Khawaja: Even Internal Game Tools Have Needs

Author: by Staff

As part of today's Gamasutra feature, Cinemaware and EA veteran Noor Khawaja -- the creator of the Fork Particle visual effects middleware -- argues that insufficient pre-production and lack of UI design can make internal game tools ineffective. Khawaja starts out by noting that a digital artist once said to him: "Half my life was spent watching the progress bar on my computer monitor" -- and while that's not necessarily true any more thanks to increased speed and versatility, there are still major blocks to progress. In particular, the engineering veteran explains of the space and the challenge: "Growth in video game production content translates into development of improved tools to efficiently create and manage content assets. These tools incorporate data creation for new technologies and streamline production pipelines. Eventually, tools may intelligently design some assets automatically. Currently, the creative process requires multiple iterations to reach the final asset revision. There are two developer issues associated with the basic problem. The first issue emerges because often not enough time is spent on tools during a game project's pre-production period. It is also frequently assumed that enhancement to the software tools during the project will be sufficient. This generally results in patched tool features and inflexible software architecture that eventually can only be fixed or improved by performing an overhaul. But due to time restrictions, an overhaul cannot usually be done for the project the tool was originally written for. As for issue two, an interactive software tool usually requires a powerful engine under the hood, and friendly UI. It is natural to implement the underlying engine first because it is the tool's core functionality. It can be sophisticated and complex, which takes time to put together. However, the lack of sufficient time assigned to the user interface design and implementation can compromise the use of the tool and limit the speed of work. It can also limit the number of users because of the steep learning curve, and that can be especially painful during project crunch periods. In the final phase, the asset content is integrated so it can be reviewed in the context of the game for look and feel. A slow asset integration process results in fewer revisions -- or none -- due to its cumbersome nature, which can obviously compromise final quality." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject, including lots more specifics on UI design and flow for simple -- and more complex -- game tools.