Game Development Challenges

Game Development Challenges

Nick Prühs

About Me

“Best Bachelor“ Computer ScienceKiel University, 2009

Master GamesHamburg University of Applied Sciences, 2011

Lead ProgrammerDaedalic Entertainment, 2011-2012

Co-Founderslash games, 2013

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Diversity of Games

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Diversity of Games

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Diversity of Games

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Diversity of Games

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Diversity of Games

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Diversity of Games

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Diversity of Games

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Game Development Roles

Programming

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2D Art

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3D Art

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Game Design

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Sound Design

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Cinematic Art

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Game Author

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Level Designer

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Technical Artist

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Localization

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Producer

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QA & Support

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Marketing

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PR

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Community Management

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Analytics

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Art Pipelines

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Art Pipelines

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Art Pipelines

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Art Pipelines

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Game Engines

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Game Engines

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Game Engines

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Game Engines

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Game Engines

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Example: Physics

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Example: Physics

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Example: Physics

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−𝜖𝑣𝐴𝐵𝑛 = 𝑣𝐴𝐵′ 𝑛 definition

coefficient of restitution

= (𝑣𝐴′ − 𝑣𝐵

′ )𝑛 definitionrelative velocity

=(𝑣𝐴 +

𝑗

𝑀𝐴𝑛 − 𝑣𝐵 +

𝑗

𝑀𝐵𝑛)𝑛

definitioncollision impulse

=𝑣𝐴𝑛 +

𝑗

𝑀𝐴𝑛𝑛 − 𝑣𝐵𝑛 +

𝑗

𝑀𝐵𝑛𝑛

distribution

=𝑣𝐴𝑛 − 𝑣𝐵𝑛 +

𝑗

𝑀𝐴𝑛𝑛 +

𝑗

𝑀𝐵𝑛𝑛

commutative property

=𝑣𝐴𝐵𝑛 +

𝑗

𝑀𝐴𝑛𝑛 +

𝑗

𝑀𝐵𝑛𝑛

definitionrelative velocity

Lessons Learned

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Campus Buddies

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Campus Buddies

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Campus Buddies

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Campus Buddies

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Campus BuddiesFeatures• Sharing ads using multiple channels (Email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+)

• Lead verification as specified by Yourfone

• Authentication by different providers (username/password, Facebook)

• Classical gamification mechanics (achievements, level ups, …)

• Periodic competitions resolved by the server

• Dynamic news stream

• Full moderation backend

• Responsive mobile version

• Facebook OpenGraph integration

• Friend referral program

• Customized reportings

• Secure reward shop

• Stateless Scalable Web Application

• SSL-Encryption

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Campus BuddiesFeatures

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Development Scope

10 Weeks

Lessons Learned

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Gotcha!

LESSON 1:

Expect changes of external APIs!

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External APIs

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• Integrated three of the major social platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Google+

• During the development process, both Facebook and Google+ changed their APIs…

• … effectively turning some of our code into useless rubbish

• Took about a day or two to get everything up and running again

External APIs

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External APIs

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• Talking to other web developers, we learned that social platform providers tend to change their APIs regularly

• They won’t notify you about that.

• Neither before, nor after.

• Never.

Hint

LESSON 2:

Avoid doing everything yourself!

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Don’t Reinvent The Wheel

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• Got a problem that is not exactly related to just your application?

• Maybe someone else has already solved it.

• There’s lots of smart people having spent tens of hundreds of hours on your problem.

• Use that knowledge!

Don’t Reinvent The Wheel

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Hint

LESSON 3:

Make testing as easy as possible!

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Make testing easy!

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At the beginning of the project, Christian had theidea of creating a debug web page containing linksfor several debug functions

• creating and logging in a test user

• adding points for the current user

• unlocking achievements

• and many, many more

Make testing easy!

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Make testing easy!

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This was arguably the best idea we had throughout the project.

Make testing easy!

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• Debugging can be a pain in the ass• especially when network communication is involved

• Our debug page saved us lots of blood, sweat and tears

• The earlier you set up your debugging tools, the more you’ll benefit from them

Hint

LESSON 4:

Make deployment as easy as possible!

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Deploy often!

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Creating a new version can involve a step or two:

• Accessing source control• Syncing working copy• Creating tags

• Writing version numbers• Performing the actual build• Packaging the build result• Publishing the game on a build page• Running unit tests• Sending email notifications

Deploy often!

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Deploy often!

You wouldn’t wanna do all that by hand.

Every time.

Do you?

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Campus BuddiesLessons Learned

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Hint

LESSON 5:

Mock network interaction for testing!

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Mocking

• Everything that involves network communication is annoying to test.

• We mocked parts of the remote interaction of our application• sending e-mails

• verifying leads

• Whenever a mail was sent, it was written to the console instead, for instance.

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Mocking

2013-05-19 19:36:29,980 - [INFO] - from applicationMOCK MAILER: send email

2013-05-19 19:36:29,982 - [INFO] - from applicationFROM:"yourfone.de Campus Buddies" <[email protected]>

2013-05-19 19:36:29,983 - [INFO] - from applicationTO:"Nick" <[email protected]>

2013-05-19 19:36:29,985 - [INFO] - from applicationTEXT:

<html><head><title>...

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Mocking

This allowed us to check all parts of our applicationthat include sending mails without having to spamour (or everyones…) inboxes.

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Campus BuddiesLessons Learned

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Gotcha!

LESSON 6:

Standardize your code style!

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Consistent Code Style

• If you aren’t alone (and I sincerely hope you’re not), you’ll want to standardize your code styles.

• Be clear about tiny details such as tabs vs. spaces• greatly increases maintainability

• reduces the number of merge conflicts

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Merge Conflict

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StyleCop

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StyleCop

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Eclipse

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Eclipse

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Lessons Learned

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FreudBot

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FreudBot

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FreudBot

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FreudBot

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FreudBot Features

• 46 levels, 17 animated characters, 10 screens, 137 cards, 4 comics, 10 000 words, 45 sounds

• Dedicated website and social media channels

• Multiple ad providers and in-app purchases

• Fully localized to five different languages

• Full analytics integration

• Cloud savegames

• Native mobile features (loading screen, snap mode, suspend, charms, toasts)

• Marketing (fan art, card contest, trailer, contests)

• Multi-platform release on iOS, Android, Windows Store, Windows Phone (Windows and Mac to come)

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Lessons Learned

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Hint

LESSON 1:

Use a feature-based project structure!

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Feature Folders

• Project Root• FingerGestures

• FreudBot

• HOTween

• NGUI

• NData

• Unity Test Tools

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Feature Folders

• Project Root• FingerGestures• FreudBot

• Animations• Atlases• Fonts• Localization• Prefabs• Scenes• Sounds• Sprites• Scripts

• HOTween• NGUI• NData• Unity Test Tools

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Feature Folders

• Project Root• FreudBot

• Scripts• Ads• Analytics• Comics• Core• Debug• Dialogue• IAP• Mobile• Progression• Sound• UI

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Feature Folders

• Project Root• FreudBot

• Scripts• Ads

• Components

• Events

• Systems

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Feature Folders

This way, features and plugins can easily be updated or removed without having

to scan the full project tree.

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Hint

LESSON 2:

Collaboration first!

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Excel CSV XML Game

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Excel CSV XML Game

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FreudBotLessons Learned

Let everyone work with the tools they’re most experienced with, and provide a tool chain for

data conversion as soon as possible.

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Hint

LESSON 3:

Listen to your players!

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Analytics

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Analytics

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Analytics

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This is okay. (Endboss)

Analytics

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This is not. (Intermediate level)

Gotcha!

LESSON 4:

Don‘t forget the tutorial!

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Tutorials

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Tutorials

• Have players test your game early on• Don’t talk, just watch and listen.

• Don’t underestimate the time required for implementing your tutorial. It introduces many special cases, such as• Prohibiting player actions (e.g. use ability, end turn)

• Triggering unusual events (e.g. let turn timers expire)

• Tweening UI in step by step

• Providing fixed outcomes (e.g. always same card hand)

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Hint

LESSON 5:

There‘s 2D skeletal animation!

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Spine

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Spine Atlas Image

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Spine Atlas File

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Spine Animation File

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FreudBotLessons Learned

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Gotcha!

LESSON 6:

Localization is a bitch!

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Localization Sheet

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Localization Pipeline

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Game

XML

CSV

Excel

CSV

XML

Localization Best Practice

• Use unique, immutable localization keys• Changing any localization keys will invalidate any sheets

handed out to your localization team

• Highlight new texts, changed texts• These additional texts will have to be localized later

• Provide a playable version of your game, as well as rich background information (e.g. characters, places)• People need to know the game before they can localize it.

• Allow instant integration of the localized texts, if possible• Localization team can check for encoding issues, overlapping

labels, missing texts immediately

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And there is more…

• Learn from others!

• Stick to your plan!

• Build prototypes!

• Use automatic testing!

• Setup proper version control workflows!

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And there is more…

• Learn from others!

• Stick to your plan!

• Build prototypes!

• Use automatic testing!

• Setup proper version control workflows!

See Game Programming

http://www.npruehs.de/teaching/game-programming/

Monday, 8.30 am, E 45

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http://www.npruehs.de/teaching/game-programming/

Thank you for your attention!

Contact

Mail

[email protected]

Blog

http://www.npruehs.de

Twitter

@npruehs

Github

https://github.com/npruehs

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Game Development Challenges

Technology