Hello Students!

Welcome to Computational Form, I’m looking forward to meeting you all (and seeing some of you again).

You have Homework

Well, not much homework. Please read this email fully and do everything listed here before the first class to be fully prepared.

Bookmark this Site

The course website and textbook is http://compform.net

This site hosts the course calendar, syllabus, assignments, and lecture notes. Click the “Class Notes 2020” link to access them.

Read the Syllabus

The Syllabus is on the class website. Read it now!

Bring three questions about the syllabus, typed on paper, to the first class.

These will count toward your “participation” grade! This can be an easy A or an easy 0 to kick off your semester.

Watch These Things

Watch these videos before class on Wednesday:

How (and Why) Spelunky Makes its Own Levels | Game Maker’s Toolkit

Digital Creatures Learn to cooperate | Two Minute Papers

Read This Thing

Read this chapter before class on Wednesday.

Procedural Content Generation in Games is a free online textbook. The book focuses on gaming applications, but the first chapter is good to read no matter what kind of procedural generation you are interested in. This is the only chapter of this book that will be assigned in Comp Form, but you might be interested in some of the other chapters, so take a look at the table of contents.

First chapter of pcgbook.

Be on Time

The short version of my attendance policy:

Attend every class, arrive early, stay late.

Be Prepared

Bring these things to Wednesday’s class and to every class:

laptop + a Comp Form sketchbook + red pen + black pen + pencil + camera/phone