CIS 4002: Advanced Projects in Computer Game Design

Project Requirements

We have several requirements for the game you will be making in CIS 4002. The primary purpose of these requirements are intended to ensure that you are growing as a game developer, and that your are not just making another CIS 3000-level game. For many of you, your CIS 4002 game will determine whether you are able to get a job in the industry, and so you want to make this project "count".


1. Your game must include at least one of the following features:

  • networking
  • 3D graphics
  • advanced AI
  • C++ game engine
  • unusual control (e.g. WiiMote, iPhone)

Why: In CIS 4002 we want you to make a sufficiently more difficult game than than the one that you made in CIS 3000. All of these features (with the exception of WiiMote usage) were specifically prohibited from CIS 3000 because of their level of difficulty. While we will not give any lectures on these topics, we will provide you on reading material covering each of them, and we recommend them as topics for the discussion classes.

Exceptions: All of the above are technical programming challenges. If you can come up with a game design challenge (e.g. game story, experimental gameplay) that we consider "suitably interesting", then we will accept that as well. Approval for this substitution must be received before concept document submission.


2. Your game should be designed for distribution through a public venue.

Why: While games are posted on the GDIAC site, you need to get experience in serious self-promotion of your game; that is the only way that anyone will ever play your game. Examples of public venues (depending on your release platform) include:

If you find other avenues as well, those are acceptable.

Exceptions: You do not actually have to submit the game to that venue at the end of the semester, if you decide to "chicken" out. However, actual distribution will greatly improve your grade.


3. Your game (graphics, sound, music and all) must be less than 100 MB when zipped.

Why: We don't want your game to be so bloated that nobody will bother to download it. Also, if your game starts becoming large, that often indicates a problem with the way you are managing your game's resources, and we want to catch problems as early as possible.

Exceptions: If you think you need more than 100 MB for your game, you must talk with us about it. If you can convince us that you're right, we'll make an exception, otherwise we will tell you how to be less wasteful. We'll be reasonable; we don't want to limit what you can do with your game. (We are especially likely to grant exceptions for music, but you still must ask.)


4. Your game must not run slower than 60 frames per second (in Release mode).

Why: If your game runs slower than this on whatever computer you're using, you are probably doing something wrong.

Exceptions: 60 FPS is more of a goal for you than a hard requirement, but if it often drops below 55 or so and you're not sure how to fix it, then you should ask us and we'll give advice on how to speed up your game.


5. You must have a readme file with your game that describes how to play, what all of the controls are, what the game's basic concept is, and which people contibuted to making it.

Why: We don't enjoy trying every button on the keyboard just to find out how to play your game, and neither will anyone else who tries to play it. Some people do actually read readme's...

Exceptions: Instead of a readme file, you may put this information inside the game itself, if it's easily accessible upon starting the game. In fact, we encourage you to go beyond merely telling us the controls, and actually make them user-configurable in-game (which is a big plus, although not required).


6. Your game must be original, and it must not be directly based upon previous work.

Why: As with CIS 3000, this is a course about designing games, so if you come in with a game that's already designed or steal someone else's, something is wrong. Hopefully you will be excited to come up with new ideas and this won't be an issue.

Exceptions: None. But, this requirement refers to your game as a whole and your game's design; It's still okay for you to borrow code/art/sound/whatever from previous things you've done or even from labs/demos or anything anyone else has done (within the limits of legality) as long as your game itself is original, not a complete rip-off, and contains a sufficient amount of work from each group member.


7. Your game must be fun to play and contain a reasonable amount of content.

Why: Despite how subjective the word "fun" is, this is the entire point of making a game, so at the very least you should be able to enjoy it and have a sense of why others might enjoy it. Also, a game that is not finished tends not to be fun, so if your game ends up being incomplete, the parts you did complete had better be good.

Exceptions: Nope. This is an expectation we have of your game, even if we can't technically require such an intangible thing.


Those are the main requirements. Your grade will be affected if you fail to meet any of them without permission to do otherwise. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the course staff.