Capstone Project Proposal

COMP 10076 Capstone Prep

Project Name: Cribbage

Developer: Simon Le Blanc

Project Proposal Advisor: Sharon Scollard

Approved:

(Project Proposal Advisor (Date)

(Project Advisor) (Date)

Background
Windows comes with a selection of card games that can be played. One of my favourite card games is
Cribbage. Cribbage is a widely played game but I have not found a good Cribbage program available
for free to play against an Artificial Intelligence(AI). The goal of this project is to create a simple and
easy to use Cribbage game with the same look and feel as other Microsoft Card games (ex: Solitaire,
FreeCell). The user will need to use the keyboard and mouse for basic input, some hot keys will be
available but the user will not have to use them to play a game. The user will need to know how to
play Cribbage.

Project Description
Technologies
This will be a desktop application written in Windows Presentation Foundation(WPF) C#. Microsoft
Visual Studio Editor will be the editor used to develop all C# code used behind the User Interface(UI).
To develop the UI Microsoft Expression Blend will be utilized. Git will be used for source control.
Testing of the C# code will be done using the Microsoft Visual Studio built in Unit Test Framework.

Project Functionality
Menu

The game will have a menu. It will have a New Game (hot key F2), Statistics (hot key F4), Options (hot
key F5), Change appearance (hot key F6) and Exit.

Figure 1: Game menu

New Game

When a New Game event occurs a player will be randomly chosen to draw a card first (the AI or the
Human could draw the card first). The player with the lowest card starts with the crib.

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Figure 2: Draw a Card for Crib

Statistics

The game will keep track of Games played and Games won by using the registry. The win percentage
will be a calculated value. The Statistics window will look almost identical to the Game Won window
(See Figure 6).

Options

There will be the ability to turn On/Off the Muggins feature.

Muggins

If this feature is turned on, the players will have to manually count the points in their hand during the
“Show” faze of the round. If the player counts incorrectly, then the opposing player may shout
“MUGGINS!” (will be a button that can only be pressed 2 seconds after a player declares there points).
If the player counting counted too low, then the player may take up to the maximum allotted points of
the hand. If the player counted too high then they will lose 2 points from the actual point value from
their hand.

If time permits, I will put different levels of AI challenge, for example an Easy, Medium and Hard
difficulty setting.

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Change Appearance

This feature will give the user the ability to modify the playing cards and the felt that is played on.

Figure 3: Different Appearances the user can Select to change the look of the game

Language

The user will have the option of playing the game in either English or French. In order for all of the text
to change to the desired language, the application will have to be restarted.

Figure 4: Changing the language

Playing the Game

Each player will be dealt 6 cards face down from the deck. Each player will choose 2 of their 6 cards to
put into the crib, face down. The player who does not own the crib cuts the deck and draws a single
card. That card is put face up on top of the deck. Next the player who does not own the crib plays a
card from his hand first and then the other player plays a card. They score points on 15s, runs and
pairs and alternate playing until they are out of cards or neither player can play a card where the total
count of cards played is less than or equal to 31. If this happens the player who last played gets a “go”

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1 point. If the player plays a card and gets 31 they get 2 points. In either case, the card count is reset
to 0 and players repeat the process until out of cards.

Figure 5: The play

The Show

The player who doesn't own the crib counts the points in there hand with the card on top of the deck.

Next the player who owns the crib counts the points in there hand with the card on top of the deck
and finally counts the points in their crib with the card on top of the deck.

All cards are then put back into the deck which is shuffled and the game starts over again from the
play. The player who did not own the crib, now owns the crib and the player who use to own the crib
now does not own the crib.

The game ends when a player gets to 121 or more points.

Scoring Points

Whenever a player scores points, the “Pegs” on the Cribbage change based on the points the player
scores. 2 pegs are used for scoring points, the peg which is the closest to the Finish line is the player's
current total points. The other peg was the player's previous point value. Example: A player has Peg 1
on point 6 and Peg 2 on point 18. The player count's his hand and earns 6 points. The player's Peg 1

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would be moved 6 points after Peg 2, to point 24.

Finishing the game

Upon completing a game, a dialogue box will be shown, either a Game Won or Game Lost screen.

Figure 6: Game Won Message

The Game Lost screen will have the exact same information and buttons as above, only the text will
differ.

Test Plan
This project will use the built in Visual Studio Test projects to ensure all business rules are met. The
tests will be developed in C#. Tests will use hard coded data that should produce a certain result. A list
of some tests I will use:

• Given a hand with a 2 of clubs, 10 of clubs, 10 of spades and Queen of hearts, how many points
should that player score? Answer is 2, a pair of 10s of two.

• When dealing a new hand, ensure 6 cards are dealt.

• Given 4 games played and 2 games won, what is the win percentage? Answer should be 50%.

Resources
I will be using my home workstation for all development and most testing. I will be using MSDN
heavily for questions I may have during development.

Challenges
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Investigate how to use Expression Blend to create visual effects. Investigate how to determine native
operating system's localization to determine language settings and how to switch from English to
French. Creating an AI that is challenging to play against.

Project Plan
Week:

1. Layout all business rules and overall design of Class Architecture

2. Development of playing Cards class as well as utility functions like how many points are in a
hand.

3. Testing of playing Cards class as well as utility functions like how many points are in a hand.

4. Basic UI Development

5. Research & Implement Localization

6. AI Development

7. AI Development

8. Test AI

9. Research Expression Blend

10. Use Expression Blend techniques to create special effects in UI.

11. Final Testing/Bug fixes

12. Final Testing/Bug fixes

13. Develop Final Presentation

14. Practice Final Presentation