Welcome

So glad you are here! We've got a fun packed week of learning about computer science and how to make a game using Game Maker.
(Looking for previous year's pages? Go to 2009, 2010, 2011)

Contact Us!

To talk to Gail, Elizabeth, or Sarah, use this contact form. You are welcome to ask us about anything related to the course, Carleton University, and computer science in general! We'd love to hear from you!

Games!

Here are exe's of some of the games made this year. You should not need a copy of Game Maker to run them.

Course Notes

  1. Introduction (Computer Science, Games, and Women)
  2. Game Design
  3. Usability
  4. Computer Graphics
  5. Artificial Intelligence

Check out the complete course content, including lots of useful links to books, videos, and more!

Thursday

Links to things we did:

Wednesday

Game Maker Tutorials

Resources to Use in Your Game

Links to Things We Did

Tuesday

Game Maker Tutorials

Here are some of the other Game Maker's Apprentice chapters you might like to work on:

You may want to check out the official website for the Game Maker's Apprentice, where our tutorials are coming from.

Links to Things We Did

Monday

We're using a free piece of software called Game Maker to make games.

You can safely download Game Maker Lite and use this free version at home.

CS Unplugged: Programming Languages

By the time you read this, we'll have completed the CS Unplugged activity about programming languages. You can click here to see the whole activity if you want to. When we make our games in Game Maker, we have to be careful to use the right instructions in the right order. But don't worry, it's not as hard as it sounds!

Game Maker Tutorial

  1. Open Game Maker 7 or 8 by opening the Windows Start menu and typing Game Maker in the search box. (Note: Our tutorials use Game Maker 7 but you should be able to use either since they are pretty similar.)
     
  2. Download and save the resources for the tutorial onto your USB key. You should save your work on the key and occasionally back it up on the Z:/ and at home.
     
  3. Open the tutorial file from the online book Game Maker's Apprentice: Chapter 2: Your First Game: Devishly Easy. You will be able to access this file on campus only.
     
  4. Work through the entire chapter.
     
  5. When finished, you can experiment with some of the codes in your game and try new ones, or try switching around the sprites to change the game's look altogether.
     
  6. If you'd like, you can look at other chapters from the online book, clicking "Download PDF" in this list.

Women in Computer Science

Here are some videos we saw: