CSAlpha Final Project

After learning all the core Java concepts over the course of this class, you are now ready to apply your skills and creativity on the last assignment of CSAlpha: the final project. The main purpose of this project is to test your capabilities and fluency with the topics in the course, as well as gauge your ability to apply them towards your future projects. This assignment is fully open-ended, so although you can still ask for help on minor details, your project will be completely designed, programmed, and tested by you. Give your best effort, have fun, and good luck!

If you would like to schedule a one-on-one meeting to discuss your project at any stage of the development process, please contact me to set up a time.

Proposal

Before you begin coding, you need to think of a project idea and design how the final product should look like. Once you have the details ready, please complete the following form before the end of first week of the project:

https://forms.gle/d82JxReABAMU3ucDA

Details

Your submission is evaluated on three metrics:

• Effort. Do you demonstrate considerable effort through your code and final product? Both your project code and your product needs to be polished and ready for execution. A clear sign of effort is that your project is free of obvious bugs and errors, and that the program is easy to use. The amount of content within your program will also be considered. However, remember that longer code doesn't mean better; make sure that you write readable and efficient code, where every line has a purpose.
• Sophistication. How do you use and combine different topics learned in class to build your project? A more sophisticated program is a program that uses more concepts. Although your project will be graded on sophistication, you should not try to use as many concepts as you can. Instead, your project should naturally utilize concepts as it needs them. If you notice that your project only needs a small number of concepts, you may need to reconsider your idea.
• Creativity. Is your project idea innovative and fun? Creative projects are the most impressive. You don't have to build something entirely new and foreign; you can put a spin on an old idea or combine ideas together in a new way. While you should aim to be creative, don't overdo it. You have three weeks, and it's important to remember the time frame. Make sure your creativity doesn't lead you to an overambitious goal.

These categories are ordered from most important to least important. The best project according to these metrics will be given an award and presented at the last class meeting; it must excel in all three categories to be selected.

IMPORTANT: Your program must have some level of user interactivity through the console.

Ideas and Inspiration

If you are looking for some inspiration, have a look at the ideas below:

• Games

  • ASCII RPG
  • ASCII Snake / action games
  • Text-based adventure game
  • Chess

• Utilities

  • Shell / Command line
  • Function grapher / Data visualization
  • Museum tour
  • Management system (schools, hospitals, libraries, governments, etc.)

If you decide to adapt one of these ideas, make sure to adjust it so that it fits the sophistication and creativity metrics listed above. Although I provide you with some ideas here, try to think of your own!

Submission

For your submission, copy the whole Eclipse project to a safe location and upload it to Google Drive as a ZIP file. When you are ready to submit, send the Google Drive link via Discord. I will be downloading all submissions on the due date, so if you would like to resubmit, you simply need to replace the file on Google Drive before the final deadline. If you have any issues regarding submission, please reach out to me.