Software Engineering for Computer Games Computer games and game engines – crash course

Game engine Computer game = infrastructure + content Game engine = infrastructure layer of game development process

Game engine Same infrastructure, several games  Example: Unreal engine ( Dozens of games developed using Unreal Big business: Unreal license can cost US$750,000

Game engine – Unreal Unreal games (a few examples):

Game engine “Technical” issues encapsulated in infrastructure “Artistic” issues (i.e. content) released from technicalities

Game engine generic useful Usefulness versus Genericity

Game engine – 2D engines 2D games are (just) slightly simpler to develop and implement, including technical issues 2D game engines have (just) slightly less problems with which to deal

2D game engine – example Gamemaker by Mark Overmars Written in Delphi v.7 About 40 thousand lines of code Project started in 1999 First public release took about 4 months Present version: 6.1

2D game engine - example Hints:  Follow the simple game construction example in the next slides  From that, infer some basic features your game engine must present  Check the material at  Build your requirements

2D game engine – example WARNING:  Your project cannot be too complex – otherwise you will not complete the required steps in time  Your project cannot be too simple – it MUST keep the whole team busy, and it MUST be such that a smaller team could not complete it

Gamemaker A maze game

Gamemaker Graphic elements (“sprites”) – wall

Gamemaker Graphic elements (“sprites”) – goal

Gamemaker Graphic elements (“sprites”) – agent

Gamemaker Objects – wall (no associated event)

Gamemaker Objects – goal

Gamemaker Objects – agent(I): move according to arrows

Gamemaker Objects – agent(II): grid alignment

Gamemaker Objects – agent(III): stop when hitting wall

Gamemaker Rooms:

Gamemaker Rooms:

Game engines Additional information:  Game Engine Anatomy 101 –  Your lecturer  Your teaching assistants 