Abstract
Video game programming is a diverse, multi-faceted endeavor involving elements of graphics programming, systems programming, UI, HCI, and other software engineering disciplines. Game programmers typically employ a new “codebase” per software artifact which often means a unique choice of game engines and scripting languages. Non-portable code is exacerbated by a lack of a shared language and a lack of translation utilities between languages. Meanwhile, many game programming tasks occur time and time again. Aspect-oriented programming was largely developed to assist software engineers in decoupling tasks while maintaining software reuse. GAMESPECT is a language that promotes software reuse through aspects while also providing a platform for translation of software artifacts which has enabled it to be used in multiple game engines across multiple projects. Code reuse on these projects has been high and our methodologies can be summarized by discussing three tenants of GAMESPECT: 1) composition specifications, which define source to source transition properties 2) pluggable aspect interpreters and 3) high level language constructs and modeling language constructs (MDAML) which encourage designer friendly terminology. By comparing accuracy, efficiency, pluggability, and modularity, these three tenants are demonstrated to be effective in creating a new game programming language.
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Geisler, B.J., Kavage, S.L. (2021). A Multi-engine Aspect-Oriented Language with Modeling Integration for Video Game Design. In: Ali, R., Kaindl, H., Maciaszek, L.A. (eds) Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering. ENASE 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1375. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70006-5_14
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