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 demonstrate 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 demonstrate a partially operational game. It does not have to completely work, but it must demonstrate that your team has spent between 10-20 hours working on the game.
If possible, you should demonstrate your working game prototype in discussion section the week the game prototype is due. If you are unable to demonstrate your game (you do not have a laptop), please use the following instructions to submit your game prototype:
Details on how game prototypes will be evaluated is given here.