Final Blog for Engineering 253

Okay, so this is the final week of Engineering 253: Design and Communication II. The format for this week is to write a few paragraphs on what we accomplished this week and what we thought. So, this week we started off with us putting the finishing touches on our games and then they were marked individually by Dennis. This didn't go so well I dont think, He didnt look very impressed. We also worked on our final reports for the Mustard Seed project and started to put the finishing touches on our logbooks. This led us all to Thursday, which was the Open House for this project.

The Open House consisted of every great piece of Engineering work form 253 right up to 3rd and 4th year projects. Our lab group had Jamie, Julia, and Jovana showcasing our project to the many people who felt like looking, and more specifically, the Engg 253 co-ordinators and the Mustard Seed Representatives. The Open House didnt really go over that well either, I dont think that the Mustard Seed really appreciated the idea of a computer game to help the homeless and it looked as though they felt that they had to be there more than wanted too. Anyway, I hope they didnt think too badly of us, seeing as how we actually did try really hard on this project.

Friday was a pretty lazy day considering it was BSD and I think many instructors were surprised at how many of us showed up. This was our time to finish up our logbooks early to hand them in early so that we could study all weekend. We all accomplished the PM reflection and put the table of contents into our logbooks.

Project Management Reflection:

Compared to the PM team that was used in the RGM project, we as a group feel that this method was much more successful. Because a member of each team was on the committee, ideas were relayed with efficiency and work packets were distributed effectively. This prevented a big scurry like the RGM project, we had a nice flow and the project came together with ease. We met all our deadlines resulting in a huge relief off our chest. Everybody in the PM team felt they knew exactly what was going on in the lab, which is an excellent thing. All grade A amazing members who we could almost trust our lives with, great team, beautiful people. Although we did feel this project was a bit restrained, even thou major measures were put in place as to do the exact opposite. We were using freeware off the Internet.


This week in lab we accomplished quite a lot. Both the poster and design manual were completed with time to spare leaving us plenty of time to prepare for the open house. As a lab we feel the open hose went very well and the product we were presenting was very strong. All the feed back we have received about the open house and our final game has been very positive, reaffirming our confidence in the quality of our work. Also this week, Denis and company marked our projects on a table to table basis and it seems to have gone very well.

From our perspective there isn’t a lot we would have changed about the execution of this project. All groups worked very well together, and the timeline put in place by the project management was followed almost flawlessly resulting in a timely and successful completion of aspects the video game. Great time overall.

White lab A Final Blog

The final product of the mustard seed project was compiled this week and final testing and changes were made in order to make it have the least amount of errors possible. The computer sprites in some of the games needed to be changed to become more professional and some other games needed code changes to stop freezing or control errors. The board games were also altered during this time to appear more professional.

Preparation for the open house was also done this week. The poster was made by Gerry, Rachel and Connor while Shaun and Colin worked on finalizing the computer games. Kyle and Josh worked on making a presentation for the open house and organized the games to bring to the event.

In the final lab everyone sorted through assignments to fill their portfolios and continued working on the final reports that are due on monday. All lab pieces were found and accounted for and everyone shook hands as they parted ways. Overall their was a good experience of group work and community in our lab and everyone will be missed.

It is done! This week all tables finished their levels, and the final game was made! The design manuals were printed as was the poster ... Huzzah!! The surprise presentations held during the long lab this week were not much appreciated by the students. No-one was certain what was expected in the presentations, nor on what the marking guides were... was there ever any information posted on this?? But we somehow, just somehow, managed to get trough it.

Then came the Open House. Dressed very professionally, and might I say very sexy, Michael Mund and Arpad Soos were left in charge of manning the tables. Accompanying them were some members of the lab, and their presence was much welcome. Although some passersby, and other students stopped to marvel at our amazing poster, and try a shot at our game (which we were told was awesome!) , it was pretty much a dull morning. The presentations themselves weren't too exciting either ... we didn't get any feedback from the Mustard Seed or the lab coach. All in all, it was quite uneventful.

Although our final project was what could be expected with the time limit, available program, and experience, some simple changes could be made. First of all, a better "start-up" screen for the game, could have been created. Although it had been decided upon to create a splash-screen where the player could choose what level they wanted to play, this , for some strange reason, was not created. Another change that could be made would be to make each level more similar. Although there were many aspects of the game that resembled one another from level to level, it was clearly seen that the game had been created by separate teams/people. A final change could have been to make the games easier. Some of the levels were found to be quite difficult to beat, so simplifying them would have made for a better overall final game.h

White Lab D friday april 9

White lab D this week

- The PM committee is approaching completion for the open house poster

- Each Table completed their part of the video game and the process of interconnection via a hub world has begun

- Certain individuals were chosen to represent the lab at the open house on the 15^th

- The PM committee started discussion as to how we will approach the open house and made some progress on the design Manual

- Mark, Devon and Mark made a phenomenal blog

Goals for next week

- Finish Hub World and have all games attached and working.

- Present each game in its glory

- Finish Poster and prepare for the open house

- Have open house presentation ready

- Make Friday a blur

A1 Accomplishments:
- Integrated the mastermind game with the lab's game menu.
- Fixed a couple of glitches caused by the integration of the game.
- Created a visually-appealing button that links the general menu with the mastermind game
- Purchased the needed materials for the board-game of lines and dots
- Started to work on lines and dots

A1 Goals:
- Create an instructions booklet
- Prepare the oral presentation
- Finish the two remaining games.

A2 Accomplishments:

- Programmed instructions for computer game and physical game

- Tested computer game and made changes accordingly

- Finished menu system

- Started final testing on physical game

- Integrated main game into main package

A2 Goals:

- Work on presentation poster for thursday

- Finish final report

- Finish testing

A3 Accomplishments:
-Put scoring system in games for group
-Finalized games for group
-Amended contract for penalties to late games for integration
-Integrated 4 games into the final package for the final product
-Menu+menu graphics completed

A3 Goals:
-Receive and integrate remaining games
-Follow up on contract amendment + apply penalties as necessary
-Polish finished project

A4 Accomplishments:

- Finished computer based game

- Completed board game

- Bought materials to make board for board game and spin piece

- Made board game pieces

- Tested computer game and made changes accordingly

A4 Goals:

- Work on final report

- Make design manual for lab

- Finish assembling final product for board game

A5 Accomplishments:

- Completed the final draft of the game

- Had a teem meeting to discuss progress

- Team members creating the game met twice to work out all of the kinks

- Final report was started

- Work packages were adjusted

A5 Goals:

- Have the rough draft of the final report done by Tuesday

- Help out wherever else is needed

- Help work on the poster for the open house

A6 Accomplishments:

- Completed animal chess game on game maker

- Integrated animal chess with PM team

- Finished making the board for the gear game

A6 Goals:

- Finish gear game

- Make final report

A9 Achievements:
- Finished the tutorial section of the game
- Worked on graphics of the game
- Integrated the individual parts of the game into a group game
- Created M.C.Q.S related to time management and organization
- Went through the errors in functionality requirement report

A9 Goals:
- Fix the errors in the game, Add sound and time options
- Integrate the game with lab
- Finish final report

Grapical Report # 5 for Lab C

Here is graphical report #5 for Lab c on where the lab is, vs. where the lab planned to be.