Spring 2005

Final Project Review Document

Format the document in HTML, link it into your group web page, and email me, Karen, and Allen with the URL. Think in terms of 4 pages, but you can write more if you would like to (you can seen what other groups have done in the past).

The hard part of the course is over with, and now there is just one more thing to do: Write a project review document. The purpose of this document is to summarize the software design and implementation process that you experienced throughout the quarter. Prepare the final project review document as a group, but you are also welcome to make points individually -- just add it to the group message and annotate appropriately.

At the beginning of the class, you wrote a game concept document, a project design specification, and a schedule for completing the project. These were all projections looking forward. Now that the class is ending, you can look back and compare what actually happened with what you planned.

A. In the project review document, start by addressing these main questions:

1. Game concept: How and why did your game concept change from initial concept to what you implemented?
2. Design: How does your final project design compare to the initial design, and what are the reasons for the differences, if any?
3. Schedule: How does your final schedule compare with your projected schedule, and what are the reasons for the differences, if any? (You should be able to glean this from your status reports.)

B. Then address these more general questions:

1. What software methodology and group mechanics decisions worked out well, and which ones did not? Why?
2. What aspects of the implementation were more difficult than you expected, and which were easier? Why?
3. In implementing your project, you relied upon a number of tools, from the DirectX libraries to modeling software. Do you see the opportunity and need for new libraries and/or tools that would make project development easier?
4. For those who used a game engine, would you use it again if you were starting over knowing what you know now? Do you think the restrictions on what to use from a game engine are reasonable? For those who did not use a game engine, judging from the experience of groups that did, would you rather have used one?
5. Looking back over the past 10 weeks, how would you do things differently, and what would you do again in the same situation?
6. Which courses at UCSD do you think best prepared you for CSE 125?
7. What was the most important thing that you learned in the class?

C. Finally, if you wish, I would like you to provide optional feedback on the course:

1. What books did you find helpful that were not on the recommended list but should be? What books were on the recommended list but were not useful and should be removed?
2. I will be teaching this course next Spring. What advice/tips/suggestions would you give students who will take the course next year?
3. How can the course be improved for next year?
4. Was the X-Box a distraction?