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Game development benefits from short iterations, because it is often concerned with how a game will feel like; something that is hard to anticipate. Live programming aims at reducing the length of iterations during software development to allow for faster exploration and improve program comprehension. Mainstream game engines such as Unity or the Unreal Engine already support some aspects of live programming, however, only for very specific use cases such as shader programming.

To support a more general live programming workflow in game development tools, we propose a live game development environment. The environment supports developers in two aspects: how will a code change affect the look and feel of the game and how does the behavior of the game relate its code? The proof-of-concept environment ensures short feedback cycles by always keeping the game running while it is being developed. We propose several mechanisms to work with the running game, for example, when working on code, programmers can automatically replay situations in the game that are relevant to the change by using an explicit notion of snapshots. We tentatively demonstrate the effectiveness of the live programming features in the context of the development of three game prototypes of different genres.

Tue 12 Oct

Displayed time zone: Central Time (US & Canada) change

13:50 - 14:30
Understanding and Shortening the Feedback Loop in ProgrammingResearch Papers
Chair(s): Sandeep Kuttal The University of Tulsa
13:50
10m
Paper
Understanding the Challenges and Needs of Programmers Writing Web Automation ScriptsFull paper
Research Papers
Rebecca Krosnick University of Michigan, Steve Oney University of Michigan
14:00
10m
Paper
Edit-Run Behavior in Programming and DebuggingFull paper
Research Papers
Abdulaziz Alaboudi George Mason University, USA, Thomas LaToza George Mason University
14:10
10m
Short-paper
Immediate Feedback for Students to Solve Notebook Reproducibility Problems in the ClassroomShort paper
Research Papers
Christophe Casseau Univ. Bordeaux, Bordeaux INP, CNRS, LaBRI, UMR5800, Jean-Rémy Falleri Univ. Bordeaux, Bordeaux INP, CNRS, LaBRI. Institut Universitaire de France., Xavier Blanc Univ. Bordeaux, Bordeaux INP, CNRS, LaBRI, UMR5800, Thomas Degueule CNRS, LaBRI
File Attached
14:20
10m
Short-paper
Shortening Feedback Loops in a Live Game Development EnvironmentShort paper
Research Papers
Tom Beckmann Hasso Plattner Institute, Eva Krebs Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Patrick Rein Hasso Plattner Institute, Stefan Ramson Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany, Robert Hirschfeld Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), University of Potsdam, Germany