Design for Longevity

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Design for Longevity

• Sara Jensen Schubert
• Senior Designer, Spacetime Studios
• 2008 ION Game Conference

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Live team truths

• Players get bored and quit without frequent
  updates.
• You cant depend on code features to fill out
  patch notes.
• You will have neither the money nor the time to
  do what you want to do.

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INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS

• Mobs, items, abilities, quests, NPCs, zones
  everything that supports content.

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Data Maintenance Options

• Designer scripting.
• Write a script to modify your other scripts
• if (/\ssound\s\sfire.wav/i)
• Or use your fancy form-based tool
• over and over and over and over again.
• Or browse your database.
• Select, filter, enter down the list.
• Or update your standard.
• Change one file. Done.

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KEYS TO MAINTAINABILITY

• Data-driven technical design.
• Quality data storage.
• Database-style tools.

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Technical design

• Start by thinking of your workflow.

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What do I need to define a creature?

• Name
• Level
• Appearance mesh and skeleton
• Sound
• Health and health regeneration
• Damage range
• Special flags like whether or not its elite
• AI info casting behavior, aggro radius, etc.
• Spells to cast
• How much gold it drops
• Loot table

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Super Awesome Form-Based Tool
Name
Mesh
Level
Skeleton
Health
Sounds
Damage
Save
Gold
Leaving out some fields, of course
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But what do I really need to define a creature?

• Name
• Level
• Appearance (including sound)
• Special flags like elite
• One of several standardized AI packages
• Spells to cast

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TECHNICAL DESIGN

• Start by thinking of your workflow.
• Standardize. Only customize data that really
  needs to be unique.

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TECHNICAL DESIGN

• Start by thinking of your workflow.
• Standardize. Only customize data that really
  needs to be unique.
• Customize by combining small pieces.
• Small pieces take little code.

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Data storage

• Dont maintain multiple copies of the same data.
• Name stuff well.
• Use XML.
• Source control each entity separately.

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tools

• Use a database.
• It lets you survey the whole data set.
• It exposes errors.
• It makes it easy to compare things.

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TOOLS

• Use a database.
• It lets you survey the whole data set.
• It exposes errors.
• It makes it easy to compare things.
• Its efficient.

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caster melee melee caster
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KEYS TO MAINTAINABILITY

• Data-driven technical design.
• Quality data storage.
• Database-style tools.

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Questions?

• Email sjensenschubert_at_gmail.com
• Blog http//www.lietcam.com