Class Notes: Term Project Preview

This week we will discuss the term project, so that you can get started on the hardest part -- deciding what you will do! Some things to consider:

This semester we will announce a scaffolded project description which will be the default for completing the term project requirements. (Imagine something with a list of features for you to implement one-by-one, like Tetris but with a little less detail.) If you are concerned about your grade and/or you do not have a project idea that you are very passionate about, this is probably the most straightforward least-stress option. However, if you are willing to take a riskier path, you may choose to design your own project instead.

Regardless of whether you take the scaffolded or self-directed path, you will have a TA mentor who will check in with you periodically and can provide high-level guidance on the direction of your project. However, bear in mind that we cannot provide extensive debugging or technical help. Your project will be written by you, and you'll need to be largely self-sufficient in doing this, though we will of course provide advice and feedback along the way.

If you wish to opt in to creating a project of your own design, start thinking about your term project now! You can do most anything you wish so long as it clearly demonstrates your programming skills.

You can make almost anything, so long as it follows the rules below, has a rich interactive user experience, and at least one interesting algorithmic aspect to the solution. Also note that your idea does not have to be new, so if you want to recreate something that already exists, that's perfectly fine.

If you are going to invest the energy necessary to design your own project, you should choose something you enjoy, something you care about, something you can be proud of, something that can help you both academically and professionally.

Aim just a bit beyond what you think you'll be able to create. It's easier to prune an overly-large project idea than to grow an overly-small project idea.

Focus both on user experience and on algorithmic sophistication, as both factor heavily in your tp grade.

In any case, avoid mini-games. Make one big lovely project instead of gluing together a bunch of smaller ones.

Also, avoid generative art or music. While these are somewhat popular projects historically, they rarely result in successful outcomes and so should be avoided. It is very hard for us to grade a generative art or music project precisely, since they are so deeply subjective. Plus, they don't really have much of a user experience in most cases, and we put great value on a rich interactive user experience.
If you have an idea for a highly interactive project with a generative art component, this may be ok, but you should email your idea to Mike or one of your TAs to check whether it will be an appropriate term project. Also, as we will discuss, projects involving sound (such as rhythm games or voice changers) are generally disallowed because of their extreme difficulty, reliance on modules, and very high risk of failure.

We do not recommend using external modules/libraries/tech. Using these does not add algorithmic complexity to your project, and we will only grade based on original code you produced. You can make a lovely term project and earn a very high grade using nothing more than what is in the course notes. By default, you may not use any of these things until you have reached MVP status (i.e. a minimal passing project) and thus you must be able to reach MVP without it. If you wish to ignore our advice and use external tech before MVP, you will need to demo its full extent and receive approval no later than TP0 (keep reading, and we'll release more details soon).

All projects must be built using cmu_graphics and must adhere to MVC. (This means you cannot build your project using pygame, tkinter, etc.) Once your project has reached MVP, you may use other animation/app frameworks with your TP mentor's approval, though this is rarely a good idea. This restriction was created due to the 90% fail rate of projects that began in other frameworks like pygame.

Without explicit permission from Mike (which is unlikely if you haven't already discussed your project with him), you cannot use any robots or other hardware in your term projects. The one exception is that you may try to use game controllers as input devices if you are so inclined, so long as all of your code runs entirely on your laptop (and not on an external device) and in Python.