cs461 - FALL 2026

COMPUTER GAMES PROGRAMMING

Syllabus

STAFF

Instructor: Funda Durupinar

Office: M-03-0201-08

Office Hours: Wednesday 1-3 pm

TA: Mahsa Geshvadi

DESCRIPTION

This course covers the game development pipeline, from modeling of virtual environments and gaming assets, to interactive rendering and real-time physics-based simulation in virtual environments. The syllabus is centered on the essential components of a game engine, as well as software engineering techniques relevant to game development. Students will learn the specifics of Unity game engine and use it to develop their own games for the assignments and the final project. The goal of this course is to prepare students for a career as a game developer. You can find some examples of previous semesters' final projects here.

SCHEDULE (TENTATIVE)

Schedule

Course Format

Classes will be 11am-12:15pm Tue/Thu in McCormack M02-0420. We will use Canvas for the course. All the course material including slides, assignments, and announcements will be on Canvas.

TExtbook

No textbook is required; course materials will be available on Blackboard. However, here are some useful resources:

GRADING

Midterm: (20%)

Midterm will assess the theoretical concepts covered in the course. It will not include questions specific to Unity.

Assignments: (40%)

There will be 4 or 5 programming assignments throughout the semester. These assignments will involve implementing game-programming concepts using Unity.

Final Project: (40%: Proposal: 5%, Fast-forward: 10%, Final Game + Demo: 25%)

The students have two options for the final project:

Designing and implementing a game from scratch

Doing a research project on a games-related open research question. In this case, grading will be 10% research proposal, 10% progress report, 30% implementation + final paper + presentation

Students can work individually or in groups in either case.

LATE SUBMISSION POLICY

Any unexcused work received past the due date will receive a deduction on the following scale:

Less than 1 day late: 10 points
More than 1 day late: 20 points * number of days.

So, an assignment with an original grade of 100 will receive 90 if it is submitted a few hours later than the deadline, 80 if it is submitted the next day (>24 hrs past deadline) until it receives no credit after the 5th day.

AI USE POLICY

This course treats generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Copilot, etc.) as junior developers reporting to you. You are the lead engineer. You are encouraged to use these tools for drafting, debugging, and ideation, but you retain full technical accountability for the final product.

Total Ownership: You are responsible for every line of code. If you cannot explain how a specific function works or why a design decision was made, you will not receive credit. "The AI wrote it" is not a valid defense for bugs or inefficiencies.

Mandatory Disclosure: Any assignment that uses AI must include a brief "AI Changelog" stating which tools were used, what was generated, and how you verified and refined the output.

Assessment: Grading will prioritize your ability to integrate, optimize, and explain the code. Blindly compiling AI-generated scripts without understanding their architecture constitutes a breach of academic integrity.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND CHEATING POLICY

Any student submitting somebody else’s work as their own, or copying their own old work (whole or in part) to a new submission, will receive an F in the course. In particularly drastic cases, plagiarism can lead to expulsion from the University. The instructor will not tolerate dishonesty and will make no exceptions to this policy. Please protect yourself and the instructor from this unpleasant business by being honest and submitting only your own work.

Education at UMass Boston is sustained by academic integrity. Academic integrity requires that all members of the campus community are honest, trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and fair in academic work at the university. As part of being educated here, students learn, exercise, increase, and uphold academic integrity. Academic integrity is essential within all classrooms, in the many spaces where academic work is carried out by all members of the UMass Boston community, and in our local and global communities where the value of this education fulfills its role as a public good. Students are expected to adhere to the Student Code of Conduct, including policies about academic integrity, delineated in the University of Massachusetts Boston Graduate Studies Bulletin, Undergraduate Catalog, and relevant program student handbook(s), linked at www.umb.edu/academics/academic_integrity.

ACCOMMODATIONS

UMass Boston is committed to creating learning environments that are inclusive and accessible. If you have a personal circumstance that will impact your learning and performance in this class, please let me know as soon as possible, so we can discuss the best ways to meet your needs and the requirements of the course. If you have a documented disability or would like guidance about navigating support services, contact the Ross Center for Disability Services by email (ross.center@umb.edu), phone (617-287-7430), or in person (Campus Center, UL Room 211). To receive accommodations, students must be registered with the Ross Center and must request accommodations each semester that they are in attendance at UMass Boston. For more information visit: www.rosscenter.umb.edu. Please note that the Ross Center will provide a letter for your instructor with information about your accommodation only and not about your specific disability.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Course materials will be available on Canvas.

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