Technical Prototype

Your second presentation is your technical prototype. Unlike the gameplay prototype, the technical prototype should be an “evolutionary” prototype. The code that you demonstrate for this prototype should find its way back into your final project. That means that a useful thing to have for this prototype would be (nearly) completed character controls with a few challenges to overcome.

Ideally, you would like your technical prototype to be a solution to a particular problem unique to your game. You should not be able to get away with copying code from the labs (copy code is fine, but it is not the only thing you should do). For example, if your technical prototype shows off the physics, what were the unique challenges that you ran into when designing the physics that differed from lab 4. Is there a graphicalchallenge that you are trying to solve, such as modeling water? Whatever it is, pick something and make it the centerpiece of your presentation.

And remember, this prototype must be in LibGDX.

Table of Contents

Presentation Format

As with the last prototype, your class presentation will consist of two parts. In addition to the software prototype, we are also expecting a (short) presentation from the designers on your team. As designers tend to be left out before alpha (which is the first time teams use assets in earnest), we want to see what they are working on.

Software Prototype

This time, we will have more breathing room, with about roughly 18 minutes per group, per presentation. We want the bulk of this time (8-10 minutes) to be devoted to showing off the software prototype. We want this presentation to be a bit more interactive than the last one, as we will reserve a lot of that time for questions from the TAs and the audience. As part of your presentation, you should be prepared to answer the following questions:

  • What is the technical challenge being addressed by this prototype?
  • What is unique about your game that required new, custom software?
  • Are there any other technical solutions that might have worked?
  • Why did you pick this solution over the others?
  • What are your plans for the alpha release?

Design Ideas

Your designers should spend no more than 3 minutes of the remaining time with their presentation. For this presentation, we want to see more concrete examples of assets for your game. This can include any or even all of the following:

There are no strict requirements for the designers. We simply want to see early concept art about the game. The presentation can include any or even all of the following.

  • Basic animations (rough sketches)
  • Basic environment assets
  • Background assets
  • Game screen mockups

You will note that this is very similar to what we asked for in the design specification. The difference there was that you included these assets in a slide presentation. This time, we really want to see the assets themselves. In particularly, you should talk about the file formats chosen, the resolution size, and why you made these decisions. If you have an animation, you should show off the animation in action (as a GIF or otherwise).

Keep in mind that you only have 18 minutes per group including the prototype presentation. Do not just display your design specification on screen.. We want a tighter, more focused presentation.

Presentation Schedule

As you can see from looking at the calendar, this presentation will take place over two days: the Monday and the Tuesday sections. This is intended to give you enough time to present and answer questions. With that said, we must start on time. We had problems with this and the gameplay prototype.

Because of the room issue with Snee, the Tuesday section will meet entirely in Uris CL3. This room has the fire-code capacity to hold everyone. However, we cannot guarantee chairs for everyone, so some of you may sit on the floor (though we will add more than are there now). Please do not hold a seat if you are presenting.

So that you are prepared, the presentation schedule is as follows:

Monday (March 21)

  • Escape From Troy (ID: Kye T)
  • Fool’s Gold (Golden Ticket Games)
  • CupDrakes (Square 0)
  • Salvage (OX Studios)
  • Grow Crazy (Sprout Studios)
  • Symbiosis (Angry Hedgehog Studios)

Tuesday (March 22)

Section 201 (11:20-12:10)
  • Cephalonaut (Lil Big Games)
  • Nomster Truck (Hextra Studios)
  • Plume (Beluga Studio)
Section 202 (12:25-1:15)
  • Molechelin Descent (JIMIRIJC)
  • Raft of Theseus (Capybara Studios)
  • Disco Dale (Niner)

Submission

Due: Sat, Mar 26 at 11:59 PM

As before, you are not submitting any software to CMS. Instead, we want you to create a release in your Git repository. Your release should *not be a an IntelliJ project. We want a self-contained playable JAR file.

In addition, you should not forget to turn in your second two week report. This will allow us to see how you are organizing you time, and make suggestions for future milestones. Remember to address any issues that we pointed out in your previous report.