Date of Award

Fall 12-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS)

Department

Business and Information Systems

First Advisor

David Bishop

Second Advisor

Christopher Olson

Third Advisor

Ronghua Shan

Abstract

This project is a systems design project. The goal of the project was to complete an online game for the purpose of entertaining an end-user. There is also additional research potential with analyzing the end-user behavior. This project showcases various skills learned at Dakota State University. This project required systems analysis, research of information technologies, database design, and project management.

About 50% of the planning phase was dedicated to scanning the IT industry for various technologies. We researched web hosting providers that would support the technologies we wanted to use. Also, a survey of available game engines was conducted. Additionally, all of the creative elements of the game were drafted during the design phase. Game mechanics were also contemplated. We decided to outsource the game assets, such as graphics and audio. However, no single vendor could provide everything needed. This led to a careful consideration of purchases to ensure that all of the game assets would weave together seamlessly. Finally, time was dedicated to create several technical artifacts, such as wireframe diagrams, entity relationship diagrams, and UML class diagrams.

During the implementation phase, all of the planning was put into action. There were three main components created: the client, the MVC web application, and the class library that contained all of the core game logic. A supplementary unit / integration project was also created dedicated to testing.

The end result was a finished game. Escape Puzzler is now live on https://www.escapepuzzler.fun and it is currently being tested. Once testing is complete, another iteration of development will help refine and polish the game even further.

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