Gaming Fundamentals (MTA)

Course details

This course prepares students for the Microsoft MTA exam in Gaming Fundamentals, which is designed to provide candidates with an assessment of their knowledge of fundamental gaming concepts. It can also serve as a stepping stone to the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist exams. In addition all students who complete the course will receive a CCT Certification.

Programme Audience

The Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) is Microsoft’s newest suite of technology certification exams that validate fundamental knowledge needed to begin building a career using Microsoft technologies. This program provides an appropriate entry point to a future career in technology and assumes some hands-on experience or training but does not assume on-the-job experience.

Programme Aims and Objectives

This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below.The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam.The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam.

The information after “This objective may include but is not limited to” is intended to further define or scope the objective by describing the types of skills and topics that may be tested for the objective. However, it is not an exhaustive list of skills and topics that could be included on the exam for a given skill area. You may be tested on other skills and topics related to the objective that are not explicitly listed here.

Course Outline

Understand Game Design

Differentiate among game types.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: console, Xbox, MMORPG, mobile games, PC games

Differentiate among game genres.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: fantasy, sports, role playing, card, board, First Person Shooter

Understand player motivation.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: quests, tasks, activities, how to win, game goals

Design the user interface.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: UI layout and concepts, asset management, game state, gamer services

Understand components.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: differentiate between tool creation and game programming, understand artificial intelligence (AI)

Capture user data.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: save and restore user data, save and restore game state, handle input states, store data, manage game state, input services

Work with XNA.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: understanding the architecture of an XNA game; using built-in XNA tools; work with XNA hierarchy (initialization, update loop, drawing)

Understand Hardware

Choose an input device.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: mouse, keyboard, Kinect, console, mobile

Choose an output device.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: screen, television, hand-held devices, sound (local speakers, surround sound systems)

Work with the network.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: set up Web services, TCP, UDP, basic management; plan for areas without access to Internet, notifications

Manage game performance.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: CPU vs. GPU, reach vs. HiDef, graphics networking performance, frame rate

Understand the different game platforms.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: console, PC, mobile; compare memory management

Understand Graphics

Understand rendering engines.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: DirectX, video and audio compression, display initialization, resolution (full screen, Vsync, and windowed), transforms

Plan for game state.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: scene hierarchy engine, gametime to handle frame rate variations, understanding games’ main loop (input/update/render), graphics pipeline; understanding the flow of a game, loading, menus, save-load, configuring options (video, audio, keyboard)

Draw objects.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: using bitmaps, sprites, vector graphics, lighting, blending, text, textures, 3D geometry, parallax mapping, and different shaders; 2-D vs. 3-D; creating a sprite font

Understand Animation

Animate basic characters.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: movement, lighting, projections, frames per second (FPS), shaders, apply filters to textures, sprite animation, generate objects from user indexed primitives, matrices, understanding keyframes, motion between keyframes

Transform objects.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: forming, deforming, moving, point distances, planes, interpolation; frames per second (FPS); translation, scale, rotation

Work with collisions.

• This objective may include but is not limited to: per pixel and rectangle collisions, collision detection, collision response, fundamentals of physics simulation