"Cowboy-style" programming refers to a style of software development where programmers have autonomy over the development process. While we as a team tried to remain as formal as possible, the nature of this project often made the finer points of software engineering more of an obstacle than anything else. Chad was working with smartphone accelerometers when he was approached by Professor Levine about the Calling All Innovators contest. They, in turn, recruited Brian from the UT Arlington Game Developers Club. By next class, Brian and Chad were joined by Ivan, Aaron, David, and Skyler.
The rest of the class were slowly and carefully easing into their projects, however we had an intense deadline coming up - no time for formalities! Using Google Code, Skype, Facebook, email, and designs drawn up in Microsoft Word, we all started cranking out code like our lives depended on it. We would chat (typically online) and discuss features, and which team member would be best-suited to which features. An Issue or three would be added in Google Code, and there would follow several days of intense coding. Rinse, dry, repeat.
And now in the so-called "Hell Week," the period of time for engineering students where every project and homework ever is simultaneously due, production on Dice Hero has slowed significantly. But in an effort to show we are still professionals, we have added documentation - namely, our risk analysis and an overview of our schedule. (There is a more detailed schedule, but it is currently in Microsoft Project 2010 format, and does not lend itself to web formats very easily. In fact, the image of our schedule in our PDF document came out looking rather blurry.)
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