Transcript Slide 1
More Than “Just a Game” No homework! (It’s much much worse) We’re a small company doing contract programming Our customer knows next to nothing about software We must interpret the customer’s wants and needs and compromise when his desires are not feasible to implement Comp410 is designed to teach students How to be professional How to deal with a large software project How to work as a team How to use popular industry technologies How to design enterprise class systems We came into the class with green thumbs and big smiles Giacomo Paul Justin Nick J.D. Eric The warm-up project came and went We thought we: Had learned all there was to know about working as a software development team Wouldn’t repeat the mistakes we made The Deceit project started Still smiling =) We met with the customer, Dr. Nguyen Got a sense for the degree of professionalism we were supposed to bring to the class We started developing Still smiling =) We experienced working under deadlines Weekly journal progress reports Bi-weekly milestone reports Weekly customer meetings Each journal and milestone ~800 words 6 people * 800 words * 15 journals = 72,000 words over the course of the semester We could write a small book We quickly stopped smiling Our customer Didn’t care if half the team was out for the week Still demanded some visible measure of progress We pushed ourselves to develop something significant for every week Under this pressure, we often had to Compromise good code by making hacks to have something to show at the customer meetings Weeks passed Then months Our “hack” base grew larger and larger Due to our mountains of hacks and sophomoric designs, we were making negative progress with every new line of code Dr. Wong attempted to show us how to get back on the right track We listened Sometimes Heeding Dr. Wong’s advice, we got somewhat back on track by Critically analyzing our design Refactoring our code Revamping our team structure Political satire “… war and deceit…” Allies become foes Enemies masquerade as friends Online in real-time Essentially an MMORPG Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Blending gaming with reality Google Maps in-game to help players navigate Local weather is reflected by the in-game weather Etc… Turning His Vision into Reality: Formalizing Expectations Potential names: Spy Games Unending War Specification Introduction Game World Game Interactions Factions Players Objects Environment Real-Time Interactions Faction Interactions Quests to improve player Additional Constraints Introduction: Triangular conflict with bad translation and varying degrees of cheating, ranging from in-game botting and terms of use violations to federal offenses like credit card fraud. The client would like a MMORPG that allows for continuous play, has no start or end, and engages the player’s character even when the player is not logged in. The game will have multiple factions that the players will choose to join initially, and these factions will influence their style of gameplay by offering unique opportunities in the game world. Most factions may be pitted against each other, although some may be aligned. Players can either run free or join factions. Once a player has joined a faction, there is some game mechanism that prevents whimsical Game should be a satirical reflection of today's political scene where enemies may not be as obvious as "the guys wearing the other color" and where friends are sometimes hard to find. Game Play Player Objectives Survive. This may require eliminating the opposition. End Game Conditions There is no "final level" or "boss" to defeat in order to win the game. The player's goal should be to best all other players in comparative rankings. Starting Out When a player creates a new character, do they start off as an independent? Or can they choose from a list of already created factions? Maybe we have two standard factions that have no real abilities where people can start off? Game World Factions Factions are named groups of players that form a "team". The game application never explicitly indicates to which faction a player belongs (e.g. there is no text label floating above a player's avatar with the faction name in a graphical client or there is no mention of the player's faction in the description text in a text-based client). A key element of gameplay is determining whether or not other players are friendly. Faction Membership Players may be a member of exactly 1 faction or may not belong to a faction. Players that are not members of factions are called Independents. How hard is it to change factions? Is there time involved, like... you can't join another faction Membership Benefits Once a member of a faction, a process exists whereby the player can acquire (with varying amounts of effort and time) "abilities" from the faction's knowlege, e.g. learning "languages" or how to use spells or weapons or mine for certain resources. Another key benefit of faction membership is protection. Faction members can band together and help protect each other when outside of faction territory. Inter-faction Relations The factions may form allegiances. Should we specify different types of allegiances? Certainly there will be full-blown allegiances where "fully aligned" factions can enter each other's "territory" and utilize allies' bases/towns/outposts and where killing friendly (belonging to a fully-aligned faction) players decreases the player score/elicits penalties. But maybe there can be lesser alliances such as trade alliances. Maybe in a trade alliance factions trade resources with each other or allow allies to move around on their land without attacking them. Faction Merging Entire factions can be captured by rival factions or absorbed by larger friendly factions. The old faction ceases to exist. Collective knowledge should flow in both directions. Relative Power of Factions The strength of a faction can be measured by size of influence (number of members) and by wealth (amount of resources in store). Resources Factions gain some resources by gathering/mining them. They can be found throughout the game world. Factions can also steal resources from other factions. The prizes of some quests are resources. Key to the City Each faction has a "treasure chest" of sorts that it wants to protect from enemy discovery. The object or secret knowledge should be significant enough that should an enemy discover the object and use it or learn the secret then the victim faction should be significantly affected, perhaps by being disbanded entirely, losing its collective knowledge, losing its leader (if there is such a game construct), or losing its resources. It has been suggested that to find out the location of the treasure chest, maybe a faction member that wants to know the secret has to solve a puzzle or riddle. Leadership Should every faction have a single Faction Leader, initially the creator of the faction and then perhaps elected by vote? Leader knows location of the treasure chest. Faction points vs loyalty points Resources – Quests achieve them Game masters release resources and quests for the players to go after Player Interactions Game Masters Game masters act as Gods: Influence levels of resources Quests Illnesses Objects: Environment The game world is persistent. When the player is logged out, the world progresses around him. Time The game world cycles through periods of daylight (where visibility is normal) and nighttime (when players have difficulties seeing). Time-based events can be based on this cycle. Quests and the like may require players to wait a certain number of days before progressing. Weather Weather can affect many things in the game world. Flooding from rain can make rivers impassable. Storms can reduce visibility even during the day. Static abilities Dynamic environment Notion of locality Resources Money, energy When you’re weak, you probably need to join a faction Interactions: Real-time Faction Interactions You change factions when you get captured Different languages Acquire new abilities at runtime (short term abilities) When you’re captured, Quests Additional Constraints Audience Tablet no xbox login from anywhere Application The game world is persistent. Realtime Use standard libraries Don’t make anything new unless it’s new Mostly text-based is fine, no emphasis on graphics. Extensible so that graphics can be added later. Run third party programs to alter data (e.g. find a text document and open it with external software) Factions Players Tags Quests Abilities Named teams Players may be a member of up to one faction Any player can create a faction and invite others to join their faction Never explicitly revealed to other players Can form political agreements Strength measured by number of members, territory controlled, or resources collected Initially controlled by its creator Leadership can be changed democratically Membership benefits Faction’s knowledge ▪ Use spells, weapons, or foreign languages Ability to use faction resources Responsibility, including faction management Protection Have an inventory Carry items More or less depending on size or weight Resources Gathered or mined Awarded for completing quests Stolen Map Players have a mini-map that shows their position and immediate surroundings Players can attack each other Use items and abilities to weaken the others After incurring enough damage, a player goes “unconscious” Players can tag items in the game world Claimed faction of another player Location of hidden treasure Players can view all their tags Players are notified when they come across items they’ve tagged Puzzles and tasks that players can complete Once completed, help the player Can award resources or abilities to player or player’s faction Quest journal Players can check their progress completing quests Examples Move Pick up Speak Russian Gaining abilities Learn from other players Complete quests Assigned by admin Formal tools to help us understand our design Deployment diagrams System diagrams Subsystem diagrams TODO THE DEMO We’ve created an extensible game engine You’ve seen just a few examples of what it makes possible Looking forward Additional game content Additional features Enhanced graphical user interface Extended use of tagging Non-player characters More quests Player generated Auto-generated ▪ Faction ▪ Items (NPCs) ▪ Time ▪ Tag More game worlds Different game worlds for different genres ▪ Western ▪ Space Opera ▪ Cyberpunk ▪ Fantasy ▪ Medieval ▪ Etc. Larger and more complex In-game weather based on current local weather conditions Game maps based on real-world maps via web services such as Google Maps More player abilities Enhanced graphics Currently tags just store text Share tags with faction members Copy Share live Potential to generate game content and events based on tags’ contents If many people tag a particular player as a leader, that player’s status and abilities may change Potential to generate tags from game events If two parties engage in combat, witnesses can have tags generated for them identifying the parties as enemies Tags can be used to represent incomplete knowledge that is still useful NPCs would add life to the game world Characters without users to control them would use default behavior scripts They keep interacting with the world when the gamer is not online ▪ Mining resources ▪ Protecting the faction from enemies Introduced us to software engineering on a scale such that no individual has knowledge of the entire system Forced to work together and rely on each other We’ve learned how to be better communicators, programmers, and team members Contrary to our preconceived notions, we knew next to nothing when it came to software development Nothing beats raw experience! We all have a much better appreciation for Time management Tasking Communication skills Good design Better appreciation! We still have room to improve What have I taken away? How has this course changed how I learn? How has this course affected me personally? Ask Away! Thank You! You for listening The team members for all their hard work! The TA’s for giving guidance The CS department for providing us with matching laptops All of our friends and professors for understanding when we were busy Schlumberger and Microsoft for feeding us! =) Dr. Wong & Dr. Nguyen for caring and putting up with us Related Design Classes Comp 415 Comp 460 Experience real customers, software, and situations Class will be contracted by an industrial customer to design build, and deliver a product Negotiate to finalize specifications, updates, and delivery schedules Encounter real-life issues such as team management, intellectual property, and vagueness and specification changes Develop a state-of-the-art software application Project-based class Teams of 2-4 CS and Visual Arts students Design and build computer games suitable for Xbox Live Arcade using C# and XNA Comp 260 or Comp 360 is recommended as a prerequisite for CS students Previous experience drawing in Photoshop is recommended for Visual Arts students More Than “Just a Game”