Students will explore the following topic areas:

Advanced Materials¿¿

Game Engine Presentation¿¿

Game Engine Physics¿¿

Advanced Asset Pipelines¿¿¿

Staging and Presentation¿¿

Procedural Art¿

Technical material¿

Particle Creation¿

Assessment Component 1 - (Learning Outcomes 1 and 2)

Procedural Content Generation Solution weighted at 80% consisting of:

Solve a Procedural Design challenge with accompanying games design documentation showing an iterative design process within a contemporary game engines and software. Example of tool development to aid the PCG process for a PCG problem that doesn’t have a solution



Assessment Component 2 - (Learning Outcomes 3 and 4)

A Development Log weighted at 20% consisting of:

A forum development log that showcases the stages of development used to produce your PCG artefact, suitable testing techniques, result discussion, and must also including a reflective critique.

2 x 1-hour lectures per week presenting key topics and concepts¿

2 x 2-hour lecture/tutorial sessions per week which will include demonstrations, development periods, critiques and support opportunities.


Learning will be supported by a range of video and written tutorials available online via a VLE.

1. Evaluate and appraise games development software in the design and development of a PCG artefact.

University Learning Outcome

Problem Solving

2.Develop a PCG artefact with consideration of industry standard techniques, or contemporary approaches.

University Learning Outcome

Knowledge and Understanding

3. Reflect on the implementation of a technical PCG artefact.

University Learning Outcome

Reflection

4. Construct an appropriate testing solution,

University Learning Outcome

Enquiry

Digital Academy Forum

Digital Academy Uploads

Unreal Engine

Internet access

Blackboard

Houdini¿

Substance Designer¿

3D Applications¿

Meta Humans¿

Andurlekar, 2023, Build Stunning Real-time VFX with Unreal Engine 5, Packt Publishing ISBN: 978-1801072410


Short & Adamas, 2017, Procedural Generation in Game Design, Routledge, ISBN: 978-1498799195


Ramos 2023, Unreal Engine 5 Shaders and Effects Cookbook, Packt Publishing, ISBN: 978-1837633081


Green, D. (2016) Procedural content generation for C++ game development. Packt Publishing. ISBN: 978-1785886713

Games Development and Procedural Content Generation is a crucial combination of skills. Not only for the developer in the creation phase but also the understanding of PCG tools and the wise choices made to invest time and money into such tools to enhance the workflow of the studio. In this module we investigate the development of PCG and VFX methods in various software with a technical focus on tool development.