Final Project

Objectives

• Create a full game from scratch using either LÖVE or Unity.

Milestones

How to Get Help

1. Ask questions on Ed
2. Attend office hours
3. Email your teaching fellow!

From Start to Finish

It’s time to begin the course’s culmination: your final project! While most of the course thus far has been a series of assignments centered around adding features to existing code bases, this project will take place from the first line of code to the last, a true end-to-end experience to help tie everything we’ve learned together thus far.

Specification

1. Your game must be in either LÖVE or Unity. If you choose LÖVE, your project must be built and tested using LÖVE 11.5. If you choose Unity, your project must be built and tested using LTS Release 2018.4.28f1, LTS Release 2022.3.22f1, OR Unity 6 Release 6000.0.27f1.
2. Your game must be a cohesive start-to-finish experience for the user; the game should boot up, allow the user to play toward some end goal, and feature a means of quitting the game.
3. Your game should have at least three GameStates to separate the flow of your game’s user experience, even if it’s as simple as a StartState, a PlayState, and an EndState, though you’re encouraged to implement more as needed to suit a more robust game experience (e.g., a fantasy game with a MenuState or even a separate CombatState).
4. Your game can be most any genre you’d like, though there needs to be a definitive way of winning (or at least scoring indefinitely) and losing the game, be it against the computer or another player. This can take many forms; some loss conditions could be running out of time in a puzzle game, being slain by monsters in an RPG, and so on, while some winning conditions may be defeating a final boss in an RPG, making it to the end of a series of levels in a platformer, and tallying score in a puzzle game until it becomes impossible to do more.
5. You are allowed to use libraries and assets in either game development environment, but the bulk of your game’s logic must be handwritten (i.e., putting together an RPG in Unity while using a UI library would be considered valid, assuming the bulk of the game logic is also not implemented in a library, but recycling a near-complete game prototype from Unity’s asset store with slightly changed labels, materials, etc. would not be acceptable).
6. Your project must be at least as complex as (and distinct from!) the games you’ve implemented in this course, and should really be moreso. Submissions of low complexity may be rejected by your teaching fellow during the proposal stage. Think things through thoroughly!
7. In a README file (whose extension can be .txt, .md, .adoc, or .pdf) in your project’s main directory, include a full write-up describing your project, what’s contained in each file you created, why you made certain design decisions, and any other additional information the staff should know about your project. This document should be sufficiently thorough for your teaching fellow to run your project without any need to contact you further with questions. Make sure you include mention of the precise version of LÖVE or Unity you used to create and test this project. Take your time, and do not save this step for last. A well-written and complete README file will take longer than you think it will.

Proposal

Before you begin working on your game, the proposal is an opportunity for you to run your idea or ideas by the teaching staff.

Your project must be at least as complex as (and distinct from!) the games you’ve implemented in this course, and should really be moreso. Proposals appearing to be of low complexity may be rejected.

Your teaching fellow may approve your project, or request modifications. You may begin working on your final project immediately, but know that your teaching fellow may request changes to ensure your project is of sufficient scope. Feel free to use the proposal as an opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the final project as well.

Complete the below no later than 2024-11-24T23:59:00-05:00:

1. Go to CSCI E-23a’s Gradescope page.
2. Click Final Project: Proposal.
3. Complete the questions there and submit.

You should see a message that your proposal was submitted successfully. Contact your teaching fellow if not!

Status Report

Complete the below no later than 2024-12-08T23:59:00-05:00:

1. Go to CSCI E-23a’s Gradescope page.
2. Click Final Project: Status Report.
3. Complete the questions there and submit.

You should see a message that your status report was submitted successfully. Contact your teaching fellow if not!

Implementation

The deadline for completing the below steps is 2024-12-15T23:59:00-05:00:

How to Submit

Step 1 of 2

1. Download the README.md template.
2. Fill out all TODO entries in the template as appropriate, and mark a self-assessment of your design score. Then, save your README.md file.
3. Go to CSCI E-23a’s Gradescope page.
4. Click Final Project: Implementation.
5. Drag and drop your downloaded README.md file to the area that says “Drag & Drop”.
6. Click Upload.

Step 2 of 2

1. Download a ZIP file of your final project directory, containing your implementation of this project.
2. Upload your submission via our Dropbox file request for this project.
3. Click Add files, then Files from your computer and select your previously downloaded file.
4. Click Upload.

You should see a message that your file finished uploading and that we were notified of your uploaded files. Contact your teaching fellow if not!