Jgoulie

MIT IAP, January 10-14, 2011

• Name of the class: IAP HTML5 Game Programming Course and Competition
• Coursework Component: 5 sessions, 2 hours each (total instruction time 10 hours)
• Schedule: everyday 11.30-1.30pm EST in room 32-141 ((http://whereis.mit.edu/)
• External support on IRC #mitiap2011

• Layout of the week
  • January 10, 2011
    • Lecturer: Dave Herman
    • Contact info:
      • Email: dherman@mozilla.com
      • IRC: dherman -- available on irc.mozilla.org at #jslang and #jsapi
      • Twitter: @littlecalculist
    • Topics covered: Foundations of JavaScript programming in the browser. Language syntax and concepts. Browser environment, events. (object and prototype, scope and global object, closures, events and call backs, numbers, XHR)
    • Resources:
      • https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Guide
      • https://developer.mozilla.org/En/XMLHttpRequest/Using_XMLHttpRequest //documentation on XHR, which Dave will be talking a bit during his lecture (Students may or may not need it for their games, but it's a good way to learn about using callbacks for event handling without having to learn all the complications of DOM events.)
      • http://www.squarefree.com/shell/shell.html //Students can use it to test out JS commands in any browser. But the more recommended way would be to use the built-in developer tools of their browser (FF4 console or Firebug, Chrome console, Safari console).
        
  • January 11, 2011
    • Lecturer: Boris Zbarsky
    • Contact info
      • Email: bzbarsky@mozilla.com
      • IRC: bz -- available on irc.mozilla.org at #developers
    • Topics covered: The Document Object Model (DOM), the canvas element, resource loading (graphics)
      
  • January 12, 2011
    • Lecturers: Benoit Jacob and Andor Salga
    • Contact info (Benoit)
      • Email: bjacob@mozilla.com
      • IRC: bjacob -- available on irc.mozilla.org at #developers #gfx #audio
    • Contact info (Andor)
      • Email: andor.salga@senecac.on.ca
      • IRC: nick:asalga -- available on irc.mozilla.org on #Seneca #Processing.js and #C3DL Also avaiable on irc.freenode.net on #WebGL
      • Twitter: @asalga
      • Wordpress: http://asalga.wordpress.com
    • Topics covered: Introduction to 3D graphics with OpenGL/WebGL. Basics of shader programming
    • Useful links
      • WebGL specification: https://cvs.khronos.org/svn/repos/registry/trunk/public/webgl/doc/spec/WebGL-spec.html
      • WebGL tutorials: http://www.learningWebGL.com
      • http://www.doesmybrowsersupportwebgl.com/
      • http://learningwebgl.com/lessons/

Some links I may refer to: WebGL point cloud renderer: http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/XB_PointStream Data visualizer library which uses WebGL: www.processingjs.org WebGL library: www.c3dl.org

• • January 13, 2011
    • Lecturer: Chris Heilmann
    • Topics covered: Audio tag and foundations of audio programming/mixing. Chris to spend time on video too?
  • January 14, 2011
    • Lecturer: Andreas? Pascal Rettig?
    • Topics covered: Offline web applications, local storage, debugging and performance tuning
• Competition
  • After the course work component, students compete in a HTML5 game programming competition. The competition will run for 4 weeks. Mozilla will host a discussion forum for students to communicate and collaborate and ask and answer questions amongst each other. The goal is for students to implement an interesting HTML5 game or visual demonstration. Whether its a create re-implementation of existing games (HTML5 pong?), or a full fledge 3D game, anything goes.
  • Swag: Team (4 team members max) to come to Mountain View, spend a w/e in SF with a 1/K stipend, come to Mozilla, present their game, and have lunch with Brendan Eich.

• Things to do
  • Make hands out for first day (julie?)
    • IRC
    • Email students this week so we're on the same page (julie)
    • requirements for the class = browser that supports WebGL (open it to Chrome too)
    • Gaming competition prizes (to talk about it on day#1)
  • Add content on MDN (julie to send email to Jay Patel to see how easy we can edit MDN). Make sure we document everything so we can reuse it later on.
  • Lecturers to prepare a set of links to send out to the students
  • Brad to follow up with the HTML5 gaming company. Are we going to have them present in the class?
  • Create support for the class: MDN, IRC channel (#mitiap)

• Further info

Class: 321-41 Email Anne Hunter