The main project in CMSC 209 is to create a learning game. During the first 6 weeks, you will be building a game engine in Java. This game engine has limitations because it is unreasonable to ask you to create a fully-functional game engine in just 6 weeks (for you to then customize to your application for the final 4 weeks). Because of these limitations, there are two critical design decisions we have made about the project.

• You are not required to use the game engine. You are required to make a game. But if you want to develop your game in a different technology, that is up to you. However, you must do the first 6 weeks with everyone to make the Java-based game engine. Any alternate design needs to be approved by the instructor.
• You will design two games - one that is an ideal game that you would create if you had an infinite programming budget and another that is a bare-bones version that is reasonable to complete by the end of this course (and assuming the limitations of the game engine).

In order to stay on track, there are milestones with both game engine implementation and game design. The labs themselves specify milestones for the game engine, so we will not focus on those in this document. Instead, we will focus on the design elements.

• Week 2 (10/10): User Profile - you will create a mythical user who is your design target for your game. See assignment for more details.
• Week 5 (10/26): Basic Design - Sketch out the design of your ideal game. See assignment for more details.
• Week 8 (11/16): Finalized MVP - Finalize your MVP and bring to lab for a final okay from instructors.
• Week 10 (11/29): Flash Talk - 4-minute presentation about your game.
• Week 11 (12/7): Final Project Design Document
• Week 11 (12/7): Game Demo in lab.