Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
phone will ring, and the lead tester will give you the good news. The final build has
been accepted, and the game is going to be manufactured.
Your game is done. There will likely be a free flow of appropriate beverages. I keep a
bottle of nice tequila or maybe a good single-malt scotch in my office for just such an
occasion. You have a few weeks to wait for the channel to push your game into every
store and online site, so what do you do in the meantime?
Test the Archive
The first thing you do is take a snapshot of the build machine and the media files on
your network. Your job is to rebuild the game from scratch, using all your build
scripts, to make sure that if you ever need to, you can restore a backup of the game
source and rebuild your game. Start with a completely clean machine and install the
build machine backup. It should include all the build tools, such as your compiler
and special tools that you used to create your game.
Restore a backup of the network files to a clean spot on your network. This may take
some doing, since your network might be pretty full. It
s a good idea to buy some
extra hard drives to perform this task, since it is the only way you can be 100 percent
sure your project backup will work.
After you have a duplicate of your build machine and a second copy of the network
files, build your game again and compare it to the image that is signed off. If they
compare bit for bit, make some copies of the backups and store them in a cool dark
place, safe for all eternity. If you are working for a game publisher, they will want a
copy of the backup, too, so don
'
'
t forget to make enough for them. If the files don
'
t
match, do your best to figure out why. It wouldn
t be completely unusual for a few
bits to be mysteriously different on the first attempt. The existence of a completely
automated build process usually makes the archive perfectly accurate, which is a
great reason to have it in the first place.
As a last resort, if your files don
'
t match, the best thing you can do is document the
delta and have your testers run the rebuilt archive through the testing process once
more. This will ensure that at least the game is still in a shippable state, even though
some of the bits are different.
'
Archive the Bug Database
Don
t forget to back up the bug database in some readable format, such as
an Excel spreadsheet or even a CSV file. Store it along with your project
archive, and if you ever want to start a sequel, the first thing you
'
'
ll do is
figure out which postponed bugs you
'
ll fix.
 
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search