A Software Design Pattern Based Approach to Auto Dynamic Difficulty in Video Games

From the point of view of skill levels, reflex speeds, hand-eye coordination, tolerance for frustration, and motivations, video game players may vary drastically. Auto dynamic difficulty (ADD) in video games refers to the technique of automatically adjusting different aspects of a video game in real time, based on the player’s ability and emergence factors in order to provide the optimal experience to users from such a large demography and increase replay value. In this thesis, we describe a collection of software design patterns for enabling auto dynamic difficulty in video games. We also discuss the benefits of a design pattern based approach in terms of software quality factors and process improvements based on our experience of applying it in three different video games. Additionally, we present a semi-automatic framework to assist in applying our design pattern based approach in video games. Finally, we conducted a preliminary user study where a Post-Degree Diploma student at the University of Western Ontario applied the design pattern based approach to create ADD in two arcade style games

CHARACTERISTICS AND IMPACT ON REWORK OF INFORMATION LOST DUE TO LACK OF DOCUMENTATION DURING REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING AND SOFTWARE ARCHITECTING

Requirements engineering (RE) and software architecting (SA) are two front end activities in the software development lifecycle which have great impact on the overall success of a software project. Because of the highly communication intensive nature of these activities, different types of communication channel from face to face discussions to email, chat, video conferencing etc., are used for these activities. All types of information discussed during these activities are not possible to document. Information lost during this time might cause problems in later stages. We conducted an industrial survey on 32 software professionals from a total of 23 different companies with 1 to 15 years of industrial experience to investigate the characteristics and impact in terms of introduced rework of information lost during RE and SA due to lack of documentation. Our result shows that the types of information that are lost most frequently during RE and SA due to lack of documentation are: “Issues”, “Rationale, priority, source and assumptions behind requirements” and “Tactics”. Information lost during RE introduces rework in “RE” and “SA” most frequently whereas information lost during SA introduces rework in “Design and coding” and “System integration” most frequently. Also the mediums that have the propensity of losing information if used for communication during RE and SA were identified. This knowledge could help software practitioners to decide which medium to avoid or to use it with caution in the RE and SA processes and could motivate researchers to venture into other areas of software engineering (such as design, coding, testing, maintenance, etc.) from the point of view of information lost due to lack of documentation. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first work which focuses on characteristics and impact of information lost during RE and SA

Software Design Patterns for Enabling Auto Dynamic Difficulty in Video Games

Abstract-Auto dynamic difficulty is the technique of automatically changing the level of difficulty of a video game in real time to match player expertise. In this paper, we describe a collection of software design patterns for enabling auto dynamic difficulty in video games. The benefits of a design pattern approach include more reusability and lower risk compared to traditional ad hoc approaches. We implemented these design patterns as a proof-of-concept prototype system using Pac-Man as a test-bed