98-374 Gaming Development Fundamentals

Skills Being Measured

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.

Understand Game Design

Differentiate among game types.

o This objective may include but is not limited to: console, Xbox, MMORPG, mobile games, PC
games
Differentiate among game genres.
o This objective may include but is not limited to: fantasy, sports, role playing, card, board, First
Person Shooter
Understand player motivation.
o This objective may include but is not limited to: quests, tasks, activities, how to win, game
goals
Design the user interface.
o This objective may include but is not limited to: UI layout and concepts, asset management,
game state, gamer services
Understand components.
o This objective may include but is not limited to: differentiate between tool creation and game
programming, understand artificial intelligence (AI)
Capture user data.
o 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.
o 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.

o This objective may include but is not limited to: mouse, keyboard, Kinect, console, mobile
Choose an output device.
o This objective may include but is not limited to: screen, television, hand-held devices, sound
(local speakers, surround sound systems)
Work with the network.
o 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.
o 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.
o This objective may include but is not limited to: console, PC, mobile; compare memory
management

Understand Graphics

Understand rendering engines.

o 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.
o 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.
o 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.

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