COMP 160 Arcade Game Project Specification

Each student will implement a 2D arcade game of their own design in C#. Think along the lines of Pac-Man, Centipede, Asteroids, Tetris, Defender, Lode Runner, or Robotron 2084.

Be creative! There are only a few hard requirements for your game's features.

• It is real-time, as opposed to strictly turn-based, so parts of the game are constantly moving or changing.
• You have to control part of the game, such as a player or ship.
• There is state, such as a score or number of lives remaining, being updated aside from just things moving around.
• It has a GUI for such state, the game itself, plus things like a menu to start a new game or exit.
• It uses the Xbox controller.
• It makes sounds.

Be adventurous! We love to see really great designs. Your design can potentially grow into the larger design project at the end of the course or a COMP 460 project. (However, if you want to copy an existing game. That is also acceptable.)

Be realistic. You only have about five weeks for this project. Don't overdesign and underimplement. Be sure it works!

There are four deadlines:

1. A pitch sheet — A one page description of your game's concept, plus rough artwork to illustrate the idea. Links to YouTube videos of similar games are also useful. Here are two samples: QuillLord (a COMP 460 project), A silly example from Pi Studios.

   Due Thursday, Oct 15, but we highly recommend that you informally describe your idea to us before then.

2. Main control scheme — What this means will vary by game, but the key idea is that you can move your "player" around a static world. Using Pac-Man as an example, you can move around a toroidal maze, can't go through walls, but don't have to "eat" or have any ghosts running around.

   Prior to this deadline, you should discuss with us what would be expected for your game.

   Due Monday, Oct 26.

3. Interactivity — What this means will vary by game, but the key idea is that you can interact with other entities, both static and dynamic. Using Pac-Man as an example, you should be able to "eat" the dots and power pellets in the maze and eat or be eaten by the ghosts running around.

   Again, prior to this deadline, you should discuss with us what would be expected for your game.

   Due Monday, Nov 9.

4. Everything — Present your demo during lab.

   Due Monday, Nov 16.

You will need to primarily work on your game outside of class. There will be a limited amount of time during class/lab to work on it, and much of that would best be used by getting feedback from others on your game design.