Strategy Games Programming GAM 378

What this class is about  What I hear from employers teamwork meeting a schedule

Teamwork  All of us will be working on one project very tight timeline  Productivity is key no wasted time or effort get roadblocks resolved quickly  Communication is key stay in touch know who is doing what  Roles are key do your job, not someone else's know what is expected of you  Game development takes place in multi-disciplinary teams demonstrate that you can be part of one

Meeting a Schedule  We have a hard "ship date"  We have limited resources no full-time employees!  Iron triangle on budget on schedule working pick two  The only defenses: planning risk management  Game development projects are always resource- challenged demonstrate that you can live through it features budget schedule

Quality  We want a high-quality product  Includes good coding practices good documentation

Roles  Me Hat #1: Teacher  making this a learning experience  assessment, etc. Hat #2: Executive Producer  helping facilitate project  obtaining needed resources  setting standards  evaluating milestones

Roles, cont'd  Art Group produce and maintain art assets Members  Jan Abero, Matt Kenley, Tim Lobes, Ryan Wiemeyer  Design produce and maintain game design Members  Chris Bieneman, Vadim Flaks, Chris Ingebrigtsen, Dan O'Brien  Programming produce and maintain the game code Members  Matt Buer, Chris Gantchev, Mark Gilliam, Nikhil Krishnaswamy, Jason Pecho, Kevin Reedy  Testing everybody

Roles, cont'd  Art Lead Tim Lobes  Project/Design Lead Chris Bieneman  Technical Lead Matt Buer

Lead Role  Responsible for assigning work ensuring completion of work reporting arbitrating decisions / points of contention

Organization  Each week Team meeting Group work  Team meeting updates from me each lead will give a status report one member of each group will make a short presentation on their current work  Group work work in the labs I will be available wherever needed  Very important to be here only time that everyone is assured of being together

"HOG Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders..." - Carl Sandburg

The Project As Carl Sandburg knew, Chicago can be an unforgiving place for the newcomer. Yet time after time, new groups have come and established themselves in it: Irish, Germans, African-Americans, South Asians, Mexicans, to name just a few. As a player of this game, you will direct the efforts of an ethnic group as it struggles for the necessities of urban life: gainful work, a place to live, welcoming neighborhoods, and eventually political power. Based on the epic turn- based strategy game Civilization IV, the game will feature thought-provoking strategic gameplay that is the hallmark of the Civilization series, embedded in the familiar context of the "City of Big Shoulders", confronting players with the choices and realities that made Chicago what it is today.

A Mod of Civilization IV  But a very "deep" mod  Different economy, units, buildings, modes of conflict, etc.  Civ IV provides a very strong framework but there is a lot to do

Milestones  1/10 (7 days) Initial project plan  2/7 (35 days) Demo 1  2/14 (42 days) Revised plan  2/28 (56 days) Demo 2  3/14 (70 days) Project presentation and wrap-up

Milestone 1: Plan  What is your group going to do?  How long is it going to take?  Who will do it?  Can we plan without a design? yes work backwards from the deadline what can be done becomes a constraint in the design some aspects will be vague

Milestone 2: Demo 1  Basic gameplay features resources unit building unit interactions

Milestone 3: Replan  Much more will be known  Should be able to predict what can be done in the remaining time (4 weeks)

Milestone 4: Demo 2  Playable game  May be missing elements art certain units gameplay balance

Milestone 5: Final game  Completed game and presentation  I plan to invite local game industry people to see your work

Assessment  75% Final product "game review"  25% Individual contribution "bonus"

Exercise #1  Brainstorming  We will play the game  Throw out ideas about how things should work in the mod  Leads write down those that apply to your area

Exercise #2  (Rumsfeldian) Planning Exercise Known Knowns  what we know about the task ahead Unknown knowns  specific details that we know can be discovered Known Unknowns  areas of uncertainty that we can predict we will encounter Unknown Unknowns  surprises

Example: Planning a trip  Known known what car I will drive  Unknown known how much gas is in the tank  Known unknown where I will stop for gas when the gas is low  Unknown unknown an unpredictable car breakdown

Exercise  Meet with your groups  Identify the (many) unknowns in your area of the project

Next week  Leads will work on planning milestone  Art Investigate art assets used in the game Choose tools and design art pipeline Design a box for the game  Design Divide responsibility for aspects of the design Complete design overview  Programming Divide responsibility for different parts of the game code  core API  modding tools  XML files Stable development platform  version control  working SDK + compiler Investigate code  what parts will need to change?  what parts can stay as is?