Barrett

Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.

Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.

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Post-Mortem of a Tactical Strategy Game

Description
With the increasing popularity of video games and the emergence of game streaming brought about by platforms such as Youtube and Twitch, combined with the multitude of ways to learn how to code from schools and online resources including Codecademy and Treehouse, game development has become incredibly approachable. Yet that…

With the increasing popularity of video games and the emergence of game streaming brought about by platforms such as Youtube and Twitch, combined with the multitude of ways to learn how to code from schools and online resources including Codecademy and Treehouse, game development has become incredibly approachable. Yet that does not mean it is simple. Developing a game requires a substantial amount of work, even before a design is considered worth making into a complete game. Over the course of this thesis, I created eight designs with accompanying prototypes. Only one was made into a fully functional release. I sought to make a game with a great design while increasing my understanding of game development and the code needed to finish a game. I came out realizing that I was in over my head. With the amount of work involved in creating an entire game, iteration is key to finding an idea that is capable of becoming a game that feels complete and enjoyable. A game's design must be fleshed out before technical work can truly begin, yet the design can take nearly as much time and effort as the code. In this thesis, each design is detailed and associated with why it seemed great and why it was replaced, with extra focus on the final design and how players felt about it. These designs are followed by what I learned about game development over the course of the thesis, including both the technical and emotional sides of developing a video game.
ContributorsCharnell, Zachary Andrew (Author) / Olson, Loren (Thesis director) / Amresh, Ashish (Committee member) / School of Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
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HelperBot: An Adaptive AI for Teaching Advanced Fighting Game Techniques

Description
Popular competitive fighting games such as Super Smash Brothers and Street Fighter have some of the steepest learning curves in the gaming industry. These incredibly technical games require the full attention of the player and often take years to master completely. This barrier of entry prevents newer players from enjoying…

Popular competitive fighting games such as Super Smash Brothers and Street Fighter have some of the steepest learning curves in the gaming industry. These incredibly technical games require the full attention of the player and often take years to master completely. This barrier of entry prevents newer players from enjoying the competitive social environment that such games offer, creating a rift between casual and competitive players. Learning the rules can sometimes be more difficult than playing the game itself. To truly master these concepts requires personal attention from someone who deeply understands the core mechanics that operate behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, machine learning is growing more advanced by the day. Online retailers like Amazon run complex algorithms to recommend future purchases and monitor price changes. Mobile phones use neural networks to interpret speech. GPS apps track anonymous motion data in smartphones to give real-time traffic estimates. Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly ubiquitous because of its versatility in analyzing and solving human problems; it follows, then, that a machine could learn how to teach humans skills and techniques. HelperBot is a platform fighting game project that employs this cutting-edge learning technology to close the skill gap between novice and veteran gamers as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
ContributorsPalermo, Seth Daniel (Author) / Olson, Loren (Thesis director) / Marinelli, Donald (Committee member) / Arts, Media and Engineering Sch T (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05