Homework 10 - Small Project
Due Thursday, May 1 (the class before the last)

This project will be the capstone of the overall course. You will have two weeks to work on it, but there will be several intermediate deadlines that you need to follow on the way to your presentation during the last class. It is important, therefore, to start early and try to make it the jewel on your multimedia game experience cap.

Your project will be to implement a non-trivial puzzle or game from Scott Kim's web games list except "Random Jargon". You will choose which one you want to work on and inform me via email early on. You will also need to create your own graphics, but retain the functionality of the game. If you so desire, you can also choose your own game but you will need to get approval for that (to verify that it is doable and of comparable challenge).

Once you have chosed an exciting and reasonably doable game, you will create the storyboard of your game, figure out the programming complexities and design it in detail before programming and testing it. In addition to the final class presentation, we will have several in-class critiques so that you can get constructive feedback from the rest of the class. Start by examining some of the past student puzzles and Scott Kim's games.

You will have a few days to choose to implement a variation of one of these games or design your very own game. If you design your own game, you have to seek my permission to implement it.

Deadlines

Thursday, April 17 : Send me email indicating which puzzle you choose to do. If you want to do your own game, you need to have received permission for that by this date. If you do not receive permission for your own game, you have to implement a variation on one of Scott Kim's puzzles.

Tuesday, April 22: Storyboard presentation, along with a document explaining your game rules in detail. It is crucial to get the design right, so that you can continue your development with confidence. You will have 3-4 minutes to present your storyboard to the class and listen to their comments. Remember, they most likely do not know the game you plan, so you want to explain what it is about, its rules, and how your design will facilitate playing it on the computer. They will give you feedback on any problems they see and suggestions on how you might avoid the problems.

Monday, April 28: In-class critique of the remaining screens and work in progress of some functionality. By now you should be making considerable progress in your programming.

Thursday, May 1: Completed project due. Place your files inside a folder called hw10 inside your cs215 directory. You should name your game files in a way that reflects the nature of the game (e.g., pacman.dir). Clean up your hw10 directory so that only the essential files are there. Place any non-necessary files in a subdirectory called stuff

Thursday May 1: Bring back the storyboards and place them in SCI-160A.

Thursday May 1: Create and email me a small square snipet of your game, like the ones you see in the past student puzzles. The size of the snipet should be 100 by 100 pixels in jpg format.

Thursday May 8: Tested project due - In-class Presentation! This is the first day of the reading period and we will meet at 12:30-1:30 PM. (The inauguration festivities start the same afternoon)