Like a Limestone Cowboy

Well I'm winning a lot of brownie points with my teachers. I grade quizzes and tests in WP1 & 2 when the teacher doesn't get around to it (which is about half the time). So ... I'm sorta expecting a few bonuses in the form of Best Buy gift cards. Hizzah! Part of me doesn't want to expect them, however, because that might be too egotistical. I probably am working harder than the other guys in the classes, but they're new. Ah well.

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I managed to spend about all my silver in Lord of the Rings Online. I need to step away from the Auction House and actually adventure. Unfortunately for my character, I don't like challenges. But I like completing missions. So instead of fighting anything my level, I'm gonna go do the lower level missions and get lower level rewards. I'm a very casual player.

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My coworker and I are plotting a way to win the Top Gun Awards at the college. They're given for the "best" or "hardest-working" Lab Specialist and Course Director. I think they're by program too, but I could be wrong. Our scheme involves starting a programming club. (I'd like to call it Pi Society.) We have very differing views, but both need improvement. My club idea is geared toward newer students. Not PG1 students, since most won't move on. But maybe PG3 and onward. PG3 still might be too early for them to join the club, but I'm still thinking about the details.

The way I see it is that the students who are eager to learn and start making games, probably already have. The games might not be much, or they're bigger than the students can handle right now. This club would get students to work together to make better games, and make it easier to finish the project. However, the idea can't be a student's dream game. They wouldn't be able to concede on features. If they came up with a game idea together, so no one claimed "ownership", then that would be okay. But I'm thinking more along the lines of cloning old arcade games so that it's just programming. And the students can still be proud of what they're accomplishing. Old arcade games also involve minimal graphics / resources, and are easy to make. So each month could potentially work on a new game.

My coworker's idea is a large scale, long term project. It involves creating a game engine and then the gameplay. We instructors would lay out the system architecture and function stubs. The students would have to implement the functions. As new students join, more functionality will be made. But it would be a while before the engines are completed. (I'm thinking we should gank some Final Project engines.) At any time, a student could re-write any part of the engines. We would eventually create a unit test program to see if it is faster than the current implementation. But anyone could work on anything at any time.

I'm seeing this as too big of a project. Students only have 21 months here, and of those, only 10 would be valid club time. They wouldn't be able to join the first few months while they're still learning to program. (I don't know what class would indicate that they know enough.) And they really shouldn't work on this club project during their Final Project. There could also be a problem with students using the engine in Final Project, since the FP guys don't like outside engines. They'll allow an entire class to work on an engine and share it amongst the teams, as long as one person from every team is working on the engine. In the case of our club's engine, the students may not have worked on a certain part of the engine.

Also, once the engine is done, any new students could work on the gameplay. I thought that was somewhat unfair to the students "forced" to make the engine. I figured that in order to work on gameplay, a student would have to complete X amount of engine tasks. Even if our graphics are quick as lightning, they would have to implement it to get a feel for our environment and what we expect. We could make the tasks point based, to make it like a game. For instance, making a linked list is only worth 5 points (since I can do it in 15 minutes), but making a particle engine would be worth 40 points (since it could take 2 hours (I haven't made one, so I don't know)). And the student would have to earn maybe 100 points before "unlocking" the gameplay.

This point structure would also allow us to entwine both our ideas. The 5 point linked list could be for the beginner programmers. It would be used in one or more of the arcade games. This way a beginner could write a linked list and some other easy stuff and then work on arcade gameplay. Once they get into the necessary class for the advanced programmers, they work on more advanced engine parts to unlock advanced gameplay. Not only could this be fun for students, it would be very beneficial to their future career.

I feel I wasted a lot of time while I was going to college, because I didn't do anything in my spare time. I went home and played City of Heroes almost every day. Chill and I didn't have cable tv, so I didn't waste time with that. But I could have programmed a LOT more. Then I wouldn't be so worried that I don't remember much.

Right now my coworker needs to finish up some work to get his Bachelor's. But if we can get this off the ground, it will be really amazing. I would probably be guaranteed that Top Gun Award (bam! resume!) and my coworker probably would get the Course Director one. However, it would involve a lot of outside work for me. And the question is: is it worth it? I mean, Salutatorian, Advanced Achiever, and Perfect Attendance already give me an advantage over other students looking for a job. Creating this club, if anything, would anchor me to the college longer than I'd like. It doesn't entail a pay increase or anything (unless they're looking for a new Course Director). And would I take a Course Director position ... ? Probably. I believe it would pay as much as I'm looking for. I'll have to ask the guy that went from Lab Specialist to Course Director because of the Top Gun Award.

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Plotting and scheming. My two favorite activities.