Executive Summary:
The Software Design Project tested the group’s ability to code a game on a Matlab. At least one code was matched with a written documentation and video to explain and advertise the game. The goals of this project were to enhance student’s understanding of Matlab, and develop greater communication and problem-solving skills. With groups given the task of redesigning a real world game as a Matlab program, Group I choose to complete two games: Connect Four and Tic-Tac-Toe. As programing becomes increasingly popular in the professional realm, it is a highly valuable skill to learn. The Software Design Project was an important project for Group I to develop real world strengths in a professional and organized manner.
At the beginning of the Software Design Project, an updated Team Working and Individual Responsibilities Agreements were created to divide up the general tasks of the project among the group. A first interview was completed with a TA in order to discuss what made the ideal video game for them. Then ideas were brainstormed for what games to code. Group I first decided on Hangman and War, but later changed the games to Connect Four and Tic-Tac-Toe. A project schedule was made to plan out the rest of the days in order to complete the project, and minutes were then recorded for each proceeding class. The process for creating each game was broken down into different steps: the plan phase, the main coding phase, the testing phase, and the final review phase. During the plan phase, coding was researched and discussed for the development of each game, and a flowchart was created for Connect Four. Then the main coding took place where the majority of the program was written. During the testing phase, a TA reviewed the Connect Four game and gave feedback on ways to improve it in the second interview. In the final review phase, any lasting bugs were fixed in both codes so that the games ran smoothly for the players.
Connect Four was Group I’s main game, so only documentation was recorded for this game. The created Connect Four game was a simple online version of the original game that would allow anyone to easily understand the process to play. To play, two players were needed in the same location. The Matlab game followed the same real-life rules, with an online game board that replaced the counters and empty spaces with numbers (0, 1, and 2). Each player would chose a column to place their counter in, while taking turns, until one player got four counters in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal row. That player would win the game. A final video was made to advertise the game, along with comments in the code, a promoting ad, a user manual, and a deeper program description. Tic-tac-toe ran in a similar way, with the original rules, but it required identification of the chosen column and row. Again taking turns, each player would choose a spot on the 3×3 board to place a token until one player had three tokens in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal row, and that player would win. If all spots on the board were taken, then the players would tie the game. Several functions, for loops, and if/else statements were used for the development of each code.
Overall, learning to code in Matlab is similar to learning a new language. It takes time to understand the ins-and-outs of the code, but the learned knowledge turns into a key strength. Throughout the Software Design Project, Group I developed programing and professional interview skills, and learned proper ways to advertise and work effectively as a team to solve a real-life application.
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