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Título: The Software Architecture of Economy Mechanics in Digital Games
Candidato: Wilson Kazuo Mizutani
Orientador: Prof. Dr. Fabio Kon
Data: Sexta-feira, 28 de junho de 2019
Horário: 9h00
Local: IME-USP, Sala 132, Bloco A
Comissão julgadora:
MEMBROS TITULARES
Prof. Dr. Marco Aurélio Gerosa (Presidente) - IME - USP
Prof. Dr. Ricardo Nakamura - EP - USP
Profa. Dra. Elisa Nakagawa - ICMC - USP
MEMBROS SUPLENTES
Prof. Dr. Fabio Kon - IME - USP
Prof. Dr. Eduardo Guerra - INPE
Prof. Dr. Alfredo Goldman Vel Lejdman - IME - USP
Abstract
In game development, we call mechanics the rules that define gameplay interactions, such as win conditions and possible player actions. Some types of mechanics are more common than others (e.g. physics mechanics), and thus have a reasonable amount of reusable implementations available. Internal economy mechanics, on the other hand, are very specific to each game, and thus there is less benefit in developing reusable software for them. This type of mechanics dictate the interactions between in-game resources such as score, lives, units, etc. They are a great part of what defines a game and, yet, developers need to implement most if not all economy mechanics in their game from scratch for each new game they make. In this doctorate research, to reduce the cost of implementing new economy mechanics in games, we propose the more flexible approach of a software reference architecture instead of a reusable but specific implementation. That way, each development team can tune their software design to their concrete needs, but without requiring a brand-new implementation for each game they produce, especially when the game has a high density of economy mechanics. The reference architecture will be based on a systematic literature review, on the code analysis of successful games and engines, and on structured interviews with active developers in the field of digital games. It is being validated through case studies and quasi-experiments.
