A multiplayer role-playing game with a world map,
an inventory system, save files, and boss fights.

A multiplayer role-playing game with a world map,
an inventory system, save files, and boss fights.

A target-practice game. Targets appear at random
places, you click them, and you get one point each
until the timer runs out.

A target-practice game. Targets appear at random
places, you click them, and you get one point each
until the timer runs out.

local function drawTarget(x, y, size)
    -- decision: a hit target looks different
    -- loop: draw the rings
end

'F' → Fullscreen

Build

Task 1: One Sentence

Write what your program is in one sentence that says what a person does with it and what happens.

"A game where you dodge things" is not enough. Who moves? What appears? How does it end?

Read it to the person next to you. If they ask a question you cannot answer, the sentence is not finished.

Task 2: The Five Requirements

Go through the list one at a time and write down which part of your program satisfies each. Not "it will have a table" — what is in the table, and what the program does with it.

Run the delete test on paper. If your table were gone, would the program still work? If yes, the table is decoration and the plan needs changing now, not next session.

Task 3: Sketch the Screen

Draw the window on your sheet. Put everything on it that will be there. Label what moves, what the player controls, and where any text goes.

You are drawing at 800 by 600, and y still points down. Put a couple of approximate coordinates on the sketch — you will thank yourself next session.

Task 4: Three Steps, In Order

Break the build into three stages that each run. Not three features — three programs, each one bigger than the last:

1. The smallest version that puts something on screen and responds
2. That, plus the table and your function
3. That, plus scoring, ending, polish

Stage 1 has to be something you could finish in fifteen minutes. If it is not, it is stage 2.

Task 5: Name the Cut

Write down the one feature you will drop first if you run out of time, and sign next to it.

This is not pessimism. Every real project has this list; most people just write it in a panic instead of in advance.

Task 6: The Gate

Bring the sheet to me before you open VS Code. I will read it and either approve it or hand it back with one thing to change.

Getting handed back is normal and it is not a mark against you. Getting approved with a plan that was too big is what actually costs you, because you find out next session with no time to recover.

Checkpoint

• One sentence that says what a person does and what happens
• All five requirements matched to a named part of your program
• A screen sketch with labels and some coordinates
• Three stages, each of which runs
• A named cut, signed
• The plan is approved

Reflection

Answer the following questions before submitting your work.

1. Describe the first version of your idea, before you cut anything down. Say what you removed and what convinced you to remove it.
2. Requirement five puts a decision and a loop inside your own function. Explain what that forced you to change about the design, and say whether the program is better or worse for it.
3. You named a feature to cut before writing any code. Explain what makes that easier to decide now than it will be next session.

Submit

Submit the approved planning sheet to the appropriate dropbox. Keep a copy — you build from it next session and you write about it the session after.

Activity Complete