Game Design For Development Brent M. Dingle 2014 Game Design and Development Program Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science University of Wisconsin - Stout Game Architecture Decomposition to Master Task List

Consider Designing a game FOR Development – requires consideration and understanding of – all the aspects of creating and implementing it Lots of people have game Ideas Some can put that idea into a Design description Very few see their designs be Developed into real games Increase your odds – Design so it is easy to Develop

Who Are You? You are – NOT just an Artist – NOT just a Programmer You are learning to – Design – AND Develop – Games Millions of these Very few Understand and Can Do this Development Process for Games transfers to development of other things -- remember that

Emphasis for Today Designing and Developing a game – requires understanding many aspects – of the development process You should be learning – how to think at all levels of the process When designing a game you should consider – all the aspects of creating and implementing it in addition to all the other things that make a good design

Game Architecture Building a game from Assets

Game Architecture Building a game from Assets Game is made from Assets Premise is

Game Architecture Building a game from Assets Game is made from Assets Assets Build Into Components Premise is

Game Architecture Building a game from Assets Game is made from Assets Assets Build Into Components Components Build Objects Premise is

Game Architecture Building a game from Assets Game is made from Assets Assets Build Into Components Components Build Objects Objects Build Scenes (levels, menus, …) Premise is

Game Architecture Building a game from Assets Game is made from Assets Assets Build Into Components Components Build Objects Objects Build Scenes (levels, menus, …) Scenes Define Games Premise is

BUT we Start at the Top You will be given a high level game description You must Design the Game so it is possible to be Developed successfully – using an approach that is easy to understand and implement

From the Top Decompose the game into manageable pieces – Assets, or game elements, that can be assigned to people to create How? – Categorize the assets – Similar to how people are categorized

People Categories Generic Game Company (GGC) divides employees by disciplines – Design – Art and Animation – Audio – Programming/Engineering – Production – Quality Assurance

Asset Categories

Decompose Have categories of people and assets Now Decompose the game – From the Top

Top Down Since we have only a high level (top) view – We start with a TOP-DOWN approach – Later – When we have lots of basic pieces/assets » We may add extra stuff using a Bottom-Up Approach Re-using assets already created (crazy isn’t it?) May also think: Design and Planning go Top-Down Development and Implementation go Bottom-Up

Asset List Creation – Top Down From Big to Small We have a description of a game Should include scenes/levels/menus/…

Asset List Creation – Top Down From Big to Small We have a description of a game Should include scenes/levels/menus/… Decide on a scene to create

Asset List Creation – Top Down From Big to Small We have a description of a game Should include scenes/levels/menus/… Decide on a scene to create Determine what type of objects are needed to create that scene

Asset List Creation – Top Down From Big to Small We have a description of a game Should include scenes/levels/menus/… Decide on a scene to create Determine what type of objects are needed to create that scene Determine what components we need to make each object in the selected scene

Asset List Creation – Top Down From Big to Small We have a description of a game Should include scenes/levels/menus/… Decide on a scene to create Determine what type of objects are needed to create that scene Determine what components we need to make each object in the selected scene Determine what assets are needed to make each of those components

Asset List Creation – Top Down From Big to Small We have a description of a game Should include scenes/levels/menus/… Decide on a scene to create Determine what type of objects are needed to create that scene Determine what components we need to make each object in the selected scene Determine what assets are needed to make each of those components And viola we have a list of assets for ONE scene Repeat for the other scenes

Game Decomposition: SCENES Game into Scenes – Often derivable straight from Game Description – Usually Easy As things go may add more, sometimes delete extras

Game Decomposition: OBJECTS Scenes into Objects – Usually Easy Add, delete, and move between scenes Different Scenes should decompose into similar same objects – This is good design that makes reuse doable during development – Saves time and money – Can make scenes more unique later (after success)

Game Decomposition: COMPONENTS Objects into Components – Can be tricky – By accident often become equal Try to avoid accidents – Intentional is okay Think: – Component = Generic Ship – Object A = Bomber Ship, Object B = Fighter Ship – Object A = Generic Ship + Bombs, Object B = Generic Ship + Guns – Try to design so that objects are all made from similar components i.e. Objects should decompose into similar components Just as scenes decompose into similar objects

Game Decomposition: ASSETS Components into Assets – Also can be tricky – A component should be made of a small number of assets of the same or different types

Object Decomposition Example Example: PAC-MAN Object – Script Component Asset: Script for user interface motion control Asset: Script for collision with walls – with food and points update – with ghosts and death (if not powered up) – … … – Image Component Asset: Static Image for marketing Asset: Static Image for menus – Animation Component Asset: Image Sequence for Moving Asset: Image Sequence forDying, – Sound Component Asset: Sound for moving Asset: Sound for eating Asset: Sound for dying

Decomposition Summary Simple Enough?

Complication by Humans and English Games are made from Assets – The previous decomposition is very detailed and gets into low level stuff Managers do NOT like tricky stuff – It confuses them

Complication by Humans and English Managers do NOT like tricky stuff – It confuses them Games are made from Assets – The previous decomposition is very detailed and gets into low level stuff Managers do NOT like tricky stuff – It confuses them – They get Objects – They get ‘types’ of workers – They kind of get ‘types’ of assets Their Asset lists tend to be more Object Lists – (object) Asset Lists

Managers do NOT like tricky stuff – It confuses them – They get Objects – They get ‘types’ of workers – They kind of get ‘types’ of assets Their Asset lists tend to be more Object Lists – (object) Asset Lists Complication by Humans and English – And you get (object) Asset Sheets ASIDE: We will talk more on Asset Description Sheets at a later date -how to create them, -where you want to keep them -how detailed thy need to be -…

Asset Description Sheet Most Assets will only have only ONE Description Field – This is showing all of the possibilities based on our asset categorization

(object) Asset Lists Managers create (object) Asset Lists Example:

(object) Asset Lists Managers create (object) Asset Lists Example: Object AssetsAre Composed ofAssets of Various Types

(object) Asset Lists Managers create (object) Asset Lists Example: Object AssetsAre Composed ofAssets of Various Types What is important about this list? This ties your Design through Decomposition to People Skills Making it Easier to Understand, Manage and Develop

(object) Asset Lists Managers create (object) Asset Lists Example: Object AssetsAre Composed ofAssets of Various Types Manager can assign TASKS for Objects for needed scenes to People based on Asset Type and Employee Type

Creating the Master Task List Managers Use the object Asset List to Create Task Lists: To make a Task List, Add columns to it, such as – Estimated Time/Cost – Priority – Status – Actual Time Spent

Adding Columns To make a Task List, Add columns to it, such as – Estimated Time/Cost – Priority – Status – Actual Time Spent

Each Sprint, Fill In the Columns As a team – Assign a priority to each asset – Estimate the time/cost for each asset (total for all categories of work)

Each Sprint, Fill In the Columns As a team – For Each Sprint Based on Object Asset priority – Team members commit to working on the assets

Additional Tasks Not all tasks are game asset creation – EX: Give Status Report and Demo to Client Some tasks may generate temporary things – EX: Create placeholder image to allow script testing Some tasks occur AFTER asset creation – EX: Create new build – EX: Test current build (with all changes) – aside: all independent changes should be tested prior to committing to build

Object Asset Lists – Just ONE way Using Object Asset Lists to generate Task lists – is Just One Way – It is not perfect It illustrates how to – Link the Architecture and Design of the Game to the Development of the Game never forget about the people aspects make the development of the design easy to plan and implement

Summary Designing and Developing a game – requires understanding many aspects – of the development process You should be learning – how to think at all levels of the process When designing a game you should consider – all the aspects of creating and implementing it in addition to all the other things that make a good design

Summary Designing a game FOR Development – requires consideration and understanding of – all the aspects of creating and implementing it Lots of people have game Ideas Some can put that idea into a Design description Very few see their designs be Developed into real games Increase your odds – Design so it is easy to Develop

The End Questions? Additional material may exist past this slide – For practice and/or references