Two strong human tendencies frequently combine forces to produce disastrous effects in student projects: procrastination, and underestimating the scope of a project. With procrastination, students wait too long to begin work on a project, and hence it is very late in the game before they realize their estimate of work required is too optimistic.

The goal of this project phase is to require teams to begin work on their project, and hand in a partially operational game prototype weeks before the final project is due. In this way, teams develop a better understanding of the work required to complete their project, and surface implementation issues early, while there is still time to get help. Additionally, it is possible that, if the game is completed early, teams can do more extensive playtesting and tune the gameplay.

Each team is required to submit a partially operational game. It does not have to completely work, but it must demonstrate that your team has spent between 5-10 hours working on the game.

Please use the following instructions to submit your game prototype:

• Submit a CDROM or USB drive with the following:
  • Your .gmk (Game Maker) file
  • Your game as an executable .exe file
  • All other associated files needed to run the game (if needed)
  • A PDF or Word document with your game's instruction manual (details below)
  • The CDROM or USB drive should be labeled with the name of the game, the name of the group, and the name of the individual team members (for USB drives, this can be accomplished by taping a piece of paper to the drive)

Details on how game prototypes will be evaluated are given here.

Due date: September 23, 2009