Cluster 13
Video Game Programming and Game AI Design
Week 2
Friday:
Friday: WE GOT THIRD! We got third place in the Cosmolympics skit contest against some very tough competition. The rest of Cosmolympics were games like musical chairs and a balloon water toss. You can watch a replay here at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ml-DBaXJ3ZA8u6YikVFK3xtNQx0Ozzkc/view?usp=drive_link. Earlier in the day, we finished and presented our unique RPG games with submissions ranging from picking up a tomato (pictured right) to escaping zombie hordes.
Saturday:
We dressed up for the beach and met by clusters for breakfast. The buses took Clusters 1-7 to the zoo while Clusters 8-13 stayed behind and got extra time for breakfast and outside where we played some games on the lawn. Once we arrived at the beach the RAs showed us the boundaries and what activities we could do. We could walk the shops of La Jolla Shores, play some beach games on the grass, and those who had swim waivers could play in the waves. Programming still happened that night and saw the introduction of Karaoke, which several of our cluster participated in.
Sunday:
Sunday was a very restful day in comparison to our busy schedules from previous days. We were able to sleep in and after breakfast we had some free time in the dorms. All the students were given access to the laundry machines to get their clothes washed for the week ahead. Programming got moved earlier into the day. The majority of the students joined the groups going to Sixth College or the library. At night, we had Camp Cosmos where the "houses" we were divided in competed against each other. Students could watch or play flag football representing their dorm floors or make crests in support of their house.
Monday:
For this first class day of the new week, we walked to the Computer Science and Engineering building. During class, we were introduced to tower defense games, and we went into detail about towers, mechanics, general patterns, and some unique methods implemented in the best-selling TD games. After class and the start of a new lab we partook in the programming which included Speed Chess, playing with clay, Karaoke, or exploring the campus.
Tuesday:
We had a guest speaker, Benjamin Smarr, assistant professor at the Data Science Institute, introduce us to using graphical information to precisely answer challenging and vague questions. Today was another day for our preparation of the ethics essay. During lab time, we began to build our tower defense game by establishing a fresh foundation for our NPC movement. The end of Tuesday saw the introduction of the sunset activities. Two different programs saw the sunset, one from the Triton stadium and the other from the top of one of the colleges. Other programs included board games and a volleyball tournament.
Wednesday:
We had another guest speaker present about how recommendations, such as the recommended tab in YouTube or Amazon suggestions, in large software developments work. Lab time was another day spent on working on the tower defense games, with most groups completing their first level. After class we returned to the lawn where we played some games. There were multiple options for programming that night. Many students in the bowl had their laptops in an attempt to get some headway in the essay due Friday.
Thursday:
In replacement of the lecture, we were warmly greeted with an enthusiastic COSMOS alumni panel. We got to hear about lives after COSMOS, some of their suggestions, as well as how COSMOS positively influenced their lives. Afterwards, we got extra time to work on the ethics essay, and during lab time, we were expected to finish polish up the TD game.
