Of Stick Figures and Boxes OR Off the Shelf tools For Communicating your Game Design Montreal International Game Summit, 2006

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Of Stick Figures and BoxesOROff the Shelf
tools For Communicating your Game
DesignMontreal International Game Summit, 2006
James Everett james.everett_at_a2m.com
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James Everett
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Game Designer
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Game Designer
Artificial Mind and Movement
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Communication
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Design
Programming
Art
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Designers Vision
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Designers Vision
Desired Game
Programmers Implementation
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Oh Joy! Oh Rapture!
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Designers Vision
Desired Game
Programmers Implementation
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Designer
Desired Game
Programmer
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Not a Doctor
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What is the Unified Modeling Language?
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History of UML in 30 Seconds or Less
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???
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OMG!

• (Object Modeling Group)

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1.0
1997
2.0
2004
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How does UML work?
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English
Deutsch
Esperanto
Français
Español
Bosanski
Nihongo
Dansk
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but not clever
Computers fast,
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if (Game) !
then
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PPPPPP

• Prior
• Planning
• Prevents
• Piss
• Poor
• Performance

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Stand Avatar waits in idle stand state -Player
can jump from stand Jump Avatar jumps into the
air -After completing Jump the avatar enters the
fall state. Fall Avatar is airborne and cannot
jump again -When the avatar reaches the ground
return to stand
Stand
Fall
Jump
UML
Text
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Avatar
Player
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Behavior Diagrams?
Punch Enemy
Stand
Fall
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
Use Case
Jump
Actor
Use Case Diagram
State Machine Diagram
Activity Diagram
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Use Case Diagrams
Use Case
Actor
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Actor
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ATM
Withdraw
Deposit
Customer
Bank Database
Balance Check
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GAME
Movement
Combat
Avatar
Enemy
Health
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and

Actor
Player/avatar
NPC/Enemy
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Punch
ASSOCIATION
Avatar
ACTOR
GAME
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Use Case

1. Use Case specifications
2. Provide a detailed explanation of use cases
3. Through text

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Use Cases arePlayer Centric
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Use Case Combat
Kick
Punch
Shoot
Avatar
Punch 1) The avatar punches an enemy and
causes damage. 2)... Kick
1)... Shoot 1)...
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1) The avatar punches an enemy and causes damage.

• What is an enemy?
• How can I tell if I hit the enemy?
• What if I dont hit the enemy?
• How much damage do I cause?

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1) The avatar punches an enemy and causes damage.
Enemy Actor
Damage State
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Notes on Enemy

• Enemy is a non-player character
• Enemy will attack the player
• The Player must defeat the enemy
• The player defeats the enemy by reducing its
  hitpoints to 0
• To reduce the enemys hitpoints the player must
  successfully attack the enemy

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Player Combat State Machine Diagram(rev 0.01)
Punch Complete
Idle
Punch
Player presses Punch
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Player Combat State Machine Diagram(rev 0.01)
State
Punch Complete
Idle
Transition
Punch
Player presses Punch
Guard Condition
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Player Combat Activity Diagram (rev 0.01)
Punch Enemy
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
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Initial Node
Punch Enemy
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
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Initial Node
Flow
Punch Enemy
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
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Initial Node
Flow
Punch Enemy
Activity
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
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Initial Node
Flow
Punch Enemy
Activity
Fork
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
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Initial Node
Flow
Punch Enemy
Activity
Fork
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
Parallel Activities
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Initial Node
Flow
Punch Enemy
Activity
Fork
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
Parallel Activities
Join
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Player Combat Activity Diagram (rev 0.01)
Initial Node
Flow
Punch Enemy
Activity
Fork
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
Parallel Activities
Join
Activity final node
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Use Case Combat
Kick
Punch
Shoot
Player
Punch 1) The player punches an enemy and
causes damage. 2) Punching an enemy causes
it to enter a Hurt state 3)... Kick
1)... Shoot 1)...
Hurt state
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Kick
Punch
Shoot
Avatar
Punch Enemy
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
Punch Complete
Idle
Punch
Player presses Punch
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Kim Possible Player Combat Actions Use Case
Diagram
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Kim Possible Jump State Machine Diagram
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Punch Enemy
Reduce Enemy HP
Enemy Enters Hurt State
Yes
Kill Enemy
Is Enemy HP 0?
No
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More UML Notation
Activity
Generating Signal
Use Case
Receiving Signal
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Where does it fit?
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Concept
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Designer
Game
Programmer
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WARNING
Designer
Programmer
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Use Case
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WARNING

• All forms of documents must be maintained
• Impractical to create state machines and activity
  diagrams for everything

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Dont be afraid to throw it away
WARNING
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Complex AI may not play well with UML
WARNING
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• Removes confusion!
• Clarifies Designs!
• Scrubs high level to low level!

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Still not a Doctor
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Resources

• Books
• UML Demystified
• Elements of UML 2.0 Style
• UML Distilled
• Programs
• StarUML (free, open source)
• Visual Paradigm
• Watch out for ATM examples
• www.agilemodeling.com

Contact james.everett_at_a2m.com