SOFTWARE ENGINEERING FOR COMPUTER GAMES

CHRIS BALLINGER04/08/13CS 791

Outline

Architecture Considerations Unique Problems Common Issues Interesting Resources Questions

Architecture Considerations Several separate components

Sound, Graphics, Physics, Input, Networking, AI

May not all be developed in-house (COTS)

Middleware Many possible platforms Only recently has multithreading

become a consideration Rarely considers academic research

concerns

Architecture Considerations Type of game

Unique Problems

Unique nonfunctional requirement “Fun”

Common Issues

“Feature Creep” Major source of delays A necessary evil

Team Communication Teams are formed by members from

many different disciplines Poorly defined domain terms

“Game engine”

Interesting Resources

Information Gamasutra Game Developers

Conference (GDC) USC Game Innovation

Lab

Interesting Resources

Tools Unity

Interesting Resources

Tools Unity Unreal

Development Kit (UDK)

Interesting Resources

Tools Unity Unreal Development Kit

(UDK) Doxygen

Questions

Test Questions

What are the common issues in game development?

What are the differences between software engineering for games and software engineering for other types of projects?