Abstract
There are competing priorities between creative freedom and the need for robust, stable software frameworks to facilitate the rapid implementation of creative ideas in game development. This may result in a disparity between system and user requirements. Qualitative data extracted from seminars at the Game Developers Conference informs the design of several interviews with veteran game-system designers to explore this phenomenon. A survey of modular software plug-ins from the Unity Asset Store then validates the interview findings and explores the benefits of modular software architectures. Findings indicate that modifications to the native user experience (UX) design of Unity and plug-ins that reengineer for different workflows are most popular. The most popular workflows provide for data, asset, and project management. Discussion reflects on how modular architecture can alleviate points of failure within a game engine’s architecture whilst providing customized usability for different user needs.
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Packer, B., Keates, S., Baker, G. (2021). The Creative Design-Engineer Divide: Modular Architecture and Workflow UX. In: Stephanidis, C., Antona, M., Ntoa, S. (eds) HCI International 2021 - Late Breaking Posters. HCII 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1498. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90176-9_59
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