Graphical game development in CS2

Abstract

This paper discusses a project that has been used to teach CS2 for six semesters at Trinity University. The project spans the full semester, and all eight of the assignments students turn in are part of the project. For this project, the students develop a 2-D game using a framework written by one of the authors. The framework is intended to allow students to produce some results early in the semester before they have significant knowledge without constraining them or doing too much for them. It was originally written for Java 1.3 and has evolved for Java 1.4 and now Java 5. We discuss the details of this project, the benefits it provides, and our experience with it.