IMGD 4000 (D 08)

Group Project

A Technical Game

The goal of this project is to build a working game with one or more technical components.

Since the focus of this course is on the technical aspects of game development, the game does not necessarily have to look good or even have innovative game design, but it should be a (good) playable game and exhibit one or more technical characteristics as determined in the plan. Both "programmer art" and free art (see below) is acceptable for your game.

You will work in groups of 3 for this project. You should form these teams by the end of the first week of the course (Fri, Mar 14). Your team will need a name (which will not change, while the name of the game may change as it evolves).

Note for those who took IMGD 3000 this past fall:

There is no parallel art track course scheduled this term to work with.
With instructor's permission, you may extend the game your worked on in the fall for this project (but discuss this with the instructor before you hand in the pitch).

Milestones

Week	DayMilestone	Grade Contribution	Comments

1	Fri, Mar 14	The Team		3 or 4 people with name

2	Wed, Mar 19	*The Pitch ()**	10%	see below

	Fri, Mar 21	Feedback on Pitch		from instructor by email

3	Wed, Mar 26	*Development Plan ()**	20%	start building asap! (see below)

5	Fri, Apr 11	First Playable	20%	class demonstration

	Sun, Apr 13	*Updated Development Plan ()**

	Fri, Apr 18	Feature Freeze

7	Wed, Apr 23	Web Page	10%	Preliminary version to demonstrate successful Java Web Start.

8	Mon, Apr 28	Final Presentation	40%	Demonstrate from Java Web Start executable on web page.

(*) Due at midnight via Web Turn-In.

The Pitch

Between Fri, Mar 14 and Wed, Mar 19, your team should meet at least two or three times to work out the basic concept(s) for your game. The first and most important ingredient for the success of your game will be your passion for what you have chosen to do. (The second most important ingredient is a good Development Plan.) By midnight Wed, you should together have authored a brief (one full page) document with the following sections, which makes the "pitch" for your project:

Team Name
Team Members: Names and email addresses for each.
Working Game Name
One Sentence Description: This is your "elevator" sentence. It really helps to focus what the game is about. For example, "you draw a crayon diagram and it comes alive with real physics" (IGF student competion winner 2008).
One Paragraph Description: Expand on single sentence above with more details, including genre (e.g., casual game), novel features (not required, but nice to have), etc.
Technical Focus: Here is where you directly address the goals of the course. You should pick one or two technical areas in which you expect your game to be evaluated. Examples of areas include: physics, AI, networking and graphics. If you can be more specific in terms of a sub-area within an area (e.g., dynamic camera control) that's even better. The technical focus will be further elaborated in the Development Plan
Note that this is the "management by objectives" approach. You set your own objectives and then are evaluated by how well you meet them. Be realistic! (It's only seven weeks.)

Feel free to discuss your ideas with the instructor before the pitch is due. You will have feedback on the document you submit by the end of the week (by email), so you can start working on the Development Plan over the weekend.

Development Plan

The development plan, due midnight Wed, Mar 26, is an extremely important part of your project (and not just because it is worth 20% of the grade :-). A well thought out development plan is the key to a successful project. It should be at least two or three pages and can be as long as you find useful. It should contain the following sections (notice that the one-sentence and one-paragraph description from the pitch are repeated, because they may very likely change once you realize what you need to do):

Team Name
Working Game Name
One Sentence Description
One Paragraph Description
Implementation Details: including
- Game engine (C4 or jME unless special permission)
- Other frameworks or libraries (e.g., physics engine)
- Previous work (art, code, story, music, etc.) to be used.
Role Assignments
- Leader - calls meetings, checks progress according to schedule. Adjusts schedule accordingly.
- Scribe - takes notes during meetings, maintains Web pages and other documentation (note, does not have to write everything, but coordinates writing). There should be a "to do" list after each meeting
The role assignments should rotate at least once during the term!
Schedule: The development schedule should include milestones with dates and distribution of tasks to team members (all team members must do something technical). Use the schedule for your planning; refer to the schedule and update it at each meeting!

First Playable

The first playable game prototype, demonstrated in class on Fri, Apr 11, will:

Allow a player to interact with the game, i.e., experience core gameplay.
Have completed the technical components that are the focus of the game, minus final testing, i.e., there still may be some modest bugs.

Web Page

By midnight, Weds, April 23, you will have created a publicly available (within WPI) web page (e.g,. on toaster) for your game. A sample web page has been provided at http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~rich/imgd4000/courses/projects/sample. Notice that, if Java Web Start is installed on the machine you are using (it is part of the currrent default Java installation), simply clicking on the "Executable" link will automatically load all the needed jME files (including natives) and start the sample game (Hello Chess).

N.B. The main purpose of this deadline is to shake down the process of making a Java Web Start executable for your final project (see below). The Technical Discussion section does not need to be completed until the time of the Final Presentation.

Your page should contain the same elements (though you may exercise your artistic creativity to make it look nicer :-). All the project web pages will be gathered together after the end of the course to make a gallery similar to last year's course.

Making an Java Web Start executable:

Download the sample.jnlp file by right-clicking on the "Executable" link on the sample web page and selecting 'Save (Link) As'.
Modify the following elements and attributes appropriately to match your project:
- <title> element
- <description> element
- <vendor> element
- main-class attribute of <application-desc> element
- href attribute of <jar> element
Create a jar file which contains all of the class files and resources necessary to run your project, but not including jME.
Create a key to sign your jar using the Java keytool utility, e.g.,
```
keytool -genkey -alias imgd4000
```
(If you don't yet have a keystore, you should automatically be prompted to create one.)
Sign your project jar file using the Java jarsigner utility, e.g.,
```
jarsigner sample.jar imgd4000
```

Final Presentations

Final presentations will take place on Mon and Tues, Apr 28 and 29. The final version of the game executed from the project web page and will:

Have all of the required features of the design implemented.
Be tested thoroughly to eliminate any critical gameplay flaws and bugs.
May still contain a certain amount of placeholder assets.
Should exhibit at least one level designed and tested.

You do not need to prepare any additional graphical aids for your final presentation, other than the web page described above. Use the Technical Discussion section of this web page as a visual aid for discussing the three areas covered in this section.

Free Art Resources

Below are some useful sources of free textures and 3D models to use in your game. Even though these are free and your game in this course is not being evaluated on artistic grounds, it is a courtesy to acknowledge the author of any free assets you use.

http://www.3d-resources.com
http://www.cgtextures.com
http://planetpixelemporium.com
http://www.the3dstudio.com
http://www.turbosquid.com
http://www.daz3d.com
http://www.quality3dmodels.com

There is also a useful game resources page at the jME site.