Guia de desenvolvimento de jogos para programadores independentes

Os vídeo jogos ou jogos de computador têm vindo a crescer na sua relação com o público ganhando terreno e credibilidade nos benefícios que os jogadores obtêm quando usam este tipo de software, indo esses benefícios para além do divertimento associado à palavra jogo no seu sentido etimológico. Nos últimos anos cada vez mais o mercado e algumas das mais reputadas instituições de ensino têm dedicado especial atenção a este tipo de software, englobando nesses estudos diversas áreas desde a engenharia à saúde, incluindo ainda, estudos de cariz psicológico e sociológico reveladores de que estas experiências de entretenimento, cada vez mais disponíveis a todos, têm influência na sua envolvente de integração e relação com outros fenómenos de cariz social. Apreciado o estado da arte esta tese tem como principal objetivo servir de guia de iniciação a individuais ou pequenas equipas da área de desenvolvimento de software no caminho para o desenvolvimento de jogos de vídeo independentes, apresentando uma análise cuidada capaz de apoiar as equipas desde o momento zero, estando o mesmo estruturado de forma a refletir o entendimento das bases teóricas em que o desenvolvimento deste tipo de software assenta, o estado da arte sobre plataformas, análise de mercado e indústria, metodologias de desenvolvimento e equipas, e ainda analisadas algumas das mais relevantes ferramentas de desenvolvimento e criação de conteúdos. Como prova de conceito e componente de caráter experimental, este trabalho compreende ainda o desenvolvimento de um jogo de vídeo guiado pelas orientações e lições apreendidas durante o processo de estudo de forma a ser representativo da aplicação dessa aprendizagem, e ainda capaz de detalhar passo a passo cada fase do processo, com o objetivo de apoiar a preparação de pessoas interessadas em iniciar a aventura de desenvolver os seus próprios jogos e quem sabe dar início aos seus próprios negócios e empresas. O jogo desenvolvido replica um recente êxito, o jogo 2048, que apesar da sua mecânica simples revela-se um excelente desafio do ponto de vista da sua implementação, bem como o processo criativo adjacente no transformar algo tão simples e experimentado numa experiência nova capaz de atrair antigos jogadores e interesse de novos. O desenvolvimento e publicação da aplicação experimental, e após análise dos dados recolhidos, mostram-se reveladores de que é de fato possível a programadores independentes entrar num mercado de alto potencial, e que adquiridas as bases de conhecimento expostas no documento estarão em condições mais favoráveis para ultrapassar algumas das mais comuns barreiras no atingir desse objetivo.

Structural change in the ruhr region: problems, potentials and developments

Due to the decline of the heavy industries in the Ruhr region, the area has to reinvent itself. The orientation towards service industries proves to be a difficult task for the district and its population. This paper examines the challenges, problems and potentials of the Ruhr region against the backdrop of its economical history out of a sociological perspective. Thereby the economical situation and its outcome towards the population stand in the foreground of the paper.

A violência associada ao desporto

This essay deals with the juridical problems related with violence associated with sports. Begining with an historical analysis of the violent situations, with brief sociological references, we’ll try to reach conclusions regarding the evolution of the phenomenon. A brief reference to comparative law studies will help us understand the measures taken by the portuguese legislator, focusing on a critical analysis of that legislation, on it’s repressive and preventive quality

Relação entre regulação das ordens profissionais e gestão jurisdicional dos profissionais de contabilidade: estudo comparado entre Portugal e o Brasil

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciência da Administração

Cinco para ouvir: discursos de ex-reclusos/as sobre a Prisão

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia

School governance and academic excellence: the representations of distinguished students in an annual award of excellence

Within a research project on «academic excellence in the state school», this paper is a contribution to the sociological reflection on the cultural and organisational characteristics of the school and its relationship with the academic success of students. The data we present stem from a case study underway at a secondary school in the north of Portugal, referring to the universe of students that since 2003 have distinguished themselves for achieving grades equal to or greater than 18 (on a scale of 0 to 20) and have thus been included in the school’s Framework of Excellence. From a contextual approach to this educational practice, we focused on the cultural characteristics of the school/subject as analytical support for the study of school and non-school dimensions in their mutual connections. To this end, we used the information from document analysis and data collected from a questionnaire survey administered to more than two-thirds of the students included in the above-mentioned Framework of Excellence. Subsequently, we will use the data from this survey to understand the extent to which academic excellence is perceived as an indivisible social construction of the school’s political and organisational matrix, particularly in terms of the educational and teaching guidelines adopted by the management body. We will conclude by questioning the meaning of the school’s management policies regarding the emphasis on educational outcomes, with particular focus on the representations of excellent students in the processes of school leadership, teaching organisation, school merit and justice.

External and internal dynamics in the EU's counter-terrorism policy: a political and legal analysis

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciência Política e Relações Internacionais

Da dependência à independência: o papel da família no processo de reinserção do toxicodependente e alcoólico

Dissertação de mestrado em Sociologia (área de especialização em Desenvolvimento e Políticas Sociais)

Relacionamentos em MMORPGs: online e offline

Dissertação de mestrado em Comunicação, Arte e Cultura

Migrações recentes de portugueses para Angola: contextos e estratégias

Dissertação de mestrado em Sociologia das Organizações e Trabalho

Velhas e novas drogas: impactos da toxicodependência: estudo de caso na cidade de Braga

Dissertação de mestrado em Sociologia (área de especialização em Organizações e Trabalho)

Emigrantes portugueses low cost: as perspetivas de ontem e de hoje

Dissertação de mestrado em Sociologia (área de especialização em Organizações e Trabalho)

What value can be attached to a concept of mystery and has it a place in contemporary Western culture?

The idea for this thesis arose from a chain of reactions first set in motion by a particular experience. In keeping with the contemporary need to deconstruct every phenomenon it seemed important to analyse this experience in the hope of a satisfactory explanation. The experience referred to is the aesthetic experience provoked by works of art. The plan for the thesis involved trying to establish whether the aesthetic experience is unique and individual, or whether it is one that is experienced universally. Each question that arises in the course of this exploration promotes a dialectical reaction. I rely on the history of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline to supply the answers. This study concentrates on the efforts by philosophers and critical theorists to understand the tensions between the empirical and the emotional, the individual and the universal responses to the sociological, political and material conditions that prevail and are expressed through the medium of art. What I found is that the history of aesthetics is full of contradictory evidence and cannot provide a dogmatic solution to the questions posed. In fact what is indicated is that the mystery that attaches to the aesthetic experience is one that can also apply to the spiritual or transcendent experience. The aim of this thesis is to support the contribution of visual art in the spiritual well being of human development and supports the uniqueness of the evaluation and aesthetic judgement by the individual of a work of art. I suggest that mystery will continue to be of value in the holistic development of human beings and this mystery can be expressed through visual art. Furthermore, this thesis might suggest that what could be looked at is whether a work of art may be redemptive in its affect and offset the current decline in affective religious practice.

A vegetação no município de Ilhéus Estado da Bahia: IV - Caracaterísticas analíticas e periodicidade sociológica

It is well-known that diverse groups of vegetation with an analogous but not identical floristic composition show an ecological similarity which leads to a determined type of vegetation. Starting from this fact it becomes evident that the scope of phytosociological work is the establishing of the significance of the species within the association and the discovery of the rules which govern associations. The floristic surveys made in the field have to be analysed statistically so as to obtain satisfactory results. The usefulness of this method depends largely on the possibilities of comparing the results with previous studies of the same kind, in the same country, or elsewhere. The method used in this paper is that of measuring circumferences and counting individuals in the different associations studied because it permits the presentation of the results in tables which show the phytosociological complexity of the Brazilian rain-forests. The classical method of characteristics is valuable because the more evolved an association is the less sociable are the species it contains, so that such groups do not show clear differences between species but rather between sinusia or strata of individuals. Five tables are presented in which several of the qualitative and quantitative characteristics are studied with a view to discussing their value in relation to groups and species. They are: I - Abundance (number of individuals). II - Density (distance in meters between the individuals belonging to each stratum). III - Basal coverture (circles measured in square meters of the mean projection of the individuals on the surface). IV - Basal area (mean circle in square meters occupied by individuals on the surface). V - Frequency, abundance and sociability in relation to occurrence. TABLE I. This table indicates first the number of individuals in relation to the sinusia studied: next, the sum total of the individuals belanging to the strata are given for each association, thus providing the numeric value of the sinusia: finally, the relation between the total number of individuals in the association and the total for the sinusium thus fursnishing the abundance per sinusium, in the classic sence, that is the percentage, or rather the relative number, of the elements which compose the group. CONCLUSIONS. The general character of abundance of the regional vegetation of Ilheos may be summed up in the following way: as an association evolves towards permanent equilibirum the number of individuals the inferior strata diminishes in relation to those of the superior strata which increase. For the shrub sinusium, two important facts were observed: a) in a given association the number of elements of the inferior strata diminishes as the diameter of the individuals increases; b) the percentage of individuals belonging to the shrub sinusium in the sere diminishes as the association evolve. In the subarboreal sinusium it is seen that: in the sere the number of subarboreal individuals does not vary much; whereas in the climax or the prisere there is a fall owing to the equilibrum of the biologic forms. In the arboreal sinusium the following conclusion can be deduced from analogous facts: the number of individuals of the lower strata diminishes as circumference increases. Also, in the sere there is a progressive sequence for the individuals belonging to the superior strata. TABLE II. The relation between the mean distances of individuals belonging to the same stratum and the area of an association is equal to the density. The table shows that the mean density of the association and the distance between the individuals belonging to the strata of the same sinusium in relation to the total number of individuals belonging to the association. CONCLUSIONS. As rule, the density of individuals in the associations studied follows a very general character or at least a regional one: the distance between the individuals in the diverse strata varies according to their abundance and sociability. Two other facts of some sociological importance are: a) in identical strata of the same sere the density of individuals oscillates in an analogous manner in teh subclimaces and varies in the stages which have reached equilibrium. b) the density of individuals varias in accordance with the sinusium and the distances between individuals of the same sinusium varg in accordance with the strata. TABLE III. This table presents the mean basal individual coverture, that is the mean projection of the frond of the various individuals belonging to the same stratum. The means were obtained by measurement in the field, of 100 individuals belonging to each stratum and their projection on the surface. In the latoratory these measurements were converted into mean circles (in square meters) and the result was multiplied by the individuals belonging to the strata corresponding to the sinusium of each association. The result obtained is named basal coverture. CONCLUSIONS. As a rule, the basal coverture of the vegetation of the county of Ilhéus indicates that: in the evolution of the vegetation the basal coverture of the arbustive sinusium diminishes progressively whereas that of the arboreal one increases. The special norms obtained are: 1) in the shrub sinusium the basal coverture seems to follow a uniform norm, that is, in stages of evolution of the subclimax the basal coverture oscillates with a certain uniformity. 2) in the subarboreal sinusium this fact is related to the vitality and age of the species, as in the subclimax the number of young trees is large and the vitality of the species very variable. This permits the conclusion that: in the sere the basal coverture increases with the evolution of the vegetation and diminishes when an equilibrium is reached. 3) in the tree sinusium the climax association of the prisere and subsere seem to obey a binomial rule, as the coverture (density-abundance) increases until a determined stratum is reached and...

Learning the ropes and embracing the rules: CFSP institutions as arenas for learning and strategic socialisation

The aim of this article is to analyse those situations in which learning and socialisation take place within the context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), in particular, at the level of experts in the Council Working Groups. Learning can explain the institutional development of CFSP and changes in the foreign policies of the Member States. Some scope conditions for learning and channels of institutionalisation are identified. Socialisation, resulting from learning within a group, is perceived as a strategic action by reflective actors. National diplomats, once they arrive in Brussels, learn the new code of conduct of their Working Groups. They are embedded in two environments and faced with two logics: the European one in the Council and the national one in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The empirical evidence supports the argument that neither rational nor sociological approaches alone can account for these processes.