Richard G Baldwin (512) 223-4758, NRG Room 4238, Baldwin@DickBaldwin.com, http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/

GAME1343 Game and Simulation Programming I

This material applies to classroom sections and Distance Learning sections taught by Professor Baldwin.

Instructions for Downloading and Submitting Assignments

Summer 2014

Revised: 03/01/14

The official web page for this course is GAME1343.htm


General

This document may be modified as the semester progresses in order to incorporate new instructions or clarify existing instructions. Therefore, you should review the instructions periodically and then immediately before submitting each assignment to confirm that you are in compliance.

Failure to comply with the instructions usually results in a failing grade for the assignment, often zero.

The assignments for this course are take-home assignments. You may use any reference material that you have available. However, you are instructed not to obtain assistance from anyone.

Downloading Assignment Files

Assignments are posted in Blackboard. There is a zip file associated with each assignment that you can download from Blackboard. The zip files have names like Proj01.zip, Proj02.zip ... Proj09.zip.

Format of Downloadable Zip File

Each of the zip files contains the following material as a minimum:

Each assignment requires that you write one program using Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express (see Xna0100-Getting Started). Extract the contents of the zip file into an empty folder. Then open the ProjXX.htm file in your browser to view the programming specifications for the assignment.

Special Instructions Regarding the Submission of Assignments

You may submit each assignment up to two times before the deadline shown in the syllabus. Your highest score among the two scores for each assignment will be used to compute your final grade.

Submission requirements

You must submit your assignments via the Blackboard Assignment feature.

The following paragraphs explain some requirements that you must satisfy in order to make it feasible for you to submit your assignments via Blackboard and for me to be able to grade those assignments.

Your name in the zip file

Include your name in the name of the zip file that you submit to help me avoid getting your zip file mixed up with another student's zip file when I retrieve them from Blackboard. A suitable example file name is:

Proj01_baldwin.zip

No partial credit

I will either double-click the exe file mentioned above or open your sln file in Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express to score your program.

Each program will be graded either right or wrong. Partial credit will not be given for programs that do not fully conform to these instructions and to the program specifications. If one of your programs doesn't conform, don't bother submitting it.

Every semester there are one or two students who are surprised and saddened to learn that I really do mean that you must follow the instructions and meet the specifications exactly or you won't get credit for the program. Don't be one of those students.

Submitting Your Assignment

Submit your assignment using the Blackboard Assignment feature.

Although I am unable to see the student's view of the Blackboard interface, the following instructions should be approximately correct.

If I am unable to successfully unzip the file that you submitted, or if it contains the wrong material, you will not get credit for the assignment.

Extraneous Material

Do not submit extra files such as readme.txt files and expect me to pay attention to them. I won't pay attention to them.

Do not expect me to pay attention to text that you may choose to enter into the Blackboard Comments field when you submit your assignment file. I am not interested in them, and I won't pay attention to them.

Do not put comments in your source code and expect me to pay attention to them. I am not interested in them, and I won't pay attention to them.

The required material

All I expect to receive from you when you submit your assignment is the project tree and a text file containing user instructions if needed.

Other than the user instructions, there is no reason that you will need to communicate any information about your assignment to me when you submit it. Any need to discuss the requirements of the assignment must be satisfied prior to your submission of the assignment.

Encapsulate an electronic copy of the required material in a zip file and submit it as a Blackboard assignment, not later than the deadline given in the syllabus. You don't need a special program to create the zip file. The Windows file compression utility is entirely adequate.

The zip file must be one that I can unzip using the Windows de-compression utility with no effort required on my part other than to open the file and extract the material contained therein. There must be no requirement for any sort of special decoding. If there is such a requirement, I will not accept the assignment.

Failure to Meet the Submission Deadline

The submission deadline for each assignment is provided in the Syllabus each semester. In most cases, the assignment will expire and disappear from Blackboard when the deadline passes.

The penalty for failing to meet the submission deadline is simply that you won't get credit for the assignment.

Before you ask, let me tell you that a temporary Blackboard outage, business travel, problems at work, extreme work pressures, divorce, depression, receipt of a "Dear John letter", automobile repairs, flat tires, computer problems, power failures, total eclipses, extremely high outside temperatures, high pollen count, broken lawnmowers, the Super Bowl Schedule, and other assorted and interesting circumstances are not valid excuses for failing to meet the submission deadline. About the only excuse that I might be willing to accept would be something on the order of extended hospitalization or extended serious illness on the part of you or an immediate member of your family. If your excuse is not on that order of magnitude, I really don't want to hear it.

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File: GAME1343AsgInstructions.htm