CSE120 Final Project Examples

Final Project Ideas and Examples

Deciding on a project of your choice and design can be tough! This page is designed to help you brainstorm ideas and see what some students have made in the past.

Projects should be "G-rated" and of sufficient programming difficulty.

Project Ideas

Here are some recommended program categories. Remember to discuss your project idea(s) with a TA before starting on your design document.

Recreate a game you've played before
- Try to figure out how a game you like was implemented! Note that there are some that we'd prefer you avoid listed below.
- Examples might include Breakout, Pac-man, Frogger, Asteroids, Minesweeper, Sudoku, KenKen, 2048, etc.
Educational game
- Program that aims to be helpful and instructive for its users.
- Examples might include a math learning game or an open heart surgery walk-through.
Art-based program
- Create a visual or musical program that acts as a medium for the user to exercise or practice their creative talents.
- Examples might include a drawing program, audio visualizer, or musical instrument trainer.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
- A computer algorithm that plays a game "intelligently."
- Examples might include an AI for Tic-Tac-Toe, Connect Four, or Texas Hold-'Em.
Data visualization and/or analysis
- Take a set of data (either user-specified or drawn from an online source) and choose an interesting way of visualizing and/or analyzing it. Ideally the user should be able to interact with the data in some capacity (changing views, sorting, datasets, etc.).
- Examples might include a graphing calculator, a genetics probability calculator, visualization of car trends over time, visualization of food consumption across the country, etc.
Simulation
- Rules are given for a system and then variables can be changed either via random input or user-defined input for the program so that it can run a simulation on the elements involved for the user.
- Examples might include a traffic simulator or a fish tank simulator.

Discouraged Ideas

The following ideas are discouraged because they are generally too easy or similar to completed assignments:

Concentration (the "memory game")
Hangman
Pong
Tic-Tac-Toe
Typing tutor-like game

Past Examples

Please don't use another person's project to start creating your own -- we want you to start from scratch. Nevertheless, getting inspiration from other projects, programs, etc. is encouraged. Here are some past CSE120 projects that may be good for generating ideas:

Offbeat (rhythm game like DDR)

Notes: A different song played in each mode and the game lasted until the end of the song.

Hangman with significant extensions

https://youtu.be/H5OPBUZ2LRU

Notes: Video runs slightly long. Multiple avatars and input checking sufficiently added complexity to the standard Hangman game. Complexity portion should have included some high-level discussion of implementation details.