Game Frameworks for Rapid Prototyping and Empowering Designers

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Game Frameworks for Rapid Prototyping and
Empowering Designers

• Presented by
• Robert Mitchell
• Director of Technology
• Sony Online Entertainment

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Choose Our Own Adventure
Production, Business, Support Roles
Art
Code
Design
3
Outline Game Frameworks

• What is a prototype? Why prototype?
• From prototype to production
• Risks with using designers as programmers
• What is a framework?
• Requirements for the SOE Flash framework
• Architecture
• The framework pieces
• The present reality
• The promise Building a game in 20 minutes
• Questions and answers

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Background and Bias

• Sony Online Entertainment since 1999
• Platform Group
• mostly C but some ActionScript
• chat server, patcher, ActionScript applets/games
• PlanetSide, EverQuest II, Trivial Pursuit, PSN
  (cancelled)
• mostly C
• user interface, game play, server, i18N
• Director of Technology
• code and technology re-use/sharing across all
  studios

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What is a Prototype?

• Simplified implementation of the final product
  constructed to show what the final system will
  be like
• Advantages
• Improve and increase user involvement
• Improve quality of requirements through iteration
• Faster development time
• Disadvantages
• Confusion with finished system
• Slower development time

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Types of Game Prototypes

• Paper or physical representation (hours)
• Wire frame no functionality but look feel
  (hours to days)
• Functional core mechanic (days to weeks)
• Playable subset of game play (weeks to months)
• Full production (months)

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Production Requirements

• Accessibility and Usability
• Depth of game play
• Quality art and sound
• Security
• Scalability
• Zero defects
• Integration
• Fun

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From Prototype to Production

• Throw away bad ideas early
• Get feedback and iterate on ideas to make them
  fun
• Treat the prototype as a prototype
• Create engineered solutions not band-aids
• Test and fix bugs
• Throw away bad ideas late too
• Train designers as coders during the prototyping
  phase

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Risks with Non-programmers Writing Code

• Writing script is writing code
• Unwise asking a non-programmer to write code
• Possible requiring a non-coder to change
  properties and tweak parameters
• Unwise asking a junior programmer to create
  complex systems from scratch
• Possible requiring a junior programmer to modify
  code

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Empowering Designers as Programmers

• Train them. Mentor them. Review their code.
• Give your designers as much flexibility as they
  can handle and as much freedom as you can manage
• A game framework presents the possibility of
  success
• A starting point. No more blank page
• The constraints to be creative
• An ever growing collection of useful methods and
  models
• And lots of example code

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What is a Framework?

• Code library to handle all the tedious, low-level
  details of creating an application in a reusable
  package
• Game framework components
• Graphics, animations,
• Game loop. Startlevelnextend
• Timers and event systems
• Sound
• Persistence
• Networking
• Basic infrastructure

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Requirements for SOE Flash Framework

• ActionScript 2 for Scaleform integration
• Provide designers with rapid prototyping tool
• Level and turn based game play
• Server hosted logic
• Multiplayer support
• Platform/Game/Portal independent
• Production capable

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ActionScript 2.0 Classes

• Core Classes
• Array
• Boolean
• Date
• Error
• Function
• Math
• Number
• Object
• String
• System

• Movie Classes
• Button
• Color
• Key
• Mouse
• MovieClip
• Selection
• SharedObject
• Stage
• TextField
• TextFormat

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Architecture and a Failed Idea
Prototyping Architecture
Flash Client
Flash Server
Production Architecture
Flash via Scaleform
Minigame Logic
Game Client
Game Server
Testing Architecture
Flash Client
Perl Server
Flash Acting as Server
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com.sonyonline.game Overview

• SoeGameFramework
• SoeLevel
• SoeNetwork, SoeNetworkTypeLocal, SoeNetworkTypeX
• SoeEventQueue
• SoeSound, SoeSoundFlash, SoeSoundFreerealms, .
• SoeStorage, SoeStorageFlash,
• SoeKeyEvent
• SoeHighScore
• MCProgress, MCTimer, MCDoublePress,
• SoeCommon

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Message Flow
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Present Reality

• Not many game types
• No multiplayer messaging
• Designers are just beginning to use the framework
• My promise of game in an hour is idealistic and
  Quixotic
• Show some samples
• Demonstrate some of the framework aspects
• Copy the baseline game and walk-through creation
• Complete the game offline (most likely outcome)

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Sample Games

• Hidden object
• Simon
• Whack-a-mole
• Mineshop

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Game Building

• Copy baseline
• Construct message flow
• Build logic on server, UI and proxy on client
• Create levels
• Iterate

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Game Building Advanced

• Sound
• Persistence
• Depth and polish
• Art
• Iterate

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Roadmap

• Multiplayer
• More game types as templates
• Integration issues
• Chat and lobby support
• And others as feedback fromteams dictate

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Questions?
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Tools

• Macromedia Flash commercial IDE for Flash
  development
• www.macromedia.com/products/flash
• Eclipse open development platform
• www.eclipse.org
• Motion Twin ActionScript 2 compiler (MTASC)
• www.mtasc.org
• ASUnit unit test framework
• www.asunit.org
• Smartfox Server multiuser application/game
  platform
• www.smartfoxserver.com
• free for up to 20 connections
• Scaleform GFx nearly every platform and
  middleware engine
• www.scaleform.com