[MUD-Dev] Object Models

[Phillip Lenhardt]

On Tue, Feb 20, 2001 at 12:39:08AM -0800, John Buehler wrote:

> If you are going to build tools for a certain problem, that problem
> had better be around for a while.  In the world of games, that means
> that the game environment needs to be extant long enough to make
> those tools worth building.  Either the game environment needs to be
> around or the systems/technology that makes up the game environment.

<snip>

> Where I'm going with this is that only systems that show significant
> promise for use for a long time will be worthy of tools.  Such
> systems are either in games that have significant longevity, or they
> have a life of their own by being reused across game boundaries.
> When you have a system like that, it can make sense to invest in
> tools for it.

As I understand it, this is incorrect. Almost all big commercial games
(eg.  Marathon, Warcraft, Age of Empires, etc) greatly depend on tools
that abstract/access the core engine in various ways (ie level design
tools, format conversion tools, etc). Without these tools it is
impossible to produce a quality game anywhere near on budget/time. The
fact that many game engines don't reach their full potential until the
amateur level designers reverse-engineer its formats is not just
because the professionals cut corners, but because their tools didn't
give them the necessary control. There was an article on Gamasutra
about the making of the Crash Bandicoot trilogy that heavily
emphasized the importance of tools.  See:

  http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19991112/GavinWhite_03.htm
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