
FIFA Manager 11
Development Team
EA Sports/Bright Future
Napoleon Total War
Development Team
SEGA/Creative Assembly
Plants vs. Zombies XBLA
George Fan, Matt Lee Johnston, Ty Roberts
PopCap Games/PopCap Games
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Development Team
Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment

Technical Innovation
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Development Team
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Adam Rosas, Scott Bean, Dom Drozdz
Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
Halo: Reach
Development Team
Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie
Heavy Rain
David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Scott Johnson
Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
Kinectimals
Development Team
Microsoft Games Studios/Frontier Developments Ltd
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Koichi Hayashida, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Takashi Tezuka
Nintendo/Nintendo

Use of Audio
Alan Wake
Development Team
Microsoft Games Studios/Remedy/14.05.10
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Development Team
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal/19.11.10
Battlefield: Bad Company: 2
Stefan Strandberg
Electronic Arts/DICE/05.03.10
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Development Team
Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch/ 09.11.10
DJ Hero 2
Development Team
Activision Blizzard UK LTD/Freestylegames/22.10.10
LIMBO
Development Team
Xbox Live Arcade/Playdead Games/21.07.10

BAFTA Ones to Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital
Mush
Henry Hoffman, Ahmed Zaman, Matthew Dennis, Katherine Killick, Greg O’Brien
(Angry Mango)
Sculpty
Druhin Mukherjee, Fabien Roussot, James Long, Fraser Littlejohn, Ronan Suess
(Team Tickle)
Twang
Jocce Marklund, Annette Nielsen, Linus Nordgren, Marcus Heder, Thomas Finlay
(That Game Studio)

GAME Award of 2010
(The only award to be voted for by the public)
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
Dance Central
Microsoft Games Studios & MTV Games/MTV & Harmonix
FIFA 11
Electronic Arts/ Electronic Arts Canada
Halo Reach
Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie
Heavy Rain
Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
Limbo
Xbox Live Arcade/Playdead Games
Mass Effect 2
Electronic Arts/BioWare
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Electronic Arts/Criterion Games
Red Dead Redemption
Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Nintendo/Nintendo

2. Software Development, 6. External Sites, Computing Higher, Standard Grade Computing Studies

Flash Games Development

We have just been sent a list of Adobe games development website that might be useful to you in the future. Have a look at them in your own time, some of the links do not work inside school.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/games.html

Resource wise there are the Adobe gaming evangelist blogs:

http://blog.flashgen.com (Mike Jones’)
http://www.flashrealtime.com (Tom’s)
http://www.theflashblog.com (Lee Brimelow’s)
http://www.gototandlearn.com (also Lee’s)
http://www.duvos.com/ (Enrique Duvos’s)

Also there are numerous Flash gaming site both for Flash games and as resources. The biggest Flash gaming site is probably Kongregate – http://www.kongregate.com –  (if fact they have just launched a Flash arcade app for Android).

Developer resources tend to focus around engines / frameworks. So you have the following resources

Pushbutton Engine (http://www.pushbuttonengine.com) – I have a few articles on my blog about PBE
Flixel (http://flixel.org) – Lee has done a good video tutorial on this
Papervision3d (http://www.papervision3d.org)
Away3D (http://www.away3d.com)

2. Software Development

Data Flow in Programs

There is a lot of confusion over input and output (ByVal/ByRef).

Consider the following example.

Write a program using procedures that gets 2 numbers, adds them together before displaying the answer.

Structure diagram

Algorithm

1. Get 2 numbers

    Out NumA, NumB

    2. Add the numbers together

      In NumA, NumB

      Out Sum

      3. Display the answer

      In Sum

      Code

      Private Sub Main()

      Dim NumA as Integer

      Dim NumB as Integer

      Dim NumSum as Integer

      Call GetTwoNumbers(NumA,NumB)

      Call AddTwoNumbers(NumA,Numb,NumSum)

      Call DisplayAnswer(NumSum)

      End Sub

      Private Sub GetTwoNumbers(ByRef NumA as Integer, ByRef NumB as Integer)

      NumA=inputbox(“Please enter the first number”)

      NumB=inputbox(“Please enter the second number”)

      End Sub

      Private Sub AddTwoNumbers(ByVal NumA as Integer, byVal NumB as Integer, ByRef NumSum as Integer)

      NumSum=NumA+NumB

      End Sub

      Private Sub DisplayAnswer(ByVal NumSum as Integer)

      Msgbox(“The sum of the two numbers is “ & NumSum)

      End Sub

      2. Software Development, Computing Higher

      Kodu and BYOB Scratch

      At the end of the period today I was showing the class Kodu. You can program it with either a 360 controller or keyboard and mouse, the controller is easier in my opinion.

      BYOB is a modified version of scratch that may make it possible to use scratch in higher in years to come. Google have also used a modified version of scratch for their phone development software it’s called Google App Inventor.

      I had a look at becoming an iOS developer, I’ll let you know how that goes. I want it less for developing paid for apps and more for using in class in the future. However, I am not sure if we will have to pay to use it or if we only have to pay if we want to place the software on the app store. Comment if you know.

      2. Software Development, Computing Higher

      Microsoft Resources

      I found this great bit of coding http://c4fdevkit.codeplex.com/ while looking for some free software from this article. It shows you how to use the Visual Studio Express Editions to create software you would actually want to use. For example Bluetooth and YouTube, so make a program that finds a video on youtube and uploads it to your phone via bluetooth. The limitations are only the limits of your imagination.