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Explicit domain modelling in video games

Published: 29 June 2011 Publication History

Abstract

The state-of-the-art in software engineering for game engines, recommends the use of a component-based software architecture for managing the entities in a game. A component-based architecture facilitates the definition of new types of entities as collections of components that provide basic pieces of functionality, providing a flexible software that can adapt to changes in game design. However, such flexibility comes with a price, both in terms of software understanding and error checking: a game where entity types are just run-time concepts is harder to understand than one with an explicit hierarchy of entity types; and error checking that, in a more traditional inheritance-based architecture, would come from type safety at compile time is now lost. To alleviate these problems, a component-based architecture employs blueprints, external data files that specify the particular combination of components for every entity type.
In this paper we propose an extension to the component-based architecture, substituting blueprints with a full fledged domain model in OWL, including a description of the entities, its attributes and components, along with the messages they exchange. We also describe authoring tools for building such a model and show how the model improves software understanding and error checking.

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Cited By

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  • (2021)Software architecture for digital game mechanics: A systematic literature reviewEntertainment Computing10.1016/j.entcom.2021.10042138(100421)Online publication date: May-2021
  • (2020)Unlimited Rulebook: a Reference Architecture for Economy Mechanics in Digital Games2020 IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA)10.1109/ICSA47634.2020.00014(58-68)Online publication date: Mar-2020
  • (2014)Evaluation of a static architectural conformance checking method in a line of computer gamesProceedings of the 10th international ACM Sigsoft conference on Quality of software architectures10.1145/2602576.2602590(113-118)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2014
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cover image ACM Other conferences
FDG '11: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games
June 2011
356 pages
ISBN:9781450308045
DOI:10.1145/2159365
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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  • SASDG: Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 29 June 2011

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FDG'11
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  • SASDG
FDG'11: Foundations of Digital Games
June 29 - July 1, 2011
Bordeaux, France

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FDG '11 Paper Acceptance Rate 31 of 107 submissions, 29%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 152 of 415 submissions, 37%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2021)Software architecture for digital game mechanics: A systematic literature reviewEntertainment Computing10.1016/j.entcom.2021.10042138(100421)Online publication date: May-2021
  • (2020)Unlimited Rulebook: a Reference Architecture for Economy Mechanics in Digital Games2020 IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA)10.1109/ICSA47634.2020.00014(58-68)Online publication date: Mar-2020
  • (2014)Evaluation of a static architectural conformance checking method in a line of computer gamesProceedings of the 10th international ACM Sigsoft conference on Quality of software architectures10.1145/2602576.2602590(113-118)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2014
  • (2013)Distributed DeepThoughtProceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Games and Software Engineering: Engineering Computer Games to Enable Positive, Progressive Change10.5555/2662593.2662601(40-43)Online publication date: 18-May-2013
  • (2013)Distributed DeepThought: Synchronising complex network multi-player games in a scalable and flexible manner2013 3rd International Workshop on Games and Software Engineering: Engineering Computer Games to Enable Positive, Progressive Change (GAS)10.1109/GAS.2013.6632589(40-43)Online publication date: May-2013

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