The RAGE Game Software Components Repository for Supporting Applied Game Development

This paper presents the architecture of the RAGE repository, which is a unique and dedicated infrastructure that provides access to a wide variety of advanced technology components for applied game development. The RAGE project, which is the principal Horizon2020 research and innovation project on applied gaming, develops up to three dozens of software components (RAGE software assets) that are reusable across a wide diversity of game engines, game platforms and programming languages. The RAGE repository provides storage space for assets and their artefacts and is designed as an asset life-cycle management system for defining, publishing, updating, searching and packaging for distribution of these assets. It will be embedded in a social platform for asset developers and other users. A dedicated Asset Repository Manager provides the main functionality of the repository and its integration with other systems. Tools supporting the Asset Manager are presented and discussed. When the RAGE repository is in full operation, applied game developers will be able to easily enhance the quality of their games by including selected advanced game software assets. Making available the RAGE repository system and its variety of software assets aims to enhance the coherence and decisiveness of the applied game industry

D3.1 – First Bundle of Core Social Agency Assets

This deliverable presents and describes the first delivery of assets that are part of the core social agency bundle. In total, the bundle includes 16 assets, divided into 4 main categories. Each category is related to a type of challenge that developers of applied games are typically faced with and the aim of the included assets is to provide solutions to those challenges. The main goal of this document is to provide the reader with a description for each included asset, accompanied by links to their source code, distributable versions, demonstrations and documentation. A short discussion of what are the future steps for each asset is also given. The primary audience for the contents of this deliverable are the game developers, both inside and outside of the project, which can use this document as an official list of the current social agency assets and their associated resources. Note that the information about which RAGE use cases are using which of these assets is described in Deliverable 4.2.This study is part of the RAGE project. The RAGE project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644187. This publication reflects only the author's view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains

RAGE Architecture for Reusable Serious Gaming Technology Components

For seizing the potential of serious games, the RAGE project - funded by the Horizon-2020 Programme of the European Commission - will make available an interoperable set of advanced technology components (software assets) that support game studios at serious game development. This paper describes the overall software architecture and design conditions that are needed for the easy integration and reuse of such software assets in existing game platforms. Based on the component-based software engineering paradigm the RAGE architecture takes into account the portability of assets to different operating systems, different programming languages and different game engines. It avoids dependencies on external software frameworks and minimizes code that may hinder integration with game engine code. Furthermore it relies on a limited set of standard software patterns and well-established coding practices. The RAGE architecture has been successfully validated by implementing and testing basic software assets in four major programming languages (C#, C++, Java and Typescript/JavaScript, respectively). A demonstrator implementation of asset integration with an existing game engine was created and validated. The presented RAGE architecture paves the way for large scale development and application of cross-engine reusable software assets for enhancing the quality and diversity of serious gaming.This study is part of the RAGE project. The RAGE project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644187. This publication reflects only the author's view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains

Integrating Scientific Publication into an Applied Gaming Ecosystem

The European (EU)-based industry for non-leisuregames (so called Applied Games, AGs) is an emerging business. Assuch it is still fragmented and needs to achieve critical mass tocompete globally. Nevertheless, its growth potential is widelyrecognized and even suggested to exceed the growth potential ofthe leisure games market. The European project Realizing anApplied Gaming Ecosystem (RAGE) is aiming at supporting thischallenge. RAGE will help to seize these opportunities by makingavailable an interoperable set of advanced Applied Game (AG)technology assets, as well as proven practices of using such AGassets in various real-world contexts. As described in [1], RAGEwill finally provide a centralized access to a wide range of appliedgaming software modules, relevant information, knowledge andcommunity services, and related scientific documents, taxonomies,media, and educational resources within an online communityportal called the RAGE Ecosystem. Besides this, an integrationbetween the RAGE Ecosystem and relevant social networkinteraction spaces that arranges and facilitates collaboration thatunderlie Research and Development (R&D), as well as marketorientedinnovation and exploitation will be created in order tosupport community building, as well as collaborative assetexploitation of User Generated Contents (UGCs) of the RAGEEcosystem. In this paper, we will describe the integration of theScientific Publication Platform (SPP) Mendeley [2] into the RAGEEcosystem. This will allow for automating repetitive tasks,reducing errors, and speeding up time consuming tasks. On theother hand it will support information, UGC, and knowledgesharing, as well as persistency of social interaction threads withinSocial Networking Sites (SNSs) and Groupware Systems (GWSs)that are connected to the RAGE Ecosystem. The paper reviewsrelevant use cases and scenarios, as well as related authentication,access, and information integration challenges. In this way, on theone hand a qualitative evaluation regarding an optimal technicalintegration is facilitated while on the other hand designapproaches for supporting features of resulting user interfaces areinitiated