From a Light CG Framework to a strong Cannibal Experience

Game development courses are being more and more deployed within computer graphics (CG) curricula. A fundamental element in the pedagogical effectiveness of such courses is the quality of the development framework provided to the students. We discuss the most important challenges faced throughout the years while using, configuring and improving the framework for our games project, and describe the solutions we came up with to resolve those issues. We conclude that a carefully designed development framework, including all underlying technology, course material and quality support, significantly determine the quality of a project-based game development course. In addition, when the teams in such projects have an interdisciplinary character, providing an effective collaboration environment is crucial for the success of team members. We believe that the key to the huge success of our games project lies, to a great extent, in the deployment of a professional working environment specifically crafted for an educational setting.