CPSC 240 — OOA&D — Fall 2024

Extra credit dungeon assignment

Part 1 due: Wednesday, Dec 4th, midnight (Part 2 is due at the end of finals week)

Extra credit dungeon assignment

There are two parts to this extra credit assignment; you must complete both to receive any credit. The first part is due on Wednesday Dec 4th; the second is not due until the last day of finals week. You will get 3 extra credit points (and possibly up to 5) for this extra credit assignment.

Part 1: authoring your dungeon

Write your own Zork++-standard-features-compatible dungeon file and send it to me for your fellow students and me to play! Here are the rules:

The file must absolutely, unquestionably be a valid .zork file according to the standard. Files that deviate from the standard format in any way (and are therefore illegal) will be immediately discarded and no points will be awarded.
The file's name should end in ".zork".
The dungeon should have between eight and ten rooms (and room descriptions).
The descriptions for each room should be between two and five sentences.
The dungeon should have between eight and ten items. Each item must have an "examine" item-specific command (which will print a colorful description of the item), and at least one other item-specific command.
The entire collection of items must have the potential to trigger at least five different types of standard events.
It must have one, and only one, dead end room. (A "dead end room" is a room that does have exit(s) leading into it, but has no exits leading out.)
All sentences should all be grammatically correct and completely free of spelling and punctuation errors.
The dungeon must have a way to win, which is clearly described in the text description of the entry room. Figuring out how to win should not be completely obvious, but pretty close to it: someone playing your game for five minutes or so should be able to figure out how to do it.
The dungeon should be cool and clever, and a joy to play.
It must not contain your name or any biographical indicators that would allow a fellow student to infer who you are. (i.e., the dungeon must be anonymous.)
It must contain absolutely no profanity, sexual references, or racial slurs.

You should submit your dungeon to me as an attachment to an email with subject line "CPSC 240: extra credit dungeon" before midnight, Wednesday Dec. 4th.

Part 2: playing your fellow students' dungeons

I will post all the submissions I receive to the class website. I will then send you an email with a list of four randomly-selected dungeons for you to play.

You will play each of these four dungeons with your own team's game engine. You must play each of them for exactly seven minutes (set a timer) and try your best to both (1) enjoy the experience and (2) actually win the game.

After playing all four, you will reply to the email and vote for your favorite two of the four dungeons. In this email, you will also mention the name of each dungeon's dead end room as your passcode. Finally, in this email you will also type "On my honor, I played these four dungeons for seven minutes each using only my game engine, and I did not learn from anyone who any of the anonymous authors were" and type your full name below it as your signature.

Scoring

Everyone who completes parts one and two will receive 3 extra credit points. If at least one other student votes for your dungeon, you will receive 4. The student who has the most votes will receive 5.

Important: play by the rules

No fair opening any of the dungeon files in vim (or any other editor) and just reading them. You must play them with your game engine.

Also no fair colluding by telling anyone else in the class which dungeon is yours, and no fair voting for anyone's dungeon because you know they were the author.