Summary of Proposal for Independent Capstone Design Project

							           Summary of Proposal for Independent Capstone Design Project

Students Involved: Philip Bloom, Jacinda Moore, Charles Otlowski, Paul Zackiewicz,
Victor Calvert, Thomas Etkins, Veronica Eikov, Rich Denton

Possible Professors for references: WR Franklin, Marc Destefano, Kathleen Ibister,
Daniel Renzi

The Game Summary:

         The design project proposed is to build a single networked computer game with
both multiplayer and single player components. The user starting the game would be
presented with a user interface allowing the user to choose between a single player game
or a multiplayer game or examining statistics. Starting a single player game, the user
would be given the option between a single round or a campaign of rounds, then shifted
to a pirate select interface. From here, the user may select one of several pirates or load a
saved pirate. The user would then be moved to a shop interface allowing them to pick
various customizations to the pirate. Finishing their preparations, the user would be
brought to a 3d terrain environment with pseudo-randomly placed start positions and loot,
combined with terrain hazards in the forms of various modeled effects and objects and
terrain. Three AI driven pirates would provide the opposition during the game portion,
navigating the terrain based on the type of terrain surrounding the pirate, the type of
vehicle the pirate is in, nearby hazards, nearby loot, and nearby other pirates. This would
be similar, but far more complicated versions, to the type of response interfaces worked
on in Embedded Controls. The pirates vehicles will take into account the terrain type that
it is driving over as well as provide the user a variety of abilities to interact with the
environment, e.g. snatching things from nearby pirates, hopping over obstacles. Each
round will be timed and at the end of each round, cash will be given based on loot seized.
Then the player will be given a save option and the opportunity to continue and/or return
to main menu.
         The multiplayer interface would be similar, only working upon building the
structure such that between 2-4 players could participate on the same 3d terrain. The user
would receive the option to host or to join an open game. From here, the user moves into
a chat/character selection interface followed by the active players being placed into one
of the terrain levels. The AI would again fill the remaining open slots. The system
would have to handle the considerations of maintaining real time reactions on all four
systems that would be connected. At the conclusion of a round, the users would be
moved to a chat interface where they would be able to start another game, drop out, or
wait for new players.

Reasons why I would prefer that it be independent:

       A fair number of the students involved are not specifically engineering majors.
They are CS or Art students who would be assisting with the development and with the
content creation but would be able to assist, hopefully, with an independent project.