Have you ever noticed how many IFs have usually been used in the sourcecode of a simple arcade video game like Pong or Space Invaders developed in an Object-Oriented Language? Collision detection, input handling, etc. Have you noticed that every game has its own codebase?
In this Challenge Francesco Cirillo develops a series of arcade video games with an evolutionary design process with three goals: (1) Not to use the "IF Strategy"; (2) To generate more games from the same objects; (3) To reduce the cost of change in software development.
Here you can find the next session of this workshop:
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Francesco's Software Development Challenges are journeys in which Francesco, you and the other participants will develop one or more features of a real application. Francesco will lead the development of the feature to be created and show you how he makes software design decisions, how he applies principles and tools, why he chooses one pattern over another and why he prefers certain practices in specific contexts. |
The Arcade Games Challenge was born in a peculiar way. Students from one of my university courses at HWR brought me to develop a simple video game: Pong in Typescript. Just to see how to develop objects incrementally. I have to admit that video game development never really appealed to me, but it was fun to get to Pong along with them.
Doing a bit of research on video game development books I had, projects on Github and tutorials on Youtube, I realised that one thing was recurring: a disproportionate amount of IFs and "IF Strategy" to manage complexity, change and growth:
I could go on for a long time, because pretty much every possible aspect of change or evolution, in that code and in those tutorials is handled with the "IF Strategy."
You already know what the first goal of this Challenge is:
But there's a second aspect that struck me. Each game had a different codebase. Space Invader code in one project and Asteroids code in another. All separate. Hm... Hence the second goal of this Challenge is:
Too easy... let's add a dash of adaptive approach...
If we already knew the video games to be developed, someone might say that we work in an anticipatory way... Never!
We'll start with the smallest possible video game (I have to think about that...) and figure out a way to grow it into numerous video games. Maybe we'll come up with some new video games. Or maybe we can ask for outside intervention with a poll.... We'll see.
It would be very useful to have some participants from the Product Analyst and Product Design courses to make the user stories harder to deliver.
The last objective is the one I hold most dear:
Otherwise why use an adaptive design and development process ;)
What are arcade games for me: 2D games like Pong, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Mario, Snake, Frog, Zelda, ...
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Note |
I must admit that following the idea of this challenge I ran to Ebay, bought a NES and the above mentioned games. Just for work :) |
—Francesco Cirillo
As a result of this course, you will be able to:
Turn time from being an enemy to being an ally in order to achieve your goals
Take regular breaks, learn to observe yourself and your team to improve your work process.
No more work under pressure.
No more tensions between team members.
No more fear of being accountable.
Work in a focused way on your activities
Handle internal and external interruptions in an effective way
No more mistakes due to lack of concentration.
No more wrong estimates, rework, stress and overtime.
This course is organized in six sessions.
Let's start with the analysis of the problem defined by the Kata.
Let us read together the text of the original Kata proposed by Bob Martin. Francesco Cirillo will work on User Stories, Scenarios and Requirements of the Bowling Score App.
Before starting software development, Francesco Cirillo and the participants will define by which criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of software design.
Francesco Cirillo develops Bob Martin's original Kata functionality in TDD, one scenario at a time.
At the end of the session, we evaluate the result achieved in terms of design. What abstractions emerged? Was the TDD effective?
In this session Francesco Cirillo will complete the development of Bob Martin's original Kata functionality in TDD.
A series of slides will help participants understand the evolution of our TDD-driven emergent design.
At the end of this session, we will assess the design emerged one test at a time.
In this session Francesco Cirillo will complete the development of Bob Martin's original Kata functionality in TDD.
A series of slides will help participants understand the evolution of our TDD-driven design.
At the end of this session, we will assess the design emerged one test at a time.
Let's free our imagination and define new requests!
As usual we will work on User Stories, Scenario and Requirements together.
Francesco Cirillo will develop some new scenarios in TDD.
In this final session space will be given to understanding the various evolutionary steps achieved through emergent design.
Have we been able to reduce the cost of change in software development? Is the software "simple"? How can we define "simple"?
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Note |
The Pomodoro® Technique book is not included in the price of any of the courses in this training programme and it should be purchased separately. You can buy it here |
Discounts for groups of four or more are possible.
Please contact us for more details.
Here you can find the next session of this workshop:
Can't make it on any of our dates? We can discuss other options with you. Please contact us for more details.
Francesco Cirillo has worked at the forefront of the software industry for more than 30 years. In a career spanning startups, corporations and freelance consulting, he has mentored thousands of professionals, developers, managers and software teams.
Francesco is one of the pioneers of Agile Methods. He started working on XP and TDD in 1999. He was chosen by Kent Beck to develop the XP community in Europe and as reviewer of the second edition of the book Extreme Programming Explained.
Francesco invented the Pomodoro® Technique, a renowned time-management method used by millions of people all over the world, while being a university student looking for a way to get more done in less time.
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