{This article is a re-post from the OSU publication onCampus and authored by Adam King. All rights belong to them. The picture is a screen capture of the video game "Lost Marbles," designed entirely by just-graduated students Christie Deiters, Razvan Lupusoru, Jason Stenftenagel, Tyler Wymer and Conner Campassi during their "Game Design and Development Project" class in the College of Engineering.}
Ninjas, marbles and toast
Engineering capstone gives students creative carte blanche
By Adam King
When Sneaky Sausages attack Omnipotent Oranges with greasy backstabs and eggs are your best defense against muffins gone wild, it's safe to say there is no creativity lost in CSE 786, a capstone class for late-term undergraduates and grad students.
Computer Science and Engineering Professor Roger Crawfis, the creator of the "Game Design and Development Project" class, likes it that way. Nothing is off-limits to students' imagination in building a video game from scratch in 10 weeks. His caution to students: You only have 10 weeks and it must be a three-dimensional game.
"This is a course designed to give you that self confidence," Crawfis said. "It's a huge undertaking and it's achievable. It's not going to be commercial quality, and you don't need to be told step A, B and C. Once things get started, stick your nose to the grindstone and you can get it done."
The biggest hurdle for the students was none of them had ever used game-building programming software, so they needed a couple weeks to figure out which programs were the best to use based on their idea. They had to use public-domain artwork and music or create it themselves. Every two weeks the teams updated each other on their progress.
Razvan Lupusoru, a senior who helped develop the game "Lost Marbles," said a complete education within the Department of Computer Science and Engineering had his team ready to tackle the task.
"In our computer science degree, we're not learning specific computer languages," he said. "We're learning the tool sets to solve computer science problems, and video games are just one of those things we learn how to solve. Making video games is a complex system, so we had the preparation to start working on this. Now by taking this class we gained the experience of designing a big software project within time constraints."
Five teams showcased their final results on June 7, and inspiration was all over the board.
In "Null Commandoes," a 2-D player shoots soldiers and tanks on a 3-D battlefield to level up. "Manifest Destiny," based on the board game "Risk," has armies of humans, orcs, aliens and dwarves battle for control of each other's island barracks for total domination. "Ninja Escape" features ninjas that must escape to a safety portal before their world is engulfed in a sea of acid, and the player's job is to figure out how to get the ninjas out using the available resources. "Lost Marbles" puts the player - in this case a marble - in a world where power-ups for bouncing, sticking and speed are needed to overcome physical obstacles and collect smaller marbles. A larger, menacing marble attempts to discourage that effort.
In "Breakfast Battle," two forces of food attempt to control the kitchen, including angry toast that charges. The player battles the computer in a turn-based strategy game on a 3-D game board that resembles different parts of the kitchen. The game's visual background includes photos of the real-life, not-so-clean kitchen of two of the developers.
"The scope of making a video game in 10 weeks is huge, and it would be impossible for one person to get it done by themselves," said "Lost Marbles" member Jason Stenftenagel.
But that's what makes this particular capstone interesting to the students. Generally engineering capstones operate with students taking other people's ideas and running with them. In CSE 786, concept to completed product is all on the students' shoulders.
"The first few meetings we had, we just sat down and brainstormed and wrote everything down, any ideas we had, anything we thought would be too difficult to create in 10 weeks, what would be too easy or not fun enough," said Christie Deiters, a "Lost Marbles" teammate and the lone female in the class. "All of those ideas came into play. We wrote them all down until we came up with something we liked."
Mike Rojas of "Null Commandoes" said his team had the most challenges: A late member addition, team conflict about the game's direction and trouble with the software. But in the end he was pleased with what his team produced.
"This is one of those classes where you get a chance to take everything you've learned and put it together and come up with something that you would actually use," Rojas said. "We made a video game, and it's something anyone can go and play."
In fact, anyone can play the students' games by visiting http://web.cse.ohio-state.edu/~crawfis/cse786/index.html and installing their creations. All the games function using keyboard controls.
"This year I was fairly impressed," Crawfis said. "Their games compare favorably to other students' games I've seen, like at Stanford, where they have almost double the time since they are on semesters. This is a fun way to stress them out."