For this, our final project, you will work together in groups of 3 to write a game, or interactive ambient experience if you prefer to do without a storyline.
Working in groups is required. Aside from teaching you about graphics, one of the goals of this project is to give you experience working on software in groups. This is an important skill to acquire. While we recognize that there is a limit to how much you will really learn during a short project, we also believe that it will provide valuable experience.
You should begin by forming a group of 3 to work on the project together. Groups of 2 and 4 are also allowed, although we’d like to minimize the number of such groups. We also prefer 4-credit students only work with other 4-credit students, so as to properly equalize the amount of work people are doing. (Any 3-credit student working with 4-credit students will have to do 4 credits worth of work while only get 3 credits worth of credit.)
In order to maximize the time available to you to complete this project, it is due on the last day of classes. This means that demo periods for this project will be scheduled during the final exam period. In keeping with University rules, demos will be held only on exam days, not on reading days. If you would like to avoid the requirement to demo your project during the exam period, you may arrange to complete your project early and demo it prior to the end of the semester. Please contact the TA to make such arrangements.
We will be letting you define your own projects. Acceptable projects must conform to the following guidelines:
The scope of the project should be sufficient to warrant the work of 3 people over ~3 weeks. As a rule of thumb, your project should require 2-3 times as much work as previous projects.
At most 40% of the credit for the project can be features that were implemented in previous projects.
Those aspects of the project for which you’re graded must be computer graphics (e.g., not sound, AI, networking, etc.).
You should write up a description for your project and submit that in class on Thursday, November 17. Your project description should include:
All project proposals must be approved by the instructor.
Your proposal will form the basis for grading your final project. Therefore, it is essential that your feature descriptions be sufficiently specific that we can determine what constitutes successful completion of the project.
Hand-in procedures will work as before. However, only one member of your group should hand in your project.
Since this project is due on the last day of classes, we can NOT allow late hand-ins. You must complete and turn in your project by the due date.
All members of a group will generally receive the same grade. However, you will be asked to fill out an evaluation of your own work and the work of others in your group. We may use these evaluations to modulate the grades of individuals within a group.
As with all previous projects, this one will also be graded by demo. Unless there are unusual circumstances that make it impossible, we expect all group members to be present for the demo.