COMP 310 Spring 2019	Demo Day Instructions

At least one team member must be present during the entire Demo Day time period.  The staff will not run your game for you.   It if far better if all team members are present.

There will be multiple tables set up in the Demo Day location, holding 6-10 teams each.   The number of tables will be determined by the number of staff members that are available on Demo Day as each table will have one staff member.   Each table will be designated "A", "B", "C", etc.

Procedure:   

• Each team, including the staff, will take a turn at running their game server.  
• Everyone else at the table, including the game server's team, if they have a free laptop and/or they are able to simultaneously run a server and a client, will run their game client and connect to the game server to play the game.
  • Each table will use their table name, e.g. "TableX", as the discovery server category to make it easy to find just the currently running game server.
    • The discovery server is to be used ONLY for the initial connection by an unconnected client to another already-connected machine such as the game server. All subsequent connections to other machines should take place within the confines of the API processes.
• While the game is being played or immediately thereafter, each game client player will fill out the evaluation survey on the game (see below).
• The game will be played until a winner is established.

Game Evaluation Survey

The game evaluation survey is on-line in Canvas as a survey.   There is a survey dedicated to each table.  

• You will only be submitting the survey for your table!

• EVERYONE running a client submits a survey for that game!

  • Even the team running the game server is highly encouraged to run their client as well and fill out a survey submission.

  • Running multiple clients is allowed and encouraged, e.g. both members of a team should run their client and play the game as this will help reduce issues where something goes wrong on a single person's machine. 

• A survey is ALWAYS submitted for ALL games, even if everything is non-operational on either the client or the server side.   If something is non-operational, give it a zero rating.

  • Non-operational clients may be asked to not participate in a given game running.   Typically, the game will be attempted with as many clients as possible and a survey will be submitted.  If some clients just don't work, time permitting, the game will be attempted again without those clients and another survey submitted.

• You will be making one submission for each game that is evaluated.   You will be making multiple submissions to the same survey.

  • If a game is attempted more than once, a survey submission should be made for each attempt.

• The "client" team is ALWAYS your own team!

A new survey submission must be created for every game client player for every game that is played.

Submit your user manual as an attachment to the Piazza discussion thread for your table.

The Demo Day survey asks general, game-independent questions that cover issues such as, but not limited to:

• Game initialization
  • Connecting to the game server
  • Joining a team
  • Starting the game
  • Showing the map and other game controls
• Game operation
  • Operation of game controls
  • Map navigation and other controls
  • Game progression
  • Team collaboration
  • Mid-game notifications
  • Win/Lose execution and notification
• Quality of the user manual
• Comments on initialization, game play, server behavior, etc.

  Make sure your game is winnable in ~10 minutes!

Game server and client code will NOT be re-evaluated after Demo Day!!  Either your code runs on Demo Day or it doesn't -- fully testing your code with as many other people and as many people at once as possible is critical for success!!   Insufficient testing is the #1 reason for Demo Day failure.  

© 2019 by Stephen Wong