Software Engineering in the Game Industry Bill Pyne.

Software Engineering in the Game IndustryBill Pyne

Outline

Background IssuesTrends

ProcessesCommon PracticesExperimental Practices

Tools

Background

Technology Issues

Hardware changes at an incredible rate Pressure to support the latest and greatest Developers may work on support for

hardware long before the hardware’s completion

Hardware may even be buggy

Publisher Issues

Many game studios live and die by their publishers

Publishers tend to follow market trends and don’t take many “risks”

Game developers could be forced to develop for particular hardware and platforms late into development

Developers Issues

High quality and originality can take up too much time

Asking a developer to spend less time on a task hurts morale

The game is not done in the eyes of a developer until it’s “perfect”

The “fun” factor requirement

Team Layout

Lead Programmer

Producer

Lead Artist

Lead Game Designer

Lead Tester

Tester

Game Designer

Level Designer

Sound Designer

2D Artist

3D Artist

Game Programmer

Engine Programmer

Tool Programmer

Animator

Lead Sound Designer

Developing for Unfinished Products Developers are trying to cut the time to

market in supporting the latest and greatest DirectX 10 documentation included in the

DirectX 9 December 2005 SDK Update Console launch titles Unreal Engine 3 used through out the

industry before its completion

Team Sizes

More content developers needed to meet the growing demand

Engine programming is highly specialized (physics, graphics, sound, etc.) and requires more programmers

Average team sizes from ~20 to ~40

High-Poly Character

Image from http://www.unrealtechnology.com/html/technology/ue30.shtml

Low-Poly Character


Normal-Mapped Character


Processes

“Standard” Game Development

The Waterfall Model Many companies stay

close to this model but may not even have a name for it

Image from Microsoft Clipart.

Concept

The idea is born Originates from an employee’s idea or a

publisher’s acquired license (movie, book, etc.)

Game designer writes a brief concept document

Pre-Production

Game designer writes the design doc Programmers determine if the ideas are

doable Programmers produce the tech doc Artists produce concept art Producer determines project schedule

Production

Programming and content production begins

Producers collaborate between departments

Sometimes little communication between departments (“us” vs. “them”)

Post-Production

Lead tester devises a test plan Testers begin the bug hunt Game play and content are tweaked Game may be localized after the English

version has been shipped

“The Cabal” Process

Developed by Valve Software for Half-Life First attempt at Half-Life was scrapped Valve lacked an official Game Designer Some sort of software design process was

needed to organize the multiple disciplines

Image from http://www.valvesoftware.com/

Overview

“The Cabal” was to generate a 200+ page design document detailing each level in the game

Mini-Cabals were used to solve smaller design problems

Professional writer employed to over watch the story-line and maintain the design document

“The Cabal”

Group acted as the “Game Designer” Loosely structured brainstorming sessions

held 4 days a week for 6 hours each day Multiple disciplines were represented One person recorded the design Another person drew concept art

“The Cabal” Cycling

Members were rotated through every couple of months to prevent burn-out

Each cabal group had a few previous members to spread experience

Important to make sure each discipline was represented

Mini-Cabals

Went into more detail on a design issue handed down from “The Cabal”

Members consisted of individuals in charge of implementing the design decision

Provided fresh insight for “The Cabal”

Benefits

Every team member has a better understanding of the entire project

Game play is a combination of the team’s experience and not just a single designer

Encourages the team to work together instead of in their own “camps”

Extending “The Cabal” Process

HL2 development team was about twice as large as HL1

Valve didn’t want a bottleneck with “The Cabal” in decision making

Image from Half-Life 2 box art.

Design Cabals

3 design cabals were given their own section of the game to make

Half programmers and half designers since each are one another’s consumers

An engine programmer was present in each cabal for technology requests

Shared Resources

Art, acting, and sound were not represented in the cabals

Design cabals would place requests for the shared resources

Shared resources put the final touches on levels

Consistency

Team-wide play tests provided feedback between cabal groups

Weapons cabal was formed from the 3 design cabals to handle player items used throughout the entire game

A 2nd pass through the game was needed to improve quality and consistency issues

Extreme Game Development (XGD) Proposed by Thomas Demachy

at Titus Interactive Studio Based on Extreme Programming

(XP) The producer is the “client” The game designer collaborates

with the producer

Image from http://www.extremegamedev.org

Milestones

Scheduled for every 6 weeks “Planning Game” takes place at the beginning

of each milestone cycle for the team and producer to decide on which “user stories” to implement

Game should be playable as early as possible

Broken down into development cycles

Development Cycles

Scheduled in 2 week increments Precise tasks are determined and

completed Count unit and functional tests to measure

progress

Milestone Completion

Celebrate for the sake of morale! Find glitches and plan to fix them for the

next milestone Postmortem is written after receiving

feedback from the team and the “client” Examples of postmortems can be found at

www.gamasutra.com

XGD Dashboard

Producer evaluates each practice and tool the team uses to make-up the “XGD Dashboard”

Evaluation scores range from 0 to 5 and should include a short comment

XGD may not be right for the team if scores continue to drop each iteration

Tools

Version Control Blues

Programmers need protection from content developers

Content developers need protection from programmers

QA becomes a necessity even on smaller teams

Version Control with QA

Image from http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050829/olsson_01.shtml

Asset Management

Much more than versioning control Content can be difficult to keep track of Level Designers need a way to look for

specific content to fit the needs of their level Tools are needed to search existing content

and manage content as it goes through the development pipeline

Alienbrain

Specially designed for artists Supports art previewing Support for source code but

not as powerful in this realm as other software

Current customers include Lucas Arts, id Software, Atari, and the list goes on

Image from http://www.alienbrain.com/

XNA

Content Creation, Production Processes, and Game Technologies

Lower development costs while improving quality

Image and summary from http://www.microsoft.com/xna/

XNA Studio

Extension of Visual Studios 2005 Team System

Designed to aid collaboration between team members (programmers, artists, management, etc.)

Task and defect tracking, asset management (source control and management for content), etc.

Game Development Platform

Support for current and future XBox and Windows platforms

Attempts to mask the differences between platforms

Uses DirectX Stresses High Definition content (HD)

Developer Interviews

Video from http://www.microsoft.com/xna/

References Alienbrain® - http://www.alienbrain.com/

“Book Excerpt: Implementing a Digital Asset Management System: Workflow Integration” - http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060124/jacobsen_01.shtml

“The Cabal: Valve’s Design Process For Creating Half-Life” - http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19991210/birdwell_01.htm

“Extreme Game Development: Right on Time, Every Time” - http://www.gamasutra.com/resource_guide/20030714/demachy_01.shtml

“The games development process” - http://www.eurocom.co.uk/careers/games-d-p.php

“Hierarchy of a Game Development Company” - http://games.ign.com/articles/672/672661p1.html

“The Process” - http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050829/olsson_01.shtml

“Scaling the Cabal: Valve's Design Process for Creating Half-Life 2” - Game Developer Magazine, November 2005

Unreal Engine 3™ - http://www.unrealtechnology.com/html/technology/ue30.shtml

XNA™ - http://www.microsoft.com/xna/

Software Engineering in the Game Industry Bill Pyne.

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