Game Project Development

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Game ProjectDevelopment

• ??? ? ???

2
Introduction to Game Development

• Game platform
• Game types
• Game team
• Game development pipeline
• Game software system
• Tools

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Game Development on PC

• PC is designed for office application.
• Not for entertainment purpose
• A virtual memory system
• Unlimited system memory
• But video memory is limited.
• For frame buffers, z buffers, textures, vertices,
  
• PCI/AGP might be a problem for performance.
• Open architecture
• Hardware driver version
• Different capabilities
• Different performance
• Compatibility test is important.
• Development is easy to setup.
• Visual C/C with DirectX

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Game Development for Consoles

• Specific hardware designed for games
• Single user OS
• Single process OS
• No hard disk drive (?)
• Closed system
• Native coding environment
• Proprietary SDK
• Hardware related features
• C language with assembly
• Limited resources
• Memory for everything
• 32M for PS2
• 64M for Xbox
• One console runs, the others do !
• Use gamepad and no keyboard

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Game Types

• RPG (Role playing games)
• AVG (Adventure games)
• RTS (Real-time strategy games)
• FPS (First-person shooting games)
• RSLG (??)
• STG
• Simulation
• Sports
• Action
• Puzzle games
• Table games
• MMORPG
• Massive Multiple Player Online Role Playing Games

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Game Team Members

• ????
• ???
• ?????
• ????
• ????
• ????
• ??????
• ????(PM)
• ????
• ???????
• ??????
• ???? game master (GM)
• Customer services
• MIS

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Game Producer ?????

• Team Leader (usually)
• ???? (Resource management)
• ???? (Administration)
• ???? (Project management)
• ???? (Upward management)
• ?????
• ????

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???????

• ??????
• Daily ??
• House keeping
• Meeting coordinator
• Schedule checking
• Cross-domain communication
• Usually not a full-time job position
• A position for training and becoming a producer

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????

• ???? (Story telling)
• ???? (Scripting)
• ???? (Game play design)
• ????(Character design)
• ????(Animation design)
• ???? (Level design)
• ????(Effect design)
• ????
• ????(User Interface design)
• ???? (Game tuning)
• ???? (Numerical setup)
• AI ?? (Game AI design)
• ???? (Sound FX setup)
• ???? (Scene setup)
• Game document writing
• Game quality checking

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????

• Visual setup for game design
• 2D setup
• 3D setup
• Graphics design and production
• ?? (Terrain)
• ?? (Character)
• ?? (Models)
• ?? (Textures)
• ?? (Motion / Animation)
• ?? (FX)
• User Interface
• ???? (??.??..?)

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????

• ???? (Game Program) ??
• ?????? (Game Tools) ??
• Level editor
• Scene editor
• FX editor
• Script editor
• Game editor
• ??Data exporters from 3D animation Software
• 3dsMax / Maya / Softimage
• Game engine development
• Game technique research
• Online game server development

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??????
Basic Procedures for Game Development
Idea
Proposal
Production
Integration
Testing
Debug
Tuning
Concept Approval
Prototype
Pre-alpha
Alpha
Beta
Final

• ?? (Idea)
• ?? (Proposal)
• ?? (Production)
• ?? (Integration)
• ?? (Testing)
• ?? (Debug)
• ?? (Tuning)

gt Concept approval
gt ?? (prototype)
gt Pre-alpha
gt Alpha
gt Beta
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????(Concept Design)

• ???? (Game types)
• ????? (Game world)
• ?? (Story)
• ???? (Features)
• ???? (Game play)
• ???? (Game product positioning)
• Target player
• Marketing segmentation / positioning
• ??????
• ???? (Risk)
• SWOT (Strength/Weakness/Opportunity/Threat) ??
• ???
• Concept Design Document (CDD)

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????(Proposal)

• ???? (System analysis)
• GDD ?? (Game design document)
• MDD ?? (Media design document)
• TDD ?? (Technical design document)
• ?????? (Game project)
• Schedule
• Milestones / Check points
• Risk management
• ?????
• ???? (Team building)
• ???
• GDD
• MDD
• TDD
• The Team

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????(Production)

• ??????
• Modeling
• Textures
• Animation
• Motion
• FX
• ???? (Coding)
• ??????

?? !
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????(Integration)

• ???? (Level integration)
• ???? (Number tuning)
• ???? (Audio)
• ??????
• ???????
• Testing within the game team
• Focus group (User study)
• Release some playable levels for focus group.
• Get the feedback from focus group to adjust the
  game play.
• Invited outside game players but evaluation
  in-house

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????(Test)

• Alpha ??
• ?? (Debug)
• Make the game stable
• Beta ??
• ????
• Game play ??
• ??????? (MMOG)
• ???? (Closed beta)
• Invited game players
• ???? (Open beta)
• Free for public players
• ???? (Critical testing)
• Only for MMOG
• Continuously implementing
• For servers

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Bugs

• Bug ?? (Bug Classification)
• A Bug
• B Bug
• C Bug
• S Bug
• Principles
• Bug ????
• Tester vs Debugger

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Game Software System
Game
Game Play Layer
Engine Layer
System Layer
Hardware
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System Layer APIs (1/2)

• 3D Graphics API
• DirectX 9.0 SDK Direct3D
• Newest update DirectX 9.0c SDK Update (June,
  2005)
• OpenGL
• 2.0
• 2D API
• DirectX 9.0 SDK - DirectMedia
• Win32 GDI
• Input device
• DirectX 9.0 SDK DirectInput
• Audio
• DirectX 9.0 SDK DirectSound / Direct3DSound /
  DirectMedia
• OpenAL

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System Layer APIs (2/2)

• OS API
• Win32 SDK
• MFC
• Network
• DirectX 9.0 SDK DirectPlay
• Socket library

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Engine Layer (1/2)

• 3D scene management system
• Scene graph
• Shaders
• 2D sprite system
• Audio system
• Gamepad
• Hotkeys
• Mouses
• Timers
• Network
• DDK interface

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Engine Layer (2/2)

• Terrain
• Advanced scene management system
• Space partition technique
• BSP Tree
• Octree
• Character system
• Bone-skin
• Motion Blending
• Dynamics
• Particle system
• Rigid-body dynamics
• Collision detection
• Sound FX
• User interface

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Game Play Layer

• NPC (Non-playable characters) management
• Game AI
• Path finding
• Finite state machine (FSM)
• Steering behavior
• Avatar
• Combat system
• FX system
• Script system
• Trading system
• Number system

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Game Development Tools for Programming (1/2)

• System Tools
• Visual C/C
• .Net 2003
• VC/C 7.1
• Visual C/C 6.0 SP5
• NuMega BoundsChecker
• Finding memory leaking
• Intel vTune
• Finding computation performance bottlenecks
• for CPU
• PIX
• Finding graphics performance bottlenecks
• For GPU

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Game Development Tools for Programming (2/2)

• SDKs
• System API
• Win32 SDK or MFC
• DirectX SDK or OpenGL
• Socket library
• Middleware (Game engine)
• Renderware
• Unreal

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Game Development Tools for Artists

• 3D animation tools
• Discrete 3dsMax
• Maya
• Softimage XSI
• 2D tools
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Motion tools
• Motion capture devices
• Motion Builder
• FiLMBOX