User Interfaces and Difference Visualizations for Alternatives in Visual Game Development

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In 2017, the game industry added CAD$3.7 billion to Canada's GDP, a 24% increase since 2015. There are 596 active game studios, a 21% increase since 2015. 40,600 direct and indirect jobs were created, an 11% increase since 2015. Recently, video games with short production times and budgets have been increasing in numbers and quality. One driving factor for this is the growing availability of middleware tools, making game development easier. VPEs (Visual Programming Environments) are partly responsible for this success. These systems allow game developers a level of control that was previously unobtainable without having some knowledge of code writing. Epic Games Unreal 4 game engine is an integrated environment for making games, which provides developers with an option to create games from scratch using VPEs and other Visual Game Asset Editors (VGAEs) only, without having to write a single line of code, making it popular among many indie studios.***Although VGAEs make game development more accessible, these tools still do not adequately support conceptual design—an integral part of designers' workflow. Most exploration in the conceptual stage of the design of game assets and mechanics happens with the aid of pencil and paper in the form of sketching. VGAEs are mostly used in the final stages of the design. As a result, an entire dimension of how designers actually work is largely missing from these tools, thus narrowing their scope of effective usage. ***This research program proposes to capture the non-linear iterative flow of the game development process in VGAEs through alternatives—an important aspect of conceptual design. The solutions will be implemented as extensions to Unreal 4. This will be accomplished, among others, by integrating UIs for alternatives, design space exploration, history, revision control and difference visualizations into Unreal 4 to facilitate the creation and management of alternatives for game levels, interactive objects, construction scripts, HUDs (Head-Up Displays), material, AI behavior, sound, character animations, particle effects, UI designs, sprites, animations, cut scenes, static meshes and physics assets. ***This research program will define a body of knowledge through publications and by delivering an enhanced version of Unreal 4—a commercially successful open-source AAA game engine. Game developers will be able to exploit the outcomes of this program directly and create more engaging and effective content for video games. This will help indie studios to pursue AAA titles. Beyond contributions to the game industry and basic science, the methods and tools developed will have wide application in the development of interactive digital media content (a key area of Canada's ICT sector), 3D modelling & architecture, city planning, the simulation industry and serious games, and the film industry—key issues for the Canadian economy.