Overview of Software Development Methodologies

• Game Design:
  • http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1940.asp - Game Unified Process
  • http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1843.asp - Incremental Development

• Gamasutra
  • http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml - How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days: Tips and Tricks from 4 Grad Students Who Made Over 50 Games in 1 Semester

• Game Design Document
  • a game design document (Flauncy Space Cows)

• ~80% of the development is design
• ~20% of the development is the actual coding
• Planning and some documentation are important.

Why do many game projects fail (besides bugs galore and overworked developers)?

• Difference in goals and methodologies among team members or groups
• Unreasonable goals and “too many ideas”
• Dedication (lack of…)
• Skill and knowledge (lack of …)
• Poor project management

• Requirements Phase
  • Kickoff meeting(s) with the business analysts, product managers, and senior development personnel
  • Provide an overview of your game
  • Establish project goals
  • Set a tentative development budget
  • Set a tentative development timeline

• Specification Phase
  • Define what the game should do to meet needs
  • Detail high-level functionality (e.g., the important features)
  • Detail secondary-level features (e.g., nice to have, but not critical)
  • Identify gameplay modes
  • Identify settings, mechanics, interaction models, etc.
  • Outline how the game is “won”

• Design Phase
  • Get to the specifics of the game based on the design specifications
  • Identify all the actions, errors, tokens, states, labels in the game (might draw a state diagram on how the user moves around the game)
    • state diagram example1, example2)
  • Draw mockup screenshots of environment
  • Draw mockup screenshots of user interface
  • Write a low-level (technical) design on all the functions of the game (e.g., menu items)

• Implementation Phase
  • The actual programming (or coding) of the game based on the design specification

• Integration Phase
  • Put everything together into a finished game
  • Several rounds of testing
  • Fix lingering bugs
  • Release beta test of product for people to try it out

• Operation Mode
  • The game has “gone gold”
  • Game is rolled-out to production (actual use)
  • Maintenance: keep the product working and useful to players
  • Fix lingering bugs
  • Add enhancements to game
  • Release patches

• Retirement
  • Not rare in computer / video gaming (unlike certain business software)
  • Remove the product from service (thus, product is no longer supported)
  • Guard legacy source code

• Too popular (and beaten into the heads of countless software engineers)
• You cannot move on to the next phase without completing the current phase…
• …and you cannot go backwards.
• Very time-consuming and exhaustive
• Document-centric
• Quality assurance (testing) is most likely to get short-changed when time runs short
• A provocative video

• Rapid prototyping phase before specification (popular)

• Build game in increments (repeated loop; “baby steps”)
  • merge design, implementation, and integration phases into a repeated block
  • There is always something tangible.
  • Checkpoints and testing are important.
  • Reduces errors

• “Creative writing seminar”
  • best written components and modules wins

• Extreme Programming (XP)
  • Team-based and very collaborative
  • Hardly any documentation
  • Unit testing
  • Success depends on ALL members of the team on the same page
  • Very fast (average 6 month for project)
  • Programmers are king; tends to alienate non-programmers on team

• All about the interaction of the user and the game
• Ensure the core mechanics work
• Test the fundamental rules of the game
• Visuals are secondary

His games resume:

• The Civilization Series
• Pirates
• Railroad Tycoon
• Gettysberg, Antietam
• Alpha Centauri
• SimGolf
• others

“Players should have the fun, not the programmer or designer.”

“Begin the game with great opening minutes.”

“Great gameplay is a stream of interesting decisions that the player must resolve.”

“Put the player in a position where he/she is the hero.”

His development process:

• Prototype
• Play the game for a while and get the basics right.
  • “He designs and creates his games by playing them, over and over, until they are fun.” (Wikipedia)
• Now get other people to look at the game.
• Meticulously observe the players of the game.
• Constantly reward the player in the game.
• Throw in new game testers.
• Make the game harder until the players beg for mercy.
• Interview on Slashdot

• Not all design documents will have all of the following elements.
  • Game Title
  • Overview
  • Gameplay modes
  • Core features in the game
  • Secondary features in the game
  • State diagrams (schematics)
  • Game internal economy
  • Game balance
  • Victory conditions
  • Interface design (high-tech or low-tech)

• Project history (i.e., Have a plan? Write it down!)
• Project internal communication
• Identify system limitations
• Develop project plan and budget