Final Project

It is highly recommended that you work with 1 or 2 other people on this assignment.

Each group (of either 2 or 3 people) will work independently of the other groups; you're allowed to work with your group, but you're not allowed to work with anyone outside your group. If you absolutely have to / want to, you can do this on your own

If you have questions, please contact the instructor.

Learning Objectives:
(This is a list of the major topics that you, as students, will learn in this assignment:)

Demonstrate mastery of the technical topics that we've covered in this term.
While you will have a lot of freedom in what you do, you will need to both utilize the material that we've learned during this term, and document what you've used.
Create a fun game that you can be proud of demonstrating to other people
Part of your grade will be to demonstrate your final project, in class, on Tuesday, June 10. You should create something that you're proud to demonstrate to
Learn any new techniques that you need to, in order to deliver your game
In all likelihood, you will need to learn more about GameMaker (or C# & XNA) in order to develop your game. You (and your partners) should both identify which techniques you'll need to learn, learn those techniques, and then incorporate those techniques into your game.

For this project, the overall project will be broken into smaller 'milestones', where each milestone has it's own due date, and own deliverable item(s).

Milestone 1: Game Description (20 points)

For this phase, you and your partners will brainstorm a list of game ideas, and then pick one game idea, and describe what your game will be like. You should also list any new techniques / technologies that you believe you'll need to learn, in order to create your game.

You will not be allowed to do a revision for this milestone. You should take whatever feedback that you get, and use it to improve your project in subsequent milestones.

Due Date: Thursday, May 15, at the start of class

Items Due:

Evidence of brainstorming with your partners.
This could be a piece of paper where you wrote down some of your ideas, or it could be an electronic document that you used when brainstorming. It doesn't have to be pretty, but it does have to legible enough that the instructor can read most of what you've written, so that the instructor can verify that you came up with a number of ideas. If you do this on paper, you can hand it in by writing your names at the top of it, and handing it to the instructor
Final Project Game Description
This is given in a separate Word .DOCument that you can download from the course website. You need to list all the full names of all the members of your group at the top. Next, you need to write a 1-2 paragraph description of what your game will be - what is the overall idea, how does someone play the game, and what are the goals for the game. Next, you need to specifically address the details listed in the 'Game Details' table, perhaps with the aid of the Game Design Rubric. You do NOT need to include the Game Design Rubric itself in what you hand in for this phase. Lastly, you need to list any techniques (such as how to create maze game in GameMaker) or technologies (such as using sound in C#) that you will need to learn, in order to create your game.

Milestone 2: Game & Presentation, Take #1 (30 points)

For this phase, you and your partners will deliver a working, mostly finished game, as well as a stack of PowerPoint slides. Ultimately, you will use the slides to present your game on the final day of class.

The game must be at least 75% finished, in the sense of having most of the game-play logic in place and working. All of your art resources (pictures, sounds, etc) must be done for this milestone.

The PowerPoint slides (and any notes that you want to create) should be suitable for the final presentation (see the next milestone for details). It is expected that you'll have these completely done, but that the slides will be a 'rough draft' of what you eventually hand in.

You will not be allowed to do a revision for this milestone. You should take whatever feedback that you get, and use it to improve your project in subsequent milestones.

Due Date: Thursday, May 29, at the start of class

Items Due:

The game
PowerPoint slides

Milestone 3: Game Presentation, Take #2 (50 points)

For this phase, you and your partners will deliver a finished, working game, as well as a stack of PowerPoint slides, which you will use to present your game on the final day of class.

The game must be 100% finished, in all ways (logic, art, etc).

The presentation must be at least 5 minutes, and no more than 10 minutes long, and it must discuss the game overall, offer a quick demonstration of game-play, and then speak to some specific, technical details about your game. You should choose to talk about technical details that are either challenging to implement, or produce a particularly nice effect, or else are interesting for some other reason.

You will not be allowed to do a revision for this milestone.

It is anticipated that after all students have finished their presentations, that there will be time for people to wander around & try out other peoples' games. You should be prepared to explain your game in this less formal setting, in addition to the formal presentation listed above.

Due Date: Tuesday, June 10, at the start of class

Items Due:

The game
PowerPoint slides

Technology: Either GameMaker, or else C#/XNA

For this project, you're allowed to use either GameMaker, or C#/XNA to implement your game.

Since it's relative easy to implement games in GameMaker (technically speaking), the grading focus for GameMaker games will be on whether your game is complete, polished, and fun to play. You should have nice looking graphics, audio feedback for everything in the game (i.e., sound clips), background music, and a slick, polished appearance. The score (if any) should be displayed nicely on the screen. The player's sprite should face the direction that the player is currently moving in, etc, etc. The game should appear to be high-end amateur, or even low-end professional in it's quality.

Since C# is a more difficult language to program in, the grading focus for C# games will be on your demonstrated technical skills. For a C# game, you should have nice graphics, optional sound, and the game should be fun to play, but the focus is on implementing an interesting algorithm in C#. You should pick something that goes beyond what we've seen in class, and implement it. Some examples might include a algorithm for finding a way through a maze, or for playing blackjack against the player, etc.

Minimum Playable Time

In an effort to ensure a minimum volume of quality work, your game needs to be playable for at least 2 minutes. These should be two minutes of fun, non-repetitive gameplay. For role-playing games (or any other game with a lot of 'start-up' time, such as when you create your characters), this needs to be 2 minutes of game-play in the game, and not just character-creation, or walking east for 1 minute & 45 seconds, followed by 15 seconds of combat :)

Group Work, Commenting:

You are required to work in groups for this assignment. If you have questions, please contact the instructor.

What to turn in:

Each group will hand in 1 copy of their work. We will go over this at the start of class, on the day this assignment is due.

How to electronically submit your homework:

Instructions to do this will be given in-class on the date that this assignment is due.