Hi Everyone,

We’re getting closer and closer to the finish line of our course, and as usual, the cherry on top of our journey is the most challenging project yet—Project #3: Partitioning. At the start, our class was divided into two big teams: Atari and Nintendo. I'm part of the Nintendo division, and I’d love to share my experience with you.

The Project Phases:

1.Design and Partitioning Phase: For our project, we’re redesigning the classic Tetris game. We started with a base file filled with bugs and missing features, and our job is to bring it to perfection.

During this phase, we actively communicated with the entire division. We initially chose Microsoft Teams as our primary communication tool, but since some team members found Teams a bit heavy, we also set up a Discord server to keep things clear and organized. Before our first meeting, we had already selected a division team lead, along with local team leads for each subgroup. At our first meeting, Rachael, our division team lead, walked us through the agenda and introduced the project plan. Each team member semi-volunteered for responsibilities and contributed ideas.

I say "semi" because, as you’d expect, things didn’t always go as planned. During both phases, we all ended up working towards one main goal: completing the design project.

2.Implementation and Integration Phase: Once we had the design in place, the fun part began. Our team, Team TypeScript, was primarily responsible for coding, testing, and design (both visual and document design). Shout out to Myo, who did an amazing job with the coding! My role focused on testing and discovering bugs. However, the part I’m really proud of is designing the visuals for the game. Our division wanted to use an animated version of a professor’s face as the game background, and I got to bring that to life. After finishing my design, I merged my code into the main branch and completed a pull request.

Since this project involved so many people, each step required multiple reviews and approvals, which sometimes turned simple tasks into complex processes. To be honest, I prefer working with a smaller team, but I also recognize how essential it is to divide tasks when so many people are involved.

When designing the background, I thought it would be cool to take our game to the next level with laser eyes that glow every time the player clears a line. I shared my idea with the team, and together with Myo, we brought it to life in the game.

As more team members started contributing, we added even more features like game music, bug fixes, and a "how to play" guide. Overall, the experience I gained during this project was invaluable, as it gave us insight into what real workflow in a large corporate environment is like.

And just like that, this is my last blog post. What a ride! If I could go back to the beginning of the quarter, I’d tell myself that all the effort was worth it. It’s been an amazing experience filled with learning and growth.

Until next time,
Your CyberFriend