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

featuresbudg

et

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?