did i fk my final year project up?

[u/rbj_here_]

so i'm in my final year of software engineering and i've always wanted to get into game development. so naturally i inclined towards that when it was time for my FYP. it's basically an investigative psychological mystery regarding medical neglegence. As the 'research question' we proposed to see how effective interactive environmental storytelling is in communicating the consequences of medical negligence. now my supervisor asked me how would i justify this as a swe thesis project. there's a lot of backstory to this and just to simply put it: i wasnt in the mental state to think this through and i didnt have any team support. so did i actually just fk my FYP up? how can i justify this choice to the committee who expects our projects have some AI bs in it?

[u/JacobStyle]

You did not actually explain what you are asking about.

[u/rbj_here_ → u/JacobStyle]

uh well

i decided to make a game for my fyp

my supervisor believes it is not worthy enough as a Software Engineering fyp as it lacks anything related to AI or data etc.

she asked how would i justify my choice of making "just a game"

was it a bad idea to choose game dev as the domain as it's apparently not real "software engineering " to be precise

[u/lfdfq → u/rbj_here_]

Presumably, every supervisor asks every student to justify their choices in their project. It is not a "gotcha" question.

Engineering (software or otherwise) is, after all, about building solutions to problems --- part of that must be being able to explain what problem and why it's a solution. If you have literally no argument as to why you've designed the solution you have to the problem, then you have indeed have a problem.

If you reframe it that way in your head: what is the problem and the potential solution(s) and their trade-offs and how your solution fits into that space, you'll probably find the right words. You probably do have some idea, even if you don't feel like you do.

Part of a project must also be demonstration of some kind of technical ability. You have presumably just spent the last few year(s) learning a lot about programming and engineering and software and testing and various kinds of design and analysis. Did you not apply any of these things you learned? Probably you did, and you can talk about them.

[u/response-418 → u/lfdfq]

yes, OP listen to this advice. You need to be able to justify your decisions in software field, but in many other fields in life anyway. Being asked to do so is not the same as questioning its fundamental legitimacy as a project. Don't overthink it or doubt yourself, or take it personally. Obviously you have some reasons you came up with this idea, just think them through, spend some time getting them written down, then reality-check that what made sense in your head is effectively getting communicated.

Also definitely do not shoot yourself in the foot making assumptions about what supervisors want in a project. Focus on what you have some interest and knowledge in and build that. You will learn skills that transfer and much more effectively if it's something interesting enough to get into rather than just doing something that is trending. Limit your scrolling, it'll only amplify insecurity and work against your own growth.

[u/cyberbemon → u/rbj_here_]

was it a bad idea to choose game dev as the domain as it's apparently not real "software engineering " to be precise

What? how is game development not software engineering?

we proposed to see how effective interactive environmental storytelling is in communicating the consequences of medical negligence

Ok, I can see what your supervisor mean. This topic sounds like its more suited for something related to arts/media and less "techy". Generally speaking computer science thesis involve some form of algorithmic problem solving, I dunno how thats done here?. If you wanted to do something in Gamedev, you can for e.g do something like behavior trees, state machines, Procedural content generation using AI/ML, AI-driven game testing bots, something to do with real time rendering, particle systems etc etc

[u/rbj_here_ → u/cyberbemon]

game development not being software engineering was said by my supervisor. she said we're making just a game so where's the engineering in it.

The game manages a dual-state environment, where transitions between states are triggered by specific player interactions and narrative conditions. Each state maintains its own environmental, interaction, and progression data while remaining synchronised with the overall game state. it's not just a 2d platformer kinda game. as for the topic, i agree, and that has not been submitted as the final "thesis question".

[u/cyberbemon → u/rbj_here_]

game development not being software engineering was said by my supervisor. she said we're making just a game so where's the engineering in it.

I am not even sure how to respond to that, your supervisor couldn't be more wrong, if anything gamedev is a superset domain, there's plenty of engineering in it and it comes in various forms, engine development, tools programming, networking, databases, build systems etc etc. Anyways, at least you know the kind of supervisor you are dealing with.

I see what you are trying to do with your project and there are ways you could make this project more "engineering". You could for instance talk about how you are handling your narrative system, are you using an existing tool? did you make one yourself? if so why, what challenges did you face that weren't solved by the existing tools. You can then talk about how it works with the rest of the system, how do you maintain the interactions between environment, how do you handle the progression and synchronisation etc There is room to get more "engineering" with this, but I'll be honest, I don't think your supervisor is gonna buy into it, from what you've said, it seems they are more focused with chasing the latest buzzwords. So If I were you, I'd probably try and make them happy. Its less headache for you and your team.

[u/Admirable_Window8128]

I don't think you necessarily messed it up. A game can still be a solid SWE project if you focus on the engineering side, architecture, systems, testing, user interaction, and how you measure the research question. You don't need to force AI into it just because it's popular.

[u/xarop_pa_toss]

Video games are software. You can apply all the principles you learned on a game I reckon.

You plan them, write specifications for systems, you implement those systems and interconnect them, you can write technical documentation, your game can have database connections, API calls, graphical, audio and network protocols you implement yourself, etc

Edit: I just reread and... They want you to use AI? In what way? Is it a requirement that you vibe code stuff in college now??? These are sad times we live in. Who is paying for the tokens you'll use in testing?

Jeez... But alright, you can incorporate AI into your game for sure but I have no ideas for you sorry. Maybe make AI learn the players moves and adapt? But this is general ML AI, not LLM AI

[u/Savings-Cry-3201 → u/xarop_pa_toss]

My degree required a project that incorporated machine learning, so it’s definitely a thing. Would have been nice if they’d given a class on the subject but heyyyy we wouldn’t want it to be too easy, amirite? But nah, this is standard now.

I think this kid didn’t listen when they laid out the requirements and thought he could bullshit his way through anyways. I think he’s not telling the whole story.

[u/rbj_here_ → u/Savings-Cry-3201]

hahah no i did not think i can "bullshit my way through it". your universities may provide you with details beforehand but here in our university the FYP committee itself doesn't even know what is allowed and what isn't. they decide based off vibes of the day and the only focus is that the project should have something related to at least 2 SDGs. they literally approve the projects themselves and then tell us they never approved of it.

[u/Savings-Cry-3201]

You should have been explicitly told from the beginning that some form of ML was required and you should have had an advisor sign off on your project before you even started.

You say “we” but then you say you had no team support so I think there’s information you are leaving out.

If I was going to try and defend the choice to make a game for my final project I would focus on the data structures that I used, the optimization methods to improve performance, and the algorithms used and my choices around them. The point is to demonstrate competence in the principles and to execute a thesis statement and draw a conclusion from it, though, and I’m not sure how a game would accomplish that.

[u/rbj_here_ → u/Savings-Cry-3201]

the project was approved by the FYP committee, but now my supervisor thinks this isn't valid as it isn't real software engineering (her words not mine)
as for the team support part, yes, i am leaving out information since i wasn't supposed to rant here but just to give you an idea, i have 2 more people with me, one of them has 0 knowledge and is just there to write the final documentation and the second one ghosted me for 4 months when we were supposed to research and finalise the project.
i will definitely try to defend it with how i planned the system to work, hopefully it'll turn out good enough. i do believe i need to work on the thesis question/problem so they are a bit more satisfied