The task of my Games Engines 2 students this semester was to observe and record birds, insects, nematodes, bacteria or other living creatures, and simulate them, artistly or realistically using a game engine.
My plan is to exhibit the best of these assignments at the EDEN stage of Audio Garden Festival in August 2024.
Checkout the assignment brief on github.
Who says computer science isn’t creative?? These are my second year students, Java programming assignments. The students form a team, choose a song and create a visual story of the song. The students write code to respond to the sounds and create classes to encapsulate the visual elements. They use VS Code, Java, git and the Processing libraries for Creative Coding. At the end of the semester the students get to present their work to the class on the big screen with the volume turned up. It’s great craic!
TU Dublin computer science students and game design students competed in Games Fleadh, the national, intervarsity console and PC games development competition in March, winning:
The prize winning games were all made in Godot!
Now in its 21st year, the competition finals took place in TUS Thurles Campus, on March 6th, 2024. This years theme was “Start With Nothing”. Teams began work on their projects in November 2023, developing all the design, programming, art and music themselves. The games were all made using the free, open-source Godot Game Engine, marking this the first time a game made with Godot wins Best Game. The teams were mentored by Dr Bryan Duggan from the School of Computer Science, TU Dublin and Dr John Healy from the School of Media.
My first year students made musical instruments in Godot this semester. As research, we attended musical performances in the Concert Hall in East Quad and also trad sessions in The Cobblestone. Then the students created musical instruments with unique user interfaces, sounds and designs. Students did a live performance with their their instruments as the demo of the assignment.
Check out the assignment brief on github.
Pictures from the visit of Berlin artist Adam John Williams to TU Dublin School of Computer Science in April as part of a TU Dublin Growthhub funded project. During Adams visit, he meet with composers and musicians, saw the work of computer science creative coding and game design students and had planning meetings for a planned music hacking workshop and algorave in TU Dublin in October 2024.
This is a re-recording my VJ performance for MSX composer Tadahiro Nitta at MSXGOTO40 in Amsterdam in December 2023 Featuring:
– i.am.dani – The AI Chatbot from 1987 that comes to life in 2023 to make art and write poetry
– MIDI controlled, sound generated algorithmic art
– Creative coding projects made by TU Dublin Computer Science and Game Design students inspired by the story of MSX
– Gameplay of MSX games from which the music is taken
All music made and performed by Tadahiro Nitta on MSX computers
GAZZEL INTRO
GG TROIS
BACKFLOW WAVE – Raging Blitz
BOSS BGM – Raging Blitz
STAGE CLEAR– Raging Blitz
STAFF ROLL – Raging Blitz
CAR NO 52 IT SEQUENCE
XAK 2 INTROSCREEN
XAK 1 WATERDRAGON
FRAY Last Boss –
DARKMAZE ILLUSION CITY – theme A
Source code for i.am.dani https://github.com/skooter500/iamdani
Here is some more artwork and poetry created with i.am.dani the AI chatbot from 1987 that comes to life in 2024. i.am.dani will be at the TU Dublin CAO Open Day on 13th April 2024
Source code. Pull requests welcome!
What an honour to VJ for Tadahiro Nitta, the composer for many well known games on my beloved MSX platform at MSXGOTO40 in Amsterdam on December 9, 2023.
This performance merged footage of the games with i.am.dani created algorithmic visuals, poetry and code. In additition students from BA Game Design first year created art work using Python and Processing inspired by the story of MSX. Full video coming soon.
This assignment challenges computer science students to apply the programming they are learning, to a creative project that they work on in a team, over the course of one semester. It is given to around 140 students in the second semester of their second year. The students form teams and submit their teams and proposals around week 5. Final submission and demos are around week 13. Students track and document their progress by making documented commits in a github repository that they submit at the end. There is a template for the readme.md file they submit, where they declare their individual contributions. They also submit a youtube video demonstration and do a live demo.
The assignment is designed to develop many important transferrable skills:
Students use VS Code, GitHub, Java, the Processing Libraries. The assignment is fun, both for the students and me to grade! Many students report that it was the most enjoyable assignment they did in college.
Here is a link to the full brief that goes into more detail.
Here is a recording of my Godot for Teaching and research workshop at the Games and learning Association Conference GALA2023, Wednesday, 29th November, 2023. There were around 30 people in attendance!
Here is a git repo with the examples I showed and a link to the slides.
Dr Bryan Duggan's Blog 