Introduction to game development roles, pipelines, game engines and lessons learned.

1. Game Development Challenges
Nick Prühs

2. About Me
“BestBachelor“ComputerScience
KielUniversity,2009
MasterGames
HamburgUniversityofAppliedSciences,2011
LeadProgrammer
DaedalicEntertainment,2011-2012
Co-Founder
slashgames,2013
2 / 113

3. Diversity of Games
3 / 113

4. Diversity of Games
4 / 113

5. Diversity of Games
5 / 113

6. Diversity of Games
6 / 113

7. Diversity of Games
7 / 113

8. Diversity of Games
8 / 113

9. Diversity of Games
9 / 113

10. Game Development Roles
Programming
10 / 113

11. Game Development Roles
2D Art
11 / 113

12. Game Development Roles
3D Art
12 / 113

13. Game Development Roles
Game Design
13 / 113

14. Game Development Roles
Sound Design
14 / 113

15. Game Development Roles
Cinematic Art
15 / 113

16. Game Development Roles
Game Author
16 / 113

17. Game Development Roles
Level Designer
17 / 113

18. Game Development Roles
Technical Artist
18 / 113

19. Game Development Roles
Localization
19 / 113

20. Game Development Roles
Producer
20 / 113

21. Game Development Roles
QA & Support
21 / 113

22. Game Development Roles
Marketing
22 / 113

23. Game Development Roles
PR
23 / 113

24. Game Development Roles
Community Management
24 / 113

25. Game Development Roles
Analytics
25 / 113

26. Art Pipelines
26 / 113

27. Art Pipelines
27 / 113

28. Art Pipelines
28 / 113

29. Art Pipelines
29 / 113

30. Game Engines
30 / 113

31. Game Engines
31 / 113

32. Game Engines
32 / 113

33. Game Engines
33 / 113

34. Game Engines
34 / 113

35. Example: Physics
35 / 113

36. Example: Physics
36 / 113

37. Example: Physics
37 / 113
−휖푣퐴퐵푛
=
푣퐴퐵 ′푛
definition
coefficient of restitution
=
(푣퐴′ −푣퐵′ )푛
definition
relativevelocity
=
(푣퐴+ 푗 푀퐴 푛−푣퐵+ 푗 푀퐵 푛)푛
definition
collision impulse
=
푣퐴푛+ 푗 푀퐴 푛푛−푣퐵푛+ 푗 푀퐵 푛푛
distribution
=
푣퐴푛−푣퐵푛+ 푗 푀퐴 푛푛+ 푗 푀퐵 푛푛
commutativeproperty
=
푣퐴퐵푛+ 푗 푀퐴 푛푛+ 푗 푀퐵 푛푛
definition
relativevelocity

38. Lessons Learned
38 / 113

39. Campus Buddies
39 / 113

40. Campus Buddies
40 / 113

41. Campus Buddies
41 / 113

42. Campus Buddies
42 / 113

43. 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
43 / 113

44. Campus BuddiesFeatures
44 / 113
Development Scope
10 Weeks

45. Lessons Learned
45 / 113

46. Gotcha!
LESSON 1:
ExpectchangesofexternalAPIs!
46 / 113

47. External APIs
47 / 113
•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

48. External APIs
48 / 113

49. External APIs
49 / 113
•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.

50. Hint
LESSON 2:
Avoiddoingeverythingyourself!
50 / 113

51. Don’t Reinvent The Wheel
51 / 113
•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!

52. Don’t Reinvent The Wheel
52 / 113

53. Hint
LESSON 3:
Maketestingaseasy aspossible!
53 / 113

54. Make testing easy!
54 / 113
Atthebeginningoftheproject,Christianhadtheideaofcreatingadebugwebpagecontaininglinksforseveraldebugfunctions
•creating and logging in a test user
•adding points for the current user
•unlocking achievements
•and many, many more

55. Make testing easy!
55 / 113

56. Make testing easy!
56 / 113
This was arguably the best idea we had throughout the project.

57. Make testing easy!
57 / 113
•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

58. Hint
LESSON 4:
Makedeploymentaseasy aspossible!
58 / 113

59. Deploy often!
59 / 113
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

60. Deploy often!
60 / 113

61. Deploy often!
You wouldn’t wanna do all that by hand.
Every time.
Do you?
61 / 113

62. Campus BuddiesLessons Learned
62 / 113

63. Hint
LESSON 5:
Mock networkinteractionfortesting!
63 / 113

64. Mocking
•Everything that involves network communication is annoying to test.
•Wemockedparts 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.
64 / 113

65. 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.deCampus Buddies" <keineantwort@campus-buddies.de>
2013-05-19 19:36:29,983 -[INFO] -from applicationTO:"Nick" <mail@npruehs.de>
2013-05-19 19:36:29,985 -[INFO] -from applicationTEXT:
<html> <head> <title> ...
65 / 113

66. Mocking
Thisallowedustocheckallpartsofourapplicationthatincludesendingmailswithouthavingtospamour(oreveryones…)inboxes.
66 / 113

67. Campus BuddiesLessons Learned
67 / 113

68. Gotcha!
LESSON 6:
Standardizeyourcodestyle!
68 / 113

69. 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
69 / 113

70. Merge Conflict
70 / 113

71. StyleCop
71 / 113

72. StyleCop
72 / 113

73. Eclipse
73 / 113

74. Eclipse
74 / 113

75. Lessons Learned
75 / 113

76. FreudBot
76 / 113

77. FreudBot
77 / 113

78. FreudBot
78 / 113

79. FreudBot
79 / 113

80. 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)
80 / 113

81. Lessons Learned
81 / 113

82. Hint
LESSON 1:
Usea feature-basedprojectstructure!
82 / 113

83. Feature Folders
•Project Root
•FingerGestures
•FreudBot
•HOTween
•NGUI
•NData
•Unity Test Tools
83 / 113

84. Feature Folders
•Project Root
•FingerGestures
•FreudBot
•Animations
•Atlases
•Fonts
•Localization
•Prefabs
•Scenes
•Sounds
•Sprites
•Scripts
•HOTween
•NGUI
•NData
•Unity Test Tools
84 / 113

85. Feature Folders
•Project Root
•FreudBot
•Scripts
•Ads
•Analytics
•Comics
•Core
•Debug
•Dialogue
•IAP
•Mobile
•Progression
•Sound
•UI
85 / 113

86. Feature Folders
•Project Root
•FreudBot
•Scripts
•Ads
•Components
•Events
•Systems
86 / 113

87. Feature Folders
This way, features and plugins can easily be updated or removed without having to scan the full project tree.
87 / 113

88. Hint
LESSON 2:
Collaborationfirst!
88 / 113

89. Collaborationfirst!
89 / 113

90. Collaborationfirst!
Excel
CSV
XML
Game
90 / 113

91. Collaborationfirst!
Excel
CSV
XML
Game
91 / 113

92. 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.
92 / 113

93. Hint
LESSON 3:
Listen toyourplayers!
93 / 113

94. Analytics
94 / 113

95. Analytics
95 / 113

96. Analytics
96 / 113
This is okay. (Endboss)

97. Analytics
97 / 113
This is not. (Intermediate level)

98. Gotcha!
LESSON 4:
Don‘tforgetthetutorial!
98 / 113

99. Tutorials
99 / 113

100. 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)
•TweeningUI in step by step
•Providing fixed outcomes (e.g. always same card hand)
100 / 113

101. Hint
LESSON 5:
There‘s2D skeletalanimation!
101 / 113

102. Spine
102 / 113

103. Spine Atlas Image
103 / 113

104. Spine Atlas File
104 / 113

105. Spine Animation File
105 / 113

106. FreudBotLessons Learned
106 / 113

107. Gotcha!
LESSON 6:
Localizationisa bitch!
107 / 113

108. Localization Sheet
108 / 113

109. Localization Pipeline
109 / 113
Game
XML
CSV
Excel
CSV
XML

110. 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
110 / 113

111. And there is more…
•Learn from others!
•Stick to your plan!
•Build prototypes!
•Use automatic testing!
•Setup proper version control workflows!
111 / 113

112. And there is more…
•Learn from others!
•Stick to your plan!
•Build prototypes!
•Use automatic testing!
•Setup proper version control workflows!
See Game Programminghttp://www.npruehs.de/teaching/game-programming/
Monday, 8.30 am, E 45
112 / 113

113. Thankyouforyourattention!
Contact
Mail
dev@npruehs.de
Blog
http://www.npruehs.de
Twitter
@npruehs
Github
https://github.com/npruehs
113 / 113