Grading - CSC589-01 - Spring 2002

Participation in class (20%): discussion of readings, class attendance including Ashby Dialogue meetings; and for graduate students, leading discussion of selected readings.

Assignment 1 (20%): Create a short non-interactive one-scene multimedia (animation with recorded speech &/or sound) narrative computer presentation using Alice and Python code (or using a game engine and programming language code). Turn in a short essay (1-3 pages) summarizing the narrative presentation and explaining how the implemented features are intended to contribute to the narrative presentation. Demo the program to the class. Turn in a print-out of the program. Optional: submit web page (see instructions below).Grading: In addition to meeting the above requirements, how well the implemented features achieve their intended effects. Purpose of assignment: (1) Familiarity with implementation tools. (2) Familiarity with some basic narrative concepts.

Web page instructions: Your Alice assignments will be visible through our course web page. Copy your .html and .ali files into the directory:

/afs/uncg.edu/htmll/mat/ivworld/csc589s02/YOURNAME/

where YOURNAME is brad, dereck, jameson, oluseyi, orion, or sam, and your files are named assign<N>.html or assign<N>.ali, where N is the number of the assignment (1-4), e.g. assign2.html. Note: I need to know your username in order to give you access to your directory.

Assignment 2 (20%): Modify assignment 1 by picking one aspect of the narrative and making it slightly variable in response to some limited form of user input. Turn in a short essay (1-3 pages) on what aspect is variable and the range of variation, how variability is influenced by user interaction, and how the program implements this all. Demo the program to the class. (If necessary, also meet with instructor to explain what you accomplished.) Turn in a print-out of the program. Grading: In addition to meeting the above requirements, how well the implemented features achieve their intended effects. Submit web page (see instructions below). Purpose of assignment: (1) Increased familiarity with implementation tools and narrative concepts, (2) Familiarity with some basic issues in design of code to support variation and interactivity.

Assignment 3 (20%): Create an interactive multimedia narrative (building upon the previous assignments or starting over) that uses one or more AI techniques (e.g. uses condition-action rules to control a character's emotional response to user actions and to control the character's behavior based on its emotional state.) Turn in a short essay (2-4 pages) on the interactive feature(s) and the AI techniques used to implement the interactivity. Demo the program to the class. (If necessary, also meet with instructor to explain what you accomplished.) Turn in a print-out of the program. Grading: In addition to meeting the above requirements, how well the implemented features achieve their intended effects. Submit web page (see instructions below). Purpose of assignment: (1) Experience with analyzing the requirements of a complex domain (narrative) and translating this into the design of a computer program. (2) Experience with designing and implementing complex programs. (3) Experience with applying AI algorithms to solve specific problems.

Assignment 4 (20%): Final version of the assignment.  The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate everything that you have learned via a polished end-product (the program), an oral presentation, and an accompanying paper.  Late work cannot be accepted since this is the end of the semester!

  • The program should be fully implemented and debugged by the due date and ready to demo in the lab at the beginning of class.  Turn in a source listing for the program on paper (stapled) and an executable version.   Submit the executable on a portable medium (e.g. CD) or, if possible, Alice users should package the final assignment as a web page in the directory described above (under Assignment 1).
  • The paper should be written with attention to clarity of presentation and should contain the following sections:

  • 1. Description of the narrative experience (1-2 pages):  What is the "story"?  What is the role of plot, characterization, etc.?  How have you allocated responsibility for authorial control versus user control and interactivity?  What is variable?  What aspects of the presentation (ex. camera perspective) are under program control or user control?
    2. What AI idoms does your program use?  What is the idiom used for?  Go into enough detail that someone else could use the same idiom and implement what you have done.
    3. Graduate students only (2-4 pages): Describe aspects of AI systems that we have covered in class that address a similar problem (e.g. emotion models) or that use a similar idiom (e.g. production systems).  (Include citations to the articles in proper format and list the references cited in a bibliography.)  Explain how your system follows those approaches or differ from them.
    4. Implementation method and installation/execution instructions: What tools and languages did you use to implement your system?  Also, provide adequate instructions for me to install and run your system in the lab. (If you have packaged your program as an Alice web page, then just saying so and giving the url would be sufficient.)
  • The oral presentation should be rehearsed and provide a demo of your program with commentary covering the information presented in parts 1 & 2 of the paper.  Be prepared to answer questions from invited guests and to let other people take the controls and give your program a try!

  •