Executive Summary
The team of engineers in Table Group M created two games for their software design project, one of which was a version of the game “Hangman” and an adventure game. The main purposes were to produce games for overall entertainment, but also to test the coding skills of the team. Next, they had to market their creations and show that they had created the best games that were made with Matlab coded functions.
They designed “Hangman” so that two players could enjoy the game, with player one entering the word and player two attempting to solve for the word. The code was designed so that player one could only enter in one word instead of an entire phrase or sentence. Once the chosen word had been entered, a blank array was then printed with the appropriate amount of dashed lines representing the missing letters. Player two had the opportunity to incorrectly guess six times before losing the game. After each incorrect guess, an image of gallows with assorted body parts began print on the screen. The order that the images printed were head, torso, left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg. At the end of the game, player two was notified of a victory or a defeat.
The other game that the team created was an adventure game titled “Moonstruck,” each allow user to go on daring quests through outer space. Music and images for the game were inspired by a game from the late 80s called “Castlevania.” One of the techniques used to code was that the scripts for the character introductions were printed in a function file instead of the traditional “fprintf” statements. The text boxes for the story line were printed as images, which allowed neatness in the script file and required far less lines of code. The user of the game had the chance to play as one of three characters: Lycan, Vampyr, or Human. Each of the characters had special abilities based off conventional folklore. For example, the Vampyr could be easily harmed by sunlight, which posed a large concern since the game took place in outer space. The quests were not given concrete endings of victory or defeat. Instead, the team attempted to show how decisions that people make can affect whether they become more like the rest of society or freer as individuals. The outcomes could be up to the interpretation of the player as to whether they wanted to become free, societal or neutral.
The team was success in there attempts in creating two fully functioning games in Matlab. “Hangman” was a good introduction for the team and allowed them to make their own interpretations of a classic game. “Moonstruck allowed the team to show off some of their creativity and more of their coding skills. They used creative ways to create blocks of text that helped make the overall code in the game neat and tidy. The groups received excellent reviews on their work.
