679-08 | GameProject / GamePlans

Update: Plans should go into the each group's pagegroup. Ask the TA if you are having problems with this.

Game Plans

With all of the proposals discussed, and the critiques available, teams can choose to build any of the games proposed (each team must pick either one of the 7 proposals, or to build the "Photo Tourist" game from the example proposal). A team is welcomed to build a proposal even if they weren't the ones to propose it. Each team must make its decision as to which game it will build by Tuesday, April 8th, and send email to the TA and instructor.

Each team will prepare a written document describing the game they intend to build. The purpose is to force your group to work together to agree on what to do, and how to do it.

On Friday, April 11th (during the class time slot), each group will meet with the professor and TA to discuss their plan and to get "approval" to proceed.

You may not do any coding until your plan has been approved.
We do not have any way to enforce this, however, we hope you will comply. The idea is that this initial week is spent planning.

In order to make this meeting effective, your team must provide the planning document to the TA and Instructor by 9am on April 11th. You should put the plan on a Wiki page (in your group's pagegroup), and send email to the TA and instructor with a pointer to it. Only one plan (and one email) should be created for each team.

The plan should contain (at least) all of the information included in the original proposal. The plan should also address the following topics:

Response to Critiques: What criticism did the original design get, and how did it affect your final proposal. Note: you might respond to positive as well as negative feedback.
Tools Choices: What tools do you plan to use to implement the project (note: you might change these choices later - but for now, you should have an idea of what to try first)
Division of Labor: How do you propose to divide the effort of building the game amongst the members of your team?
Milestones: What milestones do you see along the way of building the game? Describe what you expect to have done at the 1 week, 2 week and 3 week marks (these are the "signs of life," "tech demo," and "play test" milestones).
Risks: What are the biggest unknowns or risks facing the project that jepordize its chances of success?

You might also want to work out block diagrams, module specifications, concept sketches, ... - basically, the more thinking you do about what your project will be and how you will do it, the more likely you are to make good progress. Please include as much of these details as you can.

At this point, the key is to have a plausible plan. One that, if followed, would lead to the right outcomes. We want to make sure that there is at least one path to success, and that you know it. If you end up changing the plan and succeeding in a different way, that's OK.

As the project proceeds, make sure that you consult your plan. If you are making major departures from it, please let the instructor and TA know. For example, we don't want you to scale back your project too much (so that it isn't interesting), or if you're really stumbling on something, maybe we will have some ideas.