Final Report for SuperSuperMario

Team AM_C_3
Nathan Nordling
Lebeau Munimbazi
Alexandra Lowry
Chakib Ahlouche

Versio Date Auth Change

n or
0.1 12/02/07 SM Initial Document
1.1 12/8/17 NN Completed section 1
2.1 12/8/17 LM Completed section 2
3.1 12/8/17 AL Completed section 3
4.1 12/8/17 CA Completed section 4
 Table of Contents

1 Team Member 1: Nathan Nordling 4

1.1 What went Wrong 4

1.2 What went Right 4

1.3 Lessons learnt 4

2 Team Member 2: Lebeau Munimbazi 5

2.1 What went Wrong 5

2.2 What went Right 5

2.3 Lessons learnt 5

3 Team Member 3: Alexandra Lowry 6

3.1 What went Wrong 6

3.2 What went Right 6

3.3 Lessons learnt 6

4 Team Member 4: Chakib Ahlouche 7

4.1 What went Wrong 7

4.2 What went Right 7

4.3 Lessons learnt 7

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Time for reflection! The purpose of this document is to capture student experiences
– both positive and negative – during the semester long team project. What are the
key events that are to remembered? What are the key lessons that you learnt that you
can carry over to future projects. Think back starting from the time the teams were
assigned, then project proposals were made, screenshots developed, requirements,
architecture, framework demo, test plan, and finally the demo. What would you do
different if you were assigned the same team and the same project again?

Each team member is to record his/her thoughts on a separate page. Thanks!

FOCUS ON LESSONS RELATED TO

1. Working in a TEAM
2. Software Development processes
3. Technical Issues

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1 Team Member 1: Nathan Nordling

1.1 W​HAT​ ​WENT​ W​RONG

Although our semester in this class went rather well we did run across some issues while
coding our game. One larger issue that we had mainly around demo 3 and 4 was that our enemies
would not move or have any collision with the player so ultimately our solution was to redo a lot of
our code in order to make it work right finally. Another issue we had was integrating parts that
work individually but end up failing when taped together, like our multiplayer functionality.
We also were unable to get our project to the final state that we envisioned we would get to
when we started it. Many things ended up not implemented such as our items functioning as
powerups or creating multiple enemies and stages. Our multiplayer also was unable to get refined
as it did not do very much other than some local communication. The short timeframe we had to
work with left our project largely incomplete.

1.2 W​HAT​ ​WENT​ R​IGHT

I think overall our project was a success, as a team of classified newbies we made a lot of
progress throughout the semester in learning how to use a database and server along with our client
code. We did not know what we were doing at the beginning but we were able to use tutorials in
order to help learn a lot of how to make applications in Android Studio. Although we were unable
to finish the project to the extent of what we originally set out to accomplish we were able to get a
lot of basic functionality of a normal game and some simplistic multiplayer interaction. With more
time I know we would be able to add a lot more to the project.

1.3 L​ESSONS​ ​LEARNT

I learned about two vital software development utilities this semester:

client-server-database interaction and modularity. Having an intensive semester long project made
me also realize how important trying to get ahead early is, as we were working under a time crunch
a lot this semester. I've learned to deal with dividing work on code this semester, since it can be
difficult to understand something someone else has worked on if you need to use that function. I
also learned more about the hardships of git and communicating with the other members.

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2 Team Member 2: Lebeau Munimbazi

2.1 W​HAT​ ​WENT​ W​RONG

A few large things went wrong. First, we were not able to figure out how to add together the
different parts of our project. One part of our project allows us to communicate with our server and
database, however it doesn’t allow us to use the multiplayer part of the game. Part of the problem
is that the login function only works when we use an emulator to play the game, and doesn’t work
when we try to get the multiplayer part of the game working. The next problem we have is that the
multiplayer does work, but only when we play the game from the desktop and not the emulator. I
was not able to make the multiplayer part of the game work when playing from an emulator.
A few other things that went wrong was when we were trying to plan how to do the project. We
had a lot of people working on overlapping functions but we also had people working on things
without checking to see if our project would work together as a whole.

2.2 W​HAT​ ​WENT​ R​IGHT

Some things that went right were the bare concepts of the project. We were able to get a project
that communicates with a server and database. We able to get a few basic features working on the
client side. We had a small amount of server code consistently communicating with servers servers
and allowing continuous communication with the clients.

2.3 L​ESSONS​ ​LEARNT

I learned how to use android studio, write some php and node js code, create a database as well as
use a client to communicate with the database. I learned that I need to ask for help often and early
and that I need to learn how to work in a team. I learned that I need to learn how to divide work
among people and how to keep in constant communication with them. This project was a good one
for me to have and I will probably take the class again since there was a lot of material and
experiences in this class that was helpful and good for me to learn.

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3 Team member 3: Alexandra Lowry

3.1 W​HAT​ ​WENT​ W​RONG

We weren’t able to completely finish everything we had planned on, which was mostly due to
over-ambitious timelines, but also due to some major bugs along the way with the code itself.
Some of those issues were problems like the players not dying, but we also had some technical
issues with Git that caused us to not be able to integrate all of our separate parts into a cohesive
whole, and those issues persisted throughout the semester. Our timeline also caused us issues,
because we grossly underestimated the amount of work that our project would take for each
individual part, and this was probably due to our status as “newbies.”

3.2 W​HAT​ ​WENT​ R​IGHT

Since our whole team was considered “newbies,” we were able to make a lot of progress from
knowing almost nothing, to having a mostly working app. We all learned how to use Android
Studio, some PHP, how to use a MySQL database, and how to use a library called LibGDX that
made up the core of our game. Additionally, we were able to get real-time multiplayer functionality
in some capacity, which we were concerned about getting to work.

3.3 L​ESSONS​ ​LEARNT

The biggest thing we should have done differently was starting everything much earlier. Most of
our problems probably could have been solved by starting sooner than we did, because so much of
what we were doing was entirely new to all of us, so we needed more time to learn than expected.
Personally, I learned a lot about how to use and troubleshoot Git, which will be beneficial in the
future on both professional and personal projects I work on. I also learned about the benefits of
modularity, which we could have done more of, and how that is beneficial to a working, safe
program. Finally, I learned how I personally work in a long-term project, which I haven’t had to do
before, and this will be incredibly useful in both long-term professional projects, as well as
short-term group projects in the rest of my schooling, because I now know that I definitely like to
be in charge of timelines of everything.

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4 Team Member 4: Chakib Ahlouche

4.1 W​HAT​ ​WENT​ W​RONG

The overall look and functionality of our game did not meet our expectations .
additional enemies were not added as envisioned .the multiplayer was basically limited to spectator
player .additional features like weapons and things to use as shields were also not added .we also
encountered a team trouble of implementing individual pieces to the overall main project ,which
made the process a bit more complicated than it should’ve been . had also lost pieces of codes due
to lack of practice with Git . running the server using node js was also an issue as far as the
multiplayer goes because I was the only one able to run the server in my personal laptop which
made testing a bit limited .

4.2 W​HAT​ ​WENT​ R​IGHT

a lot of things were used in a short amount of time , taking in consideration that all members comes
from 227 and 228 . team communication was also a good factor in getting things done with an app
we were using called GroupMe which allowed constant texting and know what to do . watching
tutorials was also a very helpful in the process of writing code of different classes and how was
organized our models . the external library called libGDX used in our code helped with an array of
methods to create and test classes in our game , and because it's a popular game it was nice to look
online for answers to our general questions .

4.3 L​ESSONS​ ​LEARNT

Teamwork and team communication is a vital component to make a project work , dividing tasks
into small things makes a programmer's life easier . the principle of Database how data are stored
and fetched to make application run well .the importance of Git in programming industry and how
it works as far as code storage . the importance of modular coding when it comes to making
understandable and maintainable code . also starting to write code early while testing early to
avoid bugs that are tough to trace .

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