Games, Sensors and Media

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/games

Introduction

**Course Review: Games, Sensors, and Media on Coursera** If you're looking to dive into the exciting world of interactive experiences and game development, the Coursera course "Games, Sensors and Media" is an excellent gateway. This course seamlessly combines technical skills with creativity, allowing you to leverage the advanced sensor hardware built into the iPhone and iPad effectively. As someone who has navigated this course, I can confidently say it offers invaluable knowledge for those looking to create immersive digital experiences. ### Course Overview **Target Skills:** The course is designed to equip you with the skills to create fluid digital interactive experiences suitable for gaming. You'll engage with various elements such as 2D graphics, sound integration, and essential gaming frameworks that iOS offers, including Game Center and the iOS physics engine. By the end of the course, you will be proficient in using sensor data and will have a grasp of geolocation applications in your projects. **Learning Objectives:** Upon completing the course, you will have the ability to: 1. Effectively use the reverse geocode service to convert latitude and longitude into location names. 2. Implement GeoFences to create interactive experiences based on user location. ### Syllabus Breakdown #### Week 1: Location, Locomotion, and Motion The course kicks off with an exploration of the sensors on the iOS platform. Here, you'll learn how to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds by utilizing location sensors, geofencing, and motion detection. This invaluable week lays the foundation for how your apps can interact with user movement and surroundings, enhancing user engagement. #### Week 2: Lights and Sounds In this week, the focus shifts to the interplay of sensory input and sound output. You will discover creative ways to access ambient light levels and how to produce sound within your applications. The methods taught in this module go beyond mere understanding; they empower you to evoke a richer experience in your games. #### Week 3: Touch, Collision, Reaction You’ll delve into the mechanics of game development using SpriteKit. Through building the iconic "Pong," you’ll gain insight into the essential steps of game creation—from loading assets to implementing movement and collision detection. As you advance, the course also explores the intricacies of creating a more complex game, "Breakout," where you learn to harness the physics engine effectively. #### Week 4: Where the Action Is The final week is all about elevating game dynamics through the use of SKAction classes, allowing for intricate animations and sound effects. You'll also gain knowledge of particle systems, enhancing your creative arsenal by adding effects like smoke and fire to your games. A highlight includes integrating Game Center, adding competitive elements to your games through leaderboards and achievements. ### Final Thoughts and Recommendations "Games, Sensors and Media" stands out for its structured approach to teaching game development and interactivity on iOS. The course strikes a balance between technical rigor and creative exploration, making it suitable for both beginners and those with some prior knowledge in app development. **Who Should Take This Course:** - Aspiring game developers eager to learn about mobile platform capabilities. - Educators looking for a modern take on interactive learning. - Anyone interested in bridging technology and creativity in their projects. This course is not just a series of video lectures but an interactive learning experience. The practical applications you engage with will aid you in translating your ideas into functional applications that utilize the iPhone and iPad sensors to their fullest potential. ### Conclusion In summary, I highly recommend the "Games, Sensors and Media" course on Coursera. It provides an engaging and informative journey into the world of interactive experiences and mobile game development. Whether you're looking to embark on a career in game design or simply wish to explore the fascinating relationship between sensor technology and user interaction, this course is undoubtedly a worthy investment of your time and effort. Enroll now and start creating the future of gaming!

Syllabus

Location, Locomotion and Motion

In this week we are going to do a deep dive on the sensors in the iOS platform. Sensors are one of the aspects of smartphones that make them a unique platform and form a bridge between the digital and physical world. We will look at different ways of bridging that divide with location sensors (and street address look-ups via reverse geocoding), geofencing and motion sensors. This will give you the skills to write code that makes your apps aware of the world around them and possibly even react to a user’s physical movement.

Working with light levels from the physical world is tough on iOS, but this week we will show you a way to access the ambient light around the device by leveraging the screen brightness. Then we will flip the paradigm. Instead of trying to sense the physical world, we will act in the physical world by playing sounds. We will introduce two methods of playing sounds in apps (not the only ways by any means).

This week we give you the foundation for making games with SpriteKit. How do you build a game? How do you load assets into your game? How do you make them move and respond? We will start with the “Hello, World” of games, “Pong”. That will give a quick intro into how games work. Then we will return to each of the steps that we leveraged in making Pong and go into more depth explaining what we did along the way. In the in depth tutorial we will keep a running example of a game of “Breakout” tracking along with our progress. The focus of this style of game is on leveraging the physics engine, and detecting and responding to collisions in 2 dimensions. We will show the student how to place sprites, react to multi-touch interaction, detect and respond to contact events.

In this final week we will explore the different actions that can be initiated by your Sprites to create dynamic games. By leveraging the SKAction class, complicated multi-step animations, sounds and effects can be chained together without the app developer having to micro-manage their unfolding. We will also introduce particle systems as they are a fun and efficient way to simulate effects like smoke, fire and magic. Lastly, we will show you how to interact with Game Center so that you can add social action to your games. That includes leaderboards and achievements that are visible to the user’s social network and add a fun element of competition to any game.