D’Orazio, James, Oakes 1

Lair of the Forgotten Beast

_______________

A Capstone Proposal

_________________________

California State University, Monterey Bay

_______________

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Bachelor of Science

in

Computer Science

_______________

by

Nick D’Orazio, Brian James, and Kyle Oakes

Summer 2021
 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 2

Copyright © 2020

by Nick D’Orazio, Brain James, Kyle Oakes

All Rights Reserved

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF PROPOSAL

Lair of the Forgotten Beast

by

Nick D'orazio , Kyle Oakes , and Brian James

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

California State University Monterey Bay, 2021

The purpose of this project is to design a video game which implements features that

have been previously unexplored in interactive fiction games. Along with the features that will

be common between previous text-based adventures, this game will also have a unique system

for casting magic spells. The setting for Lair of the Forgotten Beast will be a fantasy world that

includes a hero, monsters, and magic. The main goal of this project is to highlight the new magic

features and offer the client an improved experience over previous designs done by other

software developers.

This gaming genre has gone through many changes over the years. When a player

attempts to use a magic spell during gameplay, a text entry is required. For example, “Cast

Fireball on hobgoblin”. A canned response is usually set up to react to this text input with very

little function. This method of magic is simplistic to a fault. The interactive fiction products

rarely expand on the magic spell casting that make fantasy game settings so interesting. This

project will attempt to address this issue in a way that creates a very satisfying experience for the

client.
 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 4

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF PROPOSAL 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

LIST OF FIGURES 5

Background and Approach 6

Introduction/Background 6
Project Name and Description 6
Problem and/or Issue in Technology & Solution to the Problem and/or Issue 8
Evidence that the Proposed Project is Needed 8
Project Goals and Objectives 8
Environmental Scan/Literature Review 9
Stakeholders and Community 10
Approach/Methodology 11

Ethical Considerations 12

Legal Considerations 13

Timeline/Budget 14

Milestones 17

Resources Needed 18

Risks and Dependencies 18

Final Deliverables 19

Usability Testing/Evaluation 19

Team Members 20

References 21

Appendix A 22
Usability Test Post-Survey 22
 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 5

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Project Overview Timeline...........................................................................................14

Figure 2: Project Iteration Timeline............................................................................................15

Figure 3: PivotalTracker Board...................................................................................................16

Figure 4: Github Kanban Board..................................................................................................17

Figure 5: Heroku Pipeline............................................................................................................19

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 6

PART I

Background and Approach

Introduction/Background

Project Name and Description

Our project is called “Lair of the Forgotten Beast”, and it will be a text-based fantasy

adventure game, a modern homage to the classic older games in the genre.

A blinking cursor greets your black screen. What do you do? “Start Game”. You hear

what sounds like an airplane as the mainframe draws more power. White text begins to scroll the

screen.

MONDAY MAY 10 1847

TOTAL MILEAGE IS 575

FOOD BULLETS CLOTHING MISC. SUPPLIES CASH

46 1090 40 45 205

DO YOU WANT TO (1) STOP AT THE NEXT FORT, (2) HUNT, OR (3) CONTINUE

?3
 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 7

YOU HAVE DIED OF DYSENTERY

Text-based computer games have been around since the 1960s where they could be

played on University, and Business mainframes. Many of the original mainframe games have

been lost to time, but a few have lasted. You may not be familiar with the text output above but

you’ve probably played or at least heard of the game it came from; The Oregon Trail will be half

a century old as of this year, yet it is still being remade for mobile devices today.

While the rise of point and click games started the downfall of text-based games, and led

to the AAA games we play today there is still a spot for those old text games in the modern

culture. Recently A Dark Room hit number one in the app store and the modern text-based game

grossed over $800,0001. This shows that text-based games are still relevant today. It's unclear

why the game gained such popularity. The Artifice states, “many [text-based games] offer

something genuinely entertaining, and, ironically, seem new and fresh.”2

While creating our project, “Lair of the Forgotten Beast”, we hope to do just that: bring

something entertaining, new, and fresh to the history of text-based games. Our game will be an

RPG text-based adventure. The player will play through the story of falling into a cave when the

ground beneath their feet collapses. Introduced to a rarely seen part of the world the character

lives in, the player must find their way to safety. During the hero’s journey, they will need to

overcome many challenges. This will ultimately leave the character with a new perspective of

the world once they return.

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 8

Problem and/or Issue in Technology & Solution to the Problem and/or Issue

Art enriches people’s lives and improves people’s quality of life. With the fast-paced

bustle of life, it’s more important than ever to take time to enjoy art. Video games such as ours

compose a unique art form which not only provides entertainment and enrichment but can also

help develop problem-solving skills.

Evidence that the Proposed Project is Needed

There are other games that exist which are similar to Lair of the Forgotten Beast, each of

which has its own issues. We intend to produce a game which solves some of the existing issues

with related games, serving as an improvement over existing games. One way in which we

intend to take a new approach is with our new magic system that will combine ease of use for

casual players with complexity.

Project Goals and Objectives

The main goal in developing The Lair of the Forgotten Beast is to create a text adventure

game that will be received well by an audience. The game must be able to perform all the

common functions of an interactive fiction piece, and also implement new features unique to the

project. Another long-term goal of this project is to design and implement a new magic system in

a game unlike those that have come before it.

During this project, there will be several objectives timely ordered to meet weekly goals.

The project will begin with basic building blocks of the program. The first order of business will

be to set up the Pivotal Tracker project, the GitHub repository and establish a schedule for
 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 9

weekly iterations. Once we have the skeleton of the project laid out, we can begin adding

features. The first feature we plan to add is a grid map in Java which includes the abstraction of

the fantasy game setting. Unit testing will be included as a standard operating procedure in

development. After this has passed, there is a need to generate a preliminary list of people,

rooms, magic spells, or items that could be included in the game. Once enough data has been

accumulated, work will begin to develop the services and methods that support these new

objects. More objects will be added later after some proof of concept is completed with the initial

portion of data. Data structures will form the infrastructure that supports all of the program

objects that will be processed using Java Spring Boot controllers and classes. Once this

objective is met, the next task will be to populate the game board with Java objects that will

represent places, people, creatures, items, and spells. It is in this phase that the new magic system

will be implemented. After all Java classes and methods are unit tested, the team will increase

the scope and complexity of the game. The game will be considered finished when the team has

carved out the entire game world and verified the functionality of all the components in

end-to-end testing.

Environmental Scan/Literature Review

When planning this project, resources, articles and games from the internet were

examined and compared with the features that were planned for this game. This game is designed

to be unique among a decades long community full of text-based adventures. One of the main

databases for finding interactive fiction works is called the Interactive Fiction Database or IFDB.

(The Interactive Fiction Database, 2021)

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 10

This site was designed to archive all of this genre in one place with user reviews and

ratings. The games and the reviews given to them offer a lot of insight into what makes a game

that interactive fiction enthusiasts prefer. The Lair of the Forgotten Beast attempts to join this

historical database and become a unique offering to a pool of games appreciated by people of all

ages.

Stakeholders and Community

The stakeholders on this project will be the developers and end users. The project will be

created with the combined experience and motivations of three developers.

The first, always finding the lack of a properly advanced magic system to suck the

enjoyment out of the game would gain from creating the system he always wanted introduced

into a text-based game. He will also benefit from the experience of working on a project of this

scale as well as game design experience, and a project he can spend time working on for fun.

The second has career plans to become a game developer. The video game industry has

grown substantially since personal computers and smartphones became part of everyone’s lives.

Making a project like this helps to understand game consumer behavior and provides experience

in the field. Creating the Lair of the Forgotten Beast would be the first step in building the

necessary resume experience to be on track to achieve this professional goal.

The last developer, having never played a purely text-based game before, will gain from

graduating the Cal State Monterey Bay Computer Science program with a bachelor's degree.
 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 11

Approach/Methodology

The team will read through previous methodologies performed by other developers and

assess their practical use within the scope of this project. Some of these older methodologies may

be implemented in the final product. One of these methodologies that will be used is called

Agile. Agile is a software development system in which projects are broken down into smaller

tasks that are time-boxed into one-week iterations. At the end of each week, the team will

reevaluate the previous week’s completed tasks and adjust which backlogged tasks will be

worked on in the next weekly programming iteration. Agile combined with Pivotal Tracker will

be our main way of tracking progress. Pivotal Tracker is a story-based tool that allows a

developer to utilize Agile methods and track progress with great detail and functionality.

Some live game testing will be conducted on targeted individuals who may or may not

have played a text adventure game before. This will provide a more inclusive cross section of

respondents than only focusing on those who have played an interactive fiction game before.

There will also be a help option included in the game to help new players learn the keystrokes

accepted as input.
 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 12

PART 2

Ethical Considerations

In the creative process that produces a game, there can be multiple ethical concerns to

address. If the game costs money for a person to play it, then will this game be expensive for any

person with limited income to play it? If the game is too expensive, then this will impact how

many people it will reach. Another ethical issue for games today is micro transactions. These are

in-game digital transactions that require a player to spend real money for digital game items.

These types of transactions can lead to a situation where the player who has the most real money

can progress further through a game than other people who have not spent the extra money.

The use of sexually explicit or violent content in games is a subjective ethical issue that is

often determined by the target audience. While money may not be a concern for parents of

children who play games, age-appropriate content is an ethical issue that game developers are

expected to address.

The final version of the application will need to have addressed and mitigated any ethical

concerns that could exist. First, this game is not for profit. None of the users of the application

will be asked to spend their money, and the game will remain free to play forever. Since this is a

video game, specific attention must be paid to the appropriateness of the content with respect to

children. As a vulnerable demographic group, children need to receive special consideration

when developers create toys or games. Video games can be viewed and used anywhere on most
 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 13

smart devices. This access makes it easy for a child to witness and interact with any potential

content that could be in a game. This project will mitigate age-appropriate ethical concerns and

protect the children from violent images, inappropriate language, and sexuality.

The responsible action to take will be to avoid including such content in the first place.

Once the viewable material has been finalized for the game, the development team will critically

review the content for any age-related or age-appropriate issues and correct them. The project

will self-regulate these issues using the guidelines set forth by the ESRB ratings scale, and use

“E” for everyone. (Ratings Guide, 2021)

The project will include some limited human subject research taking the form of a play

test of the game under development. This research must be approved by the Committee for the

Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS) prior to the start of testing.

Legal Considerations

For video game development, there are some legal considerations that need to be

monitored. To obey the copyright laws in the United States, the game will need to avoid using

character images, scene images, settings, dialogues, or music that has been produced and

copyrighted by another game. (Copyright Laws and Video Games, 2021) The development team

for Lair of the Forgotten Beast will actively avoid using copyrighted material from other video

games during and after the production. The project will be original and will develop its own

unique content with respect to the avoided items mentioned above.

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 14

PART 3

Timeline/Budget

Figure 1: Project Overview Timeline

For our capstone project we will be using an Agile methodology starting on June 16th

that has three sprints consistent of two weeks each. Each of the sprints will focus on building out

specific aspects of the project. The first iteration will be dedicated to initial set up and building

the foundational aspects of the project. Design choices for the data structures and database will

be in this iteration along with building out the functionality of generating rooms and traversing

the dungeon.
 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 15

Iteration two will be focused on building out the player's experience in rooms by creating

interactive content such as monsters, items, an inventory system, and the commands to look

around.

Iteration three will be used for introducing the combat and magic system the game will

rely on. The testing phase of the project will start in parallel with the third iteration to allow the

testers to have more time to try the game. This is done to account for the possibility of tests being

busy and not able to fit it into the single week originally planned. We hope to stage different

stable releases as we progress through the three week testing phase. Each stable release will ask

testers to comment on specific aspects just implemented in the game, as well as a general

overview of the user experience with the game. Testers will be given a chance to give their

feedback for what they would like to see improved.

Figure 2: Project Iteration Timeline

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 16

To track the progress of milestones, a PivotalTracker board will be used. User stories will

be created to check off when high level features are completed. Pivotal Tracker will contain

requests from a user's perspective. User stories will be created to have a backlog at least one

iteration in advance. At the end of each iteration the stories will be updated based on a review.

Figure 3: PivotalTracker Board

The low level details of how each feature implementation will be coded will be tracked in

a github project Kanban board. Cards will be chosen one at a time and assigned to the developer

to take responsibility over that task. Using a Kanban board in this way will allow for developers

to work on their own schedules and stay up to date with the current progress of the project.

A second github project board was created for developers to track bug reports. Each bug

will be given a priority for how important it is to fix. Bugs with a high level of importance will

be fixed, and all other bugs will be taken into consideration.

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 17

Figure 4: Github Kanban Board

Because there is not a specific client or patron for this project, the budget is minimal. One

of our developers will spend $4 to enable the GitHub Pro feature of protecting the main branch

against merge commits without at least one review.

Milestones

The progress milestones for the project will begin in June of 2021 and extend into the

next August. On Sunday, June 20, 2021, the development team submitted the final proposal for

Lair of the Forgotten Beast. The next milestone will be when the team has released the first

version of the program with one room inside the game. The third milestone will pass when the

game has multiple rooms to explore and travel between locations can occur. The fourth milestone

will arrive when the game has the majority of its basic functionality. The last milestone will

occur when the game has been deployed and hosted on Heroku with all of its basic functionality

and the project has been presented at the Capstone Festival.

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 18

Resources Needed

The resources needed for this project include a personal computer or laptop for each of

the three developers. They will also need to install an Eclipse IDE software for Java development

and MySQL for a database. For software version control, the team will use Github. Heroku will

be used for the deployment of the application website. Pivotal Tracker will be used to track user

stories in sprint iterations.

Risks and Dependencies

One of the risks associated with this project is the availability of the test subjects. If the

project ends and none of the test subjects have completed any testing, then a large piece of the

development process will have been incomplete.

Another risk to completing the project on time is a design pattern called abstract factory

that the team will learn. The abstract factory creational pattern is a gamble since the group hasn’t

used it before. The benefits of this pattern will be worth the risk by aiding the ease in which the

program can be extended for new items, objects, and monsters.

The use of a Heroku Pipeline has not been attempted by our group before. This staging

design for the application will count as another risk due to lack of experience. The benefit of

using a pipeline will be to conduct testing while the game is still in development. Testers will be

able to log on and play a stable version of the game in their own time. We hope this will give

enough time to get the feedback needed for our final presentation.
 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 19

Figure 5: Heroku Pipeline

Final Deliverables

A functional video game (deployed to a test server) and usability feedback (via survey)

from respondents will be the final deliverable for this project. The “functional video game” will

be a Spring Boot application with a client-server architecture. The “usability feedback survey”

will be a Google Form.

Usability Testing/Evaluation

During the fifth week of the project, we will have testers play the game and give us

feedback. A Heroku Pipeline has been created to get feedback for up to three weeks, but only

one is mandatory. The pipeline is set up to have a production Heroku App up and running at all

times to give the testers plenty of time to interact with the game. Stable releases will be updated

into production periodically.

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 20

There is also a survey for the test subjects to complete. The survey will be provided to

testers via Google Forms and will include questions related to the intuitiveness of the user

interface and game mechanics, the presence or absence of bugs, and other factors.

Team Members

The team members on this project are Brian James, Nick D’Orazio, and Kyle Oakes. We

will not be assigning specific tasks to specific members of the team; rather, we will be

collectively populating a pivotal tracker and a GitHub project board with user stories and other

technical tasks, respectively, which we will pull from during development. Our plan is to enable

each member of our team to claim tasks listed on kanban cards so as to support asynchronous

work to the greatest extent possible.

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 21

References

Copyright Laws and Video Games. (2021). Retrieved from LegalZoom:

https://info.legalzoom.com/article/copyright-laws-and-video-games

Failory.com. 2018. A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800,000. [online] Available at:

https://www.failory.com/blog/battle-scars [Accessed 26 May 2021].

Interactive Fiction Database. (2021). Retrieved from The Interactive Fiction Database:

https://ifdb.org/index

Ratings Guide. (2021). Retrieved from ESRB: https://www.esrb.org/ratings-guide/

The-artifice.com. 2015. The Text Adventure: Relic of Gaming History, or Timeless Medium? |

The Artifice. [online] Available at: https://the-artifice.com/text-adventure-gaming-history

[Accessed 26 May 2021].

 D’Orazio, James, Oakes 22

Appendix

Usability Test Post-Survey

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16jmjZkgwLpXv_jhXi5uvVDyrBGw1bNWtZ5Rud2uvO84/edit
D’Orazio, James, Oakes 23
D’Orazio, James, Oakes 24
D’Orazio, James, Oakes 25