Building an MMO RPG Game. The Wrong Way

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOpgnjOVViM

Building an MMO RPG game is a complex and long-lasting project, especially for an inexperienced team. This talk is about mistakes we've made, problems we've faced and how we solved them.

Transcript

1. Building an MMO RPG Game
   The Wrong Way
   

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2. ‹#›
   Hello!
   Vitalik
   Senior Unity3D Dev @ GetSocial
   2
   Sergiy
   Senior Unity3D Dev @ Nravo
   

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3. Lessons Learned
   or don’t make the same mistakes twice
   3
   

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4. Lesson #1
   Don’t start with MMO games
   4
   

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5. 5
   Team
   team of experienced backend Java/Ruby
   developers start huge MMO game on Unity
   3D - completely new technology
   

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6. 6
   Unity3D
   it’s hard to apply existing enterprise
   experience, patterns and approaches in
   gamedev
   

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7. 7
   Result
   as a result, a lot of bad architectural
   solutions
   much better idea is to start with small study
   project, familiarize with release lifecycle
   and game engine ecosystem
   

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8. Lesson #2
   Flat team structure is a myth
   8
   

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9. 9
   Flat team structure
   inspired by Valve
   we tried to organize flat team structure,
   where each team member was equally
   responsible for end product
   

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10. 10
    Missing something?
    reasons: 1) no end product vision 2) not
    enough understanding what flat team
    structure imply
    problems: 1) no unified product vision
    inside team 2) no single team member,
    who keep all project in his head
    

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11. 11
    So, is it only a myth?
    in order to create successful team with flat
    structure, each team member should be
    carefully selected (e.g. T-shaped)
    

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12. Lesson #3
    Reach fun ASAP
    12
    

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13. 13
    So we started...
    we started with architecture planning,
    animations and … fancy ui
    

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14. 14
    First Demo
    result: after 6 month of development we
    didn’t know how should main gameplay
    (fight) look like
    

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15. 15
    PoC
    source: http://toasticusprime.tumblr.com/
    start with proof of concept, without ui,
    textures etc, only main gameplay
    

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16. Lesson #4
    Start with editors
    16
    

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17. 17
    Initial idea
    source: http://toasticusprime.tumblr.com/
    initial idea: all game content is populated
    through web interface, saved in db and
    loaded to client
    

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18. 18
    Good old XML
    source: http://toasticusprime.tumblr.com/
    problem: without web ui it’s hard to
    populate large datasets and development
    of web ui takes a lot of time and effort
    data transfer in xml
    

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19. 19
    Better way
    source: http://toasticusprime.tumblr.com/
    better way: use Unity API to create game
    editors, for data storage - Unity assets
    

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20. Lesson #5
    CI for MMO is important
    20
    

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21. 21
    We started
    we had all infrastructure set up, but at
    some point delivery become more
    important than testing
    

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22. 22
    But later…
    source: http://toasticusprime.tumblr.com/
    as a result, during last three months we
    were afraid to make event small changes,
    because no one know what could brake
    

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23. ‹#›
    Sum up
    23
    ● vision at the beginning
    ● start with a small experienced team with PM
    ● start with PoC - reach fun ASAP
    ● get feedback
    

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24. ‹#›
    24
    A man must be big enough to admit his
    mistakes, smart enough to profit from them,
    and strong enough to correct them.
    “
    John C. Maxwell
    

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25. Thank you
    Questions?
    25
    Presentation will be available at:
    v.zasadnyy.com/slides/
    

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26. ‹#›
    References
    26
    ● Valve Handbook for New Employees
    

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