Content Fueled Gameplay Programming in Frostpunk

In this 2019 GDC talk, 11 bit studios' Aleksander Kauch discusses the data driven gameplay architecture of 11 bit studios'in-house technology and how it affected the gameplay code of Frostpunk.
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[@KindSparkdev]

I LOVE THIS GAME and as a beginner in the field, I found this very informative. I really wish this is something I could have gotten out of college. Definitely feels like the talk I'm going to have to listen to multiple times though.

[@Xorgye]

He provides solutions to problems you only get to know as time progresses and you get more and more experience. A lot of this is about how to let the engine (and their programmers) facilitate for the designers and artists. This is called 'workflow'.

[@mrqe5]

Thanks GDC for Sharing!

[@iphatbass]

Man i love this game!!!

[@slomnim]

Chronically underviewed

[@iam_RaavananTheHero]

Why XML to configure the event? Why not json? Any specific reason?

[@dasm80x86]

I would suggest that the two are roughly equivalent. In part, it's taste and preference. Thomas Biskup built his latest version of ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery) using JSON similar to the above.

[@fmtris8064]

I am a 3D artist, what am I doing here.

[@EnderElohim]

learning stuff :D we should not only focus on specific areas we are working and it is good to wide your perspective on stuff

[@rumfordc]

can someone briefly explain to me the advantage of the XML layer?

[@msclrhd]

It provides a text format that is easy for the developers/designers/content creators to create and edit. Additionally, storing it in a source control system makes it easier to see the differences between different versions -- easier to review, investigate issues, etc..

[@TatranskyMedved]

I agree about what msclrhd said. The biggest benefit (compared to saving data into binary file) is for sure the support of versioning system & possibility to recognize what was removed/added/changed. Generally any format (JSON/YAML/....) would be suitable, since it is usually not edited by hand.

[@rumfordc]

@@msclrhd @Jan Urbanec Oh ok that makes sense, I think I understand now. Thanks for explaining guys!

[@goffe2282]

I also love this game, but this presentation did not give me much even as a programmer. For a talk like this I'd be much more interested in a high-level view of the project and the solutions they fiound to the interesting problems that they faced than the specific class names in the C++ libraries they created. Don't want to be too much of a downer. This is a phenomenal game. One of the best city builders ever made to my mind and I love it to bits. i'll rewatch the video when I'm more in a mood to strip away the code-specific stuff. Pseudo code vs real code if you will.

[@Xorgye]

Yeah, I find this hard to follow and I am a programmer too. It requires a bit of reading between the lines to understand the problems they faced and the (elegant) solutions they did find. And a lot of the times I was like 'yeah I understand your issue, but boy you took the hard way by sticking to your own engine'.

[@nashal]

@@Xorgye As he said, he is working on this engine since a long time and maybe it is effectivly more efficient when you already began your game to stick to the known than try somthing no one know and experiment. But yhea, one day it will be necessary.

[@EnderElohim]

@@nashal maybe it was not effective but they still stick with it :D they are human too pride is pride