Mark Overmars Homepage

Name : Prof Dr Mark H. Overmars
Email: m.h.overmars@cs.uu.nl
Room : CGN C230 (second floor)
Tel  : +31-30-253 3736
Fax  : +31-30-253 4619
Secretary : +31-30-253 7088 

Address:
Department of Information and Computing Sciences
Utrecht University
Padualaan 14, De Uithof
PO Box 80.089
3508 TB Utrecht
The Netherlands

Follow @mark_overmars

Center for Advanced Gaming and Simulation

I am one of the initiators of the Center for Advanced Gaming and Simulation (AGS). This center is a collaboration of Utrecht University, TNO, and the Utrecht School of the Arts. AGS is a leading edge research center that advances the state-of-the-art in gaming, simulation en virtual reality. The goal of AGS is to create technology for entertainment and for highly effective learning and training experiences. For more information see the AGS web page.

I am also the scientific director of the GATE project (Games for Training and Entertainment). This is a 19 milion Euro project funded by the Dutch government and will run until 2012. In this project the AGS partners collaborate with Twente University, Delft University of Technology, Waag Society, Nederland Breedbandland, Thales and a number of SME companies on game research and innovative applications of games. For more information see the GATE web page.

Research Group

The research group I am heading is called Games and Virtual Worlds and is part of the focus area Games, Media and Agens Technology. This group concentrates on new (algorithmic) technology for games and virtual worlds. Typical topics are path planning, animation, manipulation planning and 3D reconstruction. For more information, see the old GIVE page (which will soon be renewed).

CV and Publications

Here is a list of my technical reports. If you find to find out more about my scientific record, you can check out my Curriculum Vitae and my List of Publications.

I am very interested in all aspects of game design and technology.

I wrote three articles about games in the Automatiserings Gids that you might find interesting. You can read them here (in Dutch):

I am also professionally involved in the game industry, being a co-owner ofYoYo Games. YoYo Games is a web 2.0 community for game creators where you can play over 100,000 games for free.

Super Snake HD

To demonstrate that I can also create commercial games myself I created my own iPhone/iPad/Android game Super Snake HD. It tries to incorporate all the elements that make games successful: cute graphics, good learning curve, enough game play variation, replay value, international highscore lists, achievements, a two-player mode, etc. For more information see www.supersnakehd.com.

Bachelor Game Technology

Since 2010 the department offers a program on game technology within the bachelor computer science (in Dutch). For more information see www.gametechnologie.nl. The program is very successful with more than 100 students enrolling yearly.

Masters Game and Media Technology

Our group offers a master program on Game and Media Technology (GMT) that concentrates on the technological aspects of games and multimedia applications. For more information see the GMT web page.

Computational Geometry textbook

Computational geometry, algorithms and applications, is a texbook I wrote together with Mark de Berg, Marc van Kreveld, and Otfried Schwarzkopf. The book has been published by Springer-Verlag. For more information look at the Geometry Book Pages.

Game design course

In spring of 2001 I started to teach a course on Game Design. Since then the course has been taught every year with an increasing number of students. Currently there are each year around 90 students following the course.For more information on the course you can take a look at the Game Design Pages.

Game Maker

Game Maker is a program to create games in an easy and intuitive way. The program is used in the course on Game Design and has a very active user community. You can find more information about it on the Game Maker Pages.

Drawing for Children

Drawing for Children is a free drawing program for young children. It has many nice tools, options, and effect. It is very easy to use. You can find more information about it on the Drawing for Children Pages.

CGAL

CGAL is a Computational Geometry Algorithms Library that has been developed as part of an ESPRIT LTR project by people in Saarbruecken, Berlin, Linz, Zuerich, Sophia-Antipolis, Tel Aviv and Utrecht. For more information see the CGAL homepage.