Who am I? Michael Steele

Emergent Game Technologies Redefining the craft of game development. New Production Methodologies and Infrastructures Presentation for UCI MASSIVE Conference April 20 th, 2006

Why are new methods these needed? SCALE - Traditional development methodologies don’t scale very well -Tech, Production, Testing, Community and Service -Solutions are costly & risky (bigger teams, heavy iron, longer dev cycles) -Outside game industry’s core competency BUSINESS - Business model is rapidly evolving -Transition to customer-centric (service) industry -Direct-2-market means disintermediation of traditional channels -Tested solutions are needed for new monetization schemes

Simplistic Solutions to be wary of: Open-Source Technology –Not Scalable or Mission-Rated High Level Scripting Languages –Java VM, Python, Ruby, LUA Leveraged or GP Infrastructures –GRID computing –Commodity Hosting and Bandwidth Homemade or ad-hoc eCommerce Solutions –Far away from our core competency –Legal/Liability/Audit compliance

What does work? Discipline and Engineering Excellence –6 of the 7 classically “hard” CS problems… –Choosing good middleware can save you ~40% –The rest is still very hard work! New development methodologies that focus on Rapid Iteration –Test-Centric Development –Use of advanced automation everywhere in your process –Use imbedded metrics everywhere –Tools Tools Tools! Professional solutions for non core-competency areas –Top-Notch enterprise-grade eCommerce –High performance, low-latency data centers –Professional operational tools (IT, CRM, etc.)

New methods should be used to reduce time & complexity Game development life cycle: 1.5 to 4 years Live Operations Technology Content Test Technology Content Test New Methods + Middleware Tools + Automation Automated testing + Metrics ContentTest – Faster generation of new content – Lower recurring Dev/QA costs – Higher game stability – Rapid response to problems Launch Can take 20% to 40% cost out of The development cycle