Computational Literacies Lab

14. Games Project Progress

Week 14 (November 24)

Working on our game projects. A livecoding example.

Week 14

  • Admin
    • Project Planning - due this week in your Journal
    • Just get started, reach out if you need help thinking through your project
    • Look below for the project overview - NOT makingwithcode.org
  • Live coding example
  • Reminders
    • Project Due on December 7
    • Look at bottom of the page for assessment information
    • Final accepted submission date December 14

Games Project Overview

Use retro to create a game! Refer to the documentation.

Proposal

Before you start coding, it's important to plan out what exactly you're going to make.

✏️ In your journal, plan for your games project. It should include the following sections:

  • team
  • game overview
  • core mechanics
  • milestone
  • challenges

If you already submitted your proposal via the README.md file, that is sufficient.

Team

You can complete your game project individually or in a group. (You're expected to do the same amount of work whether you're working individually or in a group, so our expectations for group projects are higher.)

Game overview

What is the name of your game? Then, answer each of the following in one or two sentences:

  • Describe your vision for your game: What makes it original, fun, compelling, moving? What makes it worth making?
  • What will your game look like?
  • How will the player interact with the game?

Core mechanics

Describe 1-4 core mechanics of your game. A game mechanic is a feature or structure of a game; a core mechanic is one which is essential to your game. For example, capturing pieces is a core mechanic of chess; purchasing properties and then charging rent on them is a core mechanic of Monopoly.

Milestone

Describe a first step in your game development, which you're pretty sure you will be able to achieve. This will be your first target.

Challenges

Are there parts of your game which you don't know how to implement yet?

Assessment

  • Submit your work using mwc submit a least three times. Your commit messages should show an ongoing process of reflection as you work. If mwc submit is not working, just write your messages in your journal.
  • Meaningful reflection in your journal including responses to the following prompts:
    • Describe a moment in your game development that you successfully debugged a meaningful issue. What was the bug? How did you overcome it?
    • Why or why not were your successful in creating your proposed game?
    • How have you developed as a computer scientists throughout this project?
    • What tips would you have to your future students for the retro library and game making?