Just in time for summer vacation, a group of IST 240 students has created a free online miniature golf game designed to simulate the elements of a real game.
The game is called MegaPutt and can be downloaded at www.megaputt.net. Students Tim Nary, Christopher Griffith, Mike Magno, D.J. Lingelbach and Patrick Hartz created the game as part of the introduction to Java course taught by Tracy Mullen, assistant professor of information sciences and technology.
“Early on, we found a game engine that was well-documented and had plenty of code examples,” Griffith said. “We chose to apply it to a game we all enjoyed, golf.”
MegaPutt has three courses with 18 holes each and, similar to real-life miniature golf, contains obstacles like sand traps, hills and water. To play, users click on a golf ball and use the mouse or touchpad to determine swing strength and direction.
Once the students began working on the game, they were surprised by how much coding they needed to do. In fact, the name MegaPutt arose from one team member’s frustration over the size of the project and the amount of coding involved. Another challenge they faced was learning to work with each other and accommodate different skill sets.
Still, the students were pleased with the final product and said the project allowed them to utilize all the concepts taught in class, as well as Web building skills learned in IST 210 and the security encryption skills learned in SRA 211.
“Problem based learning is one of the greatest things that IST has to offer and really sets it apart from other colleges,” Nary said. “We played to each other’s strengths, so everyone was able to contribute their own talents.”
In addition to hosting the game, the MegaPutt Web site also features a listing of high scores and a presentation from the team about the game.