back

Weekly Games

Every week, students will be expected to create a small game which meditates/elaborates on a given theme, idea, or mechanic (to be provided).

Evaluation

Any game turned in on time that (on a weh5336 machine) compiles, runs, and provides a rudimentary gameplay experience consistent with the theme will receive one point. Any game that is novel and feels well thought-out will receive one additional point (for a total of two points). A few games may recieve up to one bonus point for being exceptional -- in freshness, in technical merit, or in interpretation of the theme.

Note: Two points on a game is a good score, more than two points is an exceptional occurance. I expect to grant a very few threes, if any.

Deadlines

I've decided to leave turn-in folders writable. I ask, respectfully, that you respect the deadlines I have set; please inform me if you are turning in a game late.

(lack of) Late Days

There are no late days for weekly games. However, students may neglect to submit one weekly game at no penalty.

Collaboration

As long as you turn in your own game, you may work with others (both within the class and without); but give credit where credit is due.

If you want to turn in a group game (that is, one game for a group of 2-4 people), you'll need to make sure that everyone in the group contributes and learns. I also require each group member have a 5-10 minute face-to-face chat with me after finishing the game. (This is both a sanity check and a slight deterrent.) Oh, and you'll also still need to use git.

Deliverables

Your turn-in folder should contain three files:

1. Artist's Statement - statement.html

Write down, in simple html, your goals and thoughts during game creation. To do so, fill-in this example.

2. GIT Repository & Source - your_game_name_here.tar.gz

To document the process of writing your game code, please use the git version control system, and turn in a complete copy of the repository. (Since git stores a complete history in its .git directory, just tar that up with your source files.) Make sure to commit frequently and leave meaningful log messages.

3. Screenshot - shot.png

In order to make adding games to the web page easier, I'd like you to take a screenshot of your game (sans window chrome). On linux, `sleep 5; import shot.png` will wait five seconds, then present a crosshair mouse cursor, then save a screenshot of the window you click on to 'shot.png'.

Example

kitten-loss.tar.gz

kitten.html (my statement.html)

Turn-in Process

Turn-in folders are located on AFS:

/afs/cs.cmu.edu/academic/class/15466-f09/gameN-name/yourid

These directories will remain writable by you even after the deadline. I place upon you the burden of trust: don't turn in or update your game after the deadline.

If You Can't Seem To Access Your Turn-in Space: you may need cross-realm authentication tokens. Run `aklog cs.cmu.edu`. You will need to do this every time you want to use the afs space.