Design Patterns and Computer Games

Paul Gestwicki

Programming a computer game is a significant software engineering challenge.  Modern games require deep knowledge of programming languages, graphics, human-computer interaction, networking, and multimedia processing, as well as professional communication and teamwork skills. Developing a game therefore benefits from formal software engineering tools.  One of the most exciting and noteworthy advances in software engineering is the recognition of design patterns for object-oriented programming.  These patterns represent the best practices of OO programming, and they provide a common language that facilitates communication among team members.  In this presentation, I will provide an introduction to design patterns and the Unified Modeling Language. Specifically, I will show how these software engineering techniques are applied to the context of game programming.

Biography

Paul Gestwicki is a native of Western New York and graduated from SUNY Fredonia in 1998 with a bachelors degree in Computer Science. Studying at the University at Buffalo, he earned a Masters in 2000 and a doctorate in 2005 from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. His graduate studies focused on visual operational semantics and interactive visualization of object-oriented program execution.  Since taking a faculty position in the Computer Science Department at Ball State University in Fall 2005, Dr. Gestwicki has published research in the fields of computer science education, design patterns, the science of design, and applications of software engineering on computer game programming.

When: 4pm, April 27, 2007

Where: Fenton Hall, Room 105