Christophe Reyes General Manager France

Oskar GuilbertDeveloper Relations Manager France

Streamline the production pipelineStreamline the production pipeline

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AgendaAgenda

• Criterion overview

• Production diagram

• Tools per sector of activity

• How to speed up the pipeline

• RenderWare Solutions

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Established in 1993

Global offices in Austin (USA), Derby & Guildford (UK), Paris (France) and Tokyo (Japan)

Managed by 3 founders: David Lau-Kee, Adam Billyard & Mike King

Over 200 employees in technology and game development divisions

Company comprises two divisions:

RenderWare

Delivers a suite of tailored, multi-platform middleware solutions for the games development market

Criterion Games

Develops and produces games for next generation consoles and is now a well-respected studio developing hit videogames for a worldwide audience

Criterion Software

Moscow - March 2003

Increased consumer demand for higher quality, more creative, immersive games - more competitive landscape

Uptake of next-gen platforms and their decreasing lifecycles - developers and publishers under even more time pressure

Short term technology strategies and engines for single SKUs no longer feasible business models

Technology issues dominate developer time and so creative and R&D input can be limited

Not commercially viable to throw unlimited funds at every project to get the one ‘box-office hit’. Ratio of misses-to-hits increasing

Publishers less willing to take risk on highly creative projects - sequel licenses dominate

Industry as a whole lacks standardized procedures

Key Market Trends

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Solves the complex technical issues surrounding multi-platform development

Provides a complete tool chain so developers do not have to reinvent the wheel creating their own technology from scratch

Frees up time so developers can focus on the critical creative elements of the game

Delivers standardized technologies and processes for more streamlined team activity

Can deliver game demonstrators substantially earlier in the development process

Ensures that deadlines are met and games are delivered to market on time

What Can Middleware Do?

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Global Customers

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RenderWare is now being used in over 400 games and has helped generate $2 billion+ of retail revenue from released titles, including the following...

Grand Theft Auto III

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3

Burnout 2

Run Like Hell

RedCard 20-03

NFL Blitz 20-03

World Series Baseball

MLB Slugfest 20-03

Mortal Kombat 5: Deadly Alliance

Genso Suikoden III

Italian Job

Pro Evolution Soccer 2

Driven

Monsters Inc.

Scooby Doo! – Night of 100 Frights

Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon

Everquest: The Shadows of Luclin

MX Superfly

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Game Dev Production Pipeline possible Game Dev Production Pipeline possible issuesissues

• Team work– Different skills– Different work periods :

waiting time• Domains of competence

– Graphics, Audio, AI, Physics, Network,…

• Different hardware– XBox, PS2, GC, PC, …

• Huge amount of assets– Code and artist’s assets

• Tuning & Debugging take a lot of time

• Numerous specialized tools

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Production DiagramProduction Diagram

• Sectors of activity – Game Designers– Producers – Graphic, Audio Designers – Animators – Programmers– Integrators

• Activity

Game dev.

Day 1 Project end

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Game DesignersGame Designers

• Existing Tools– Pen and paper, Lego, …– Microsoft Excel…– 3d modelers– Dedicated prototyping tools, – In house tools

• Issues – Duration– Validity : 3d, interactions, …– Unadapted tools– Communication with the others

sectors– Integration in the production tools

• Solutions– Adapted : Easy to use– 2d and 3d – Interactive– Integrated in the

production chain

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Producers / Producers / Project Managers Project Managers

• Tools– Project management tools,– MS Excel,– In house tools,

• Issues– Integration with the other

sectors – How to communicate– Sectors synchronization– Project real state visibility

• Solutions– Integrated in the

production tool / shared– Allow visibility from day

1 and during all the project

– Reporting linked to the project state

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Graphic, Audio Designers/ArtistsGraphic, Audio Designers/Artists

• Tools– 2d paint, composing,– 3d modelers,– Audio creation tools, – In house tools,

• Issues– Visualization on the targeted

platform (PS2/XBOX/GC/PC…)– Go/Return from modeler and

the game engine– Synchronization with the

programmers coded behaviors and special effects

– Performance issues on the targeted platform

– Maintain the coherency of the assets (versioning, multiple users, …)

• Solutions– Visualisation on the

targeted platform with “real time” updates

– Access to the programmers coded behaviours for test as soon as available

– Merge of assets and special effects

– Integrated assets management tool

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ProgrammersProgrammers

• Tools– Compilers– Debuggers– Performance analyzers – Graphic/audio libs (OpenGL,

DirectX, …)– Middleware

• Issues– Integration/optimization of the code

with the current game assets (graphic, audio, …)

– Go/Return from the compiler and the game engine

– Parameters accessibility for the other sectors (artists, designers, integrators,…)

– Performance analysis, tuning, on the targeted platform

– Maintain the coherency of the code assets (versioning, multiple users, …)

• Solutions– Access to the artist’s

current assets– Parsing not compiling :

faster, easy parameters openness

– Integrated debugging tools

– Integrated code source management tool

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Integrators/Level designer Integrators/Level designer

• Tools– Prototyping tools– In house tools,

• Issues– Build the game on the targeted

platform (PS2/XBOX/GC/PC…)– Go/Return from the game

engine the artist tools, the programmers tool

– Interaction with the game designer and the producer

– Performance issues on the targeted platform : dues to the integration of all assets

– Maintain the coherency of the game state files (versioning, multiple users, …)

• Solutions– Construct the game on

the targeted platform– Access to the

programmers coded behaviours for test as soon as available

– Immediate access to the artists assets with special effects

– Reporting linked to the project state

– Integrated Assets management tool

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How to speed up the pipelineHow to speed up the pipeline

• Make teams/sectors work together– Share the assets : graphics, audio & code– Limit the waiting time : programmmer-artists-integrators-…– Adapted/modifiable user interface : fit the needs of each

member of the team – Allow the visibility of the game state to all members of the

team :• From day 1 and until the end of the project

– Allow reporting, documentation • Limit switches between tools

– Compiler – game engine, graphic tools – game engine, …• Work on the targeted platform

– Immediate visibility of the assets and behaviors in game engine– No porting/exporting

• Easily tune & debug in the game engine • Asset management :

– Never lose your work or made it inconsistent

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The RenderWare Suite Of Tools & Technologies

Unrivalled support… 24/7/365

PC HOST

TARGET

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A unique collaborative game production system that allows the whole team to create, view and tune games simultaneously, in real-time on multiple platforms.

What Is RenderWare Studio?

Encompassing the whole development process from pre-production to QA, the collaborative nature of RenderWare Studio enables all team members, even those in remote locations, to share assets and work in parallel on gameplay, engineering and production in real-time, and remove the time-consuming bottlenecks that can occur.

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Rapid game development

Reduced risk

Truly multi-platform

Earlier game demonstrators

Open & extensible

Reduces bottlenecks

Simplifies development process

Encourages innovation

Encourages good development practices

Improved developer / publisher relations

Benefits Of RenderWare Studio

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What Is RenderWare Platform?

RenderWare Platform is the industry’s de-facto suite of best-of-breed game production technologies, comprising Graphics, Audio, AI and Physics. The API offers an open framework that aligns all the essential components of game production into one single, powerful, toolkit.

With RenderWare Graphics version 3.5, the industry standard is now even easier to use and more powerful than ever before, with unrivalled multi-platform performance - that’s more than twice the power of other graphics solutions.

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Thank youThank you

• Questions ?