Application of Data-Oriented Design in Game Development

Abstract

Game development is a big, human resource intensive industry. Object-Orientated Design (OOD) is the most popular software design paradigm in game development. However, it is not the optimal choice whet it comes to performance and resource utilization. To solve this problem, Data-Oriented Design (DOD) can serve as an alternative for resource-intensive games where performance is the highest priority. The latter approach is often perceived as something exclusive to highly qualified specialists. Thus, a question arises whether DOD can suit and be useful for smaller companies and projects, and what are the trade-offs of using the approach compared to more wide-spread object-orientation. This paper examines the experience of a small game development team implementing two similar case study projects, one using OOD and another using DOD. After an overview of both implementations, the authors analyze and compare the two projects in regards to performance and maintainability. Recommendations are given on when each of the two design approaches should be applied and what are the corresponding skill sets for developers to use them.