Designer Diary: Backyard Wrestling, Part 2
Edwin Denicholas, producer at Paradox Development, gives the rundown on a few aspects on designing BYW and overcoming obstacles along the way.
Published: September 20, 2003
Edwin Denicholas, Producer/Paradox Development:
Design issues
Throughout the BYW project our primary development platform was the Sony PlayStation 2. Although developing for the PS2 is an excellent way to limit development such that the software will run on all other platforms with similar results, dedicated resources are still required for each additional platform to modify and extend the base product. Extensions can include a better rendering system, higher quality textures, additional user interface enhancements, and other improvements, such that the final product is indicative of each platform's strengths, while decreasing the impact of any single platform's weaknesses.
Unfortunately, during the BYW project, we did not have this sort of support for the porting of Sony PlayStation 2 code to the Microsoft Xbox platform.
What we did have was two great programmers, and from time to time, the help of an artist or designer, who really took it upon themselves to make the best out of a bad situation.
With an additional dedicated asset resource or two, we could have improved the look and feel of BYW on the Xbox to a greater extent. Simply porting code is not enough. A conscious and sustained effort must be made to find where improvements to graphical and asset quality can be made, to best take advantage of the strengths that the target platform may afford over the primary development platform.
Despite these hurdles and due in no small part to the efforts of our talented programmers, I believe we managed to put out an excellent product which can be enjoyed on either platform with the same results.
The Search for Platform Independence
Platform independence is perhaps the holy grail of software development. To achieve this goal requires a constant effort on the part of all coders to use interfaces that are common to both platforms.
This was not always the case during the development of BYW. Quite frequently, modifications done to platform independent code by a coder using only a PlayStation 2 development kit, or a coder using only a Microsoft Xbox development kit, would break one of the opposing codebases.
A constant and focused effort must be made to ensure that platform independent code remains platform independent. This requires a resource who's task is to ensure that code works on both platforms, after each major code revision. Said resource does not necessarily need be dedicated to this task, as only major code revisions need be addressed, or perhaps only revisions at specific intervals need be addressed.
The Test Cycle
The third area in which cross platform development was lacking during the BYW project was testing. We found that the Sony PlayStation 2 platform received the majority of the focus during testing cycle. A proper test cycle should be conducted for each platform at each milestone delivered, however it was common for us to find that Microsoft Xbox testing to be delegated as a low priority compared to the PS2. This was evident as the total number of bugs reported near the end of the PS2 test cycle was around one thousand, while the total number of bugs reported for the Xbox was four hundred.
Therefore, dedicated resources must also be assigned to testing for each intended platform. An entire test department assigned to testing one build on one platform on a two platform project will never catch more than 50% of all the possible bugs.
New Screenshots
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Design issues
Throughout the BYW project our primary development platform was the Sony PlayStation 2. Although developing for the PS2 is an excellent way to limit development such that the software will run on all other platforms with similar results, dedicated resources are still required for each additional platform to modify and extend the base product. Extensions can include a better rendering system, higher quality textures, additional user interface enhancements, and other improvements, such that the final product is indicative of each platform's strengths, while decreasing the impact of any single platform's weaknesses.
Unfortunately, during the BYW project, we did not have this sort of support for the porting of Sony PlayStation 2 code to the Microsoft Xbox platform.
What we did have was two great programmers, and from time to time, the help of an artist or designer, who really took it upon themselves to make the best out of a bad situation.
With an additional dedicated asset resource or two, we could have improved the look and feel of BYW on the Xbox to a greater extent. Simply porting code is not enough. A conscious and sustained effort must be made to find where improvements to graphical and asset quality can be made, to best take advantage of the strengths that the target platform may afford over the primary development platform.
Despite these hurdles and due in no small part to the efforts of our talented programmers, I believe we managed to put out an excellent product which can be enjoyed on either platform with the same results.
The Search for Platform Independence
Platform independence is perhaps the holy grail of software development. To achieve this goal requires a constant effort on the part of all coders to use interfaces that are common to both platforms.
This was not always the case during the development of BYW. Quite frequently, modifications done to platform independent code by a coder using only a PlayStation 2 development kit, or a coder using only a Microsoft Xbox development kit, would break one of the opposing codebases.
A constant and focused effort must be made to ensure that platform independent code remains platform independent. This requires a resource who's task is to ensure that code works on both platforms, after each major code revision. Said resource does not necessarily need be dedicated to this task, as only major code revisions need be addressed, or perhaps only revisions at specific intervals need be addressed.
The Test Cycle
The third area in which cross platform development was lacking during the BYW project was testing. We found that the Sony PlayStation 2 platform received the majority of the focus during testing cycle. A proper test cycle should be conducted for each platform at each milestone delivered, however it was common for us to find that Microsoft Xbox testing to be delegated as a low priority compared to the PS2. This was evident as the total number of bugs reported near the end of the PS2 test cycle was around one thousand, while the total number of bugs reported for the Xbox was four hundred.
Therefore, dedicated resources must also be assigned to testing for each intended platform. An entire test department assigned to testing one build on one platform on a two platform project will never catch more than 50% of all the possible bugs.
New Screenshots
Gallery Screenshot 18
Gallery Screenshot 19
Gallery Screenshot 20
Gallery Screenshot 21
Previous Screenshots
Gallery Screenshot 1
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