Chapter 5 of the lecture Game Programming taught at HAW Hamburg. Introduction to continuous integration, API documentation generation, analytics, static code analysis and crash dump analysis.

1. Game Programming
Development Tools
Nick Prühs

2. Objectives
• To understand the importance of improved workflows
• To get an idea of which kinds of useful tools are out there
• To learn how to integrate tools into your daily workflow
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3. Automated Builds
• Allow you to create nightly releases of your current game version
• Automate any pre- and post-build steps required for creating new
builds
• Track build successes and failures and their reasons
• Provide access to previous builds (history)
• Can parameterize build input and output
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4. Automated Builds
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Jenkins CI – Slash Games

5. Automated Builds
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Jenkins CI – Project Page

6. Typical Build Steps
• Accessing source control
▪ Syncing working copy
▪ Creating tags
• Writing version numbers
• Performing the actual build
• Packaging the build result
• Publishing the game on a build page
• Running unit tests
• Sending email notifications
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7. Automated Builds
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Jenkins CI – Project Configuration

8. Automated Builds
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Jenkins CI – Build Result

9. API Documentation
• Can be automatically generated from properly formatted source
code comments
• Output format may vary (usually HTML)
• Tools are available for all major object-oriented languages (Javadoc,
Sandcastle, Doxygen)
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10. Javadoc
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Javadoc Comments

11. Javadoc
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Javadoc – Invoked From Command Line
javadoc -d api -sourcepath src -subpackages com.example.project

12. Javadoc
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Javadoc API Documentation

13. Sandcastle
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XML Documentation Comments

14. Sandcastle
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Sandcastle Help File Builder GUI

15. Sandcastle
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MSDN-Style API Documentation

16. Doxygen
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Doxygen Comment Blocks

17. Doxygen
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Doxygen GUI Frontend

18. Doxygen
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Doxygen API Documentation

19. Analytics in Games
• Track the origin, device and operation system of your players
• Track user engagement
▪ Retention
▪ A/B testing
• Track monetization success
• Track performance
▪ Framerate
▪ Crashes
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20. Analytics in Games
• Involve many key questions
▪ What to track
▪ How to track (who, what, where, when)
▪ How to analyze data
• Enough material for a whole different course
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21. Analytics in Games
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Game Analytics Website

22. Analytics in Games
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Game Analytics API Call
private void OnVictory(Event e)
{
var victoryData = (VictoryEventData)e.EventData;
var eventKey = string.Format
("Level:Victory:{0}:{1}", this.currentLevel, victoryData.Type);
GA.API.Design.NewEvent(eventKey);
}

23. Analytics in Games
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Game Analytics Metrics

24. Analytics in Games
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Game Analytics Funnel

25. Consistent Code Style
• StyleCop analyzes C# source code to enforce a set of style and
consistency rules
• Helps developers avoid common pitfalls and mistakes
• Settings file can be checked in to version control
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26. Consistent Code Style
StyleCop Settings Dialog in Visual Studio 2012
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27. Consistent Code Style
Part of a StyleCop Settings File
<StyleCopSettings Version="105">
<GlobalSettings>
<StringProperty Name="MergeSettingsFiles">NoMerge</StringProperty>
<CollectionProperty Name="RecognizedWords">
<Value>Bresenham</Value>
<Value>Dijkstra</Value>
<Value>Endre</Value>
<Value>Fredman</Value>
<Value>multigraph</Value>
<Value>Stee</Value>
<Value>Tarjan</Value>
<Value>Tarjan's</Value>
<Value>unweighted</Value>
</CollectionProperty>
</GlobalSettings>
<Analyzers>
<Analyzer AnalyzerId="StyleCop.CSharp.DocumentationRules">
<Rules>
<Rule Name="DocumentationTextMustContainWhitespace">
<RuleSettings>
<BooleanProperty Name="Enabled">False</BooleanProperty>
</RuleSettings>
</Rule>
<Rule Name="ConstructorSummaryDocumentationMustBeginWithStandardText">
<RuleSettings>
<BooleanProperty Name="Enabled">False</BooleanProperty>
</RuleSettings>
</Rule>
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28. Consistent Code Style
StyleCop Warnings in Visual Studio 2012
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29. Static Code Analysis
• ReSharper provides static code analysis
• Many, many shortcuts and quick fixes
• Improved refactoring
• Improved search features
• Code templates
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30. Static Code Analysis
R# Static Code Analysis in Visual Studio 2012
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31. Static Code Analysis
R# Suggestions in Visual Studio 2012
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32. Static Code Analysis
R# Suggestions in Visual Studio 2012
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33. Static Code Analysis
R# Suggestions in Visual Studio 2012
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34. Eclipse
Eclipse Java Code Style Clean Up Settings
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35. Eclipse
Eclipse Java Code Style Clean Up Settings
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36. Hint
Setting up tools will always take
the same time.
Thus, the earlier you set up your
tools, the greater your benefit!
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37. Crash Dump Analaysis
• Sadly, even released games and tools will sometimes crash
• Windows can automatically generate a minidump whenever a
program throws an unhandled exception
▪ Loaded modules
▪ Thread information
▪ Current call stack
• These can be loaded and debugged in Visual Studio
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38. Crash Dump Analaysis
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C:Program FilesProcdump>procdump.exe -ma -i D:TempDumps
ProcDump v7.0 - Writes process dump files
Copyright (C) 2009-2014 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
With contributions from Andrew Richards
Set to:
HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionAeDebug
(REG_SZ) Auto = 1
(REG_SZ) Debugger = "C:Program FilesProcdumpprocdump.exe" -accepteula -ma
-j "D:TempDumps" %ld %ld %p
Set to:
HKLMSOFTWAREWow6432NodeMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionAeDebug
(REG_SZ) Auto = 1
(REG_SZ) Debugger = "C:Program FilesProcdumpprocdump.exe" -accepteula -ma
-j "D:TempDumps" %ld %ld %p
ProcDump is now set as the Just-in-time (AeDebug) debugger.

39. Crash Dump Analaysis
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C:Program FilesProcdump>procdump.exe -u
ProcDump v7.0 - Writes process dump files
Copyright (C) 2009-2014 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
With contributions from Andrew Richards
Reset to:
HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionAeDebug
(REG_SZ) Auto = <deleted>
(REG_SZ) Debugger = "C:WINDOWSsystem32vsjitdebugger.exe" -p %ld -e %ld
Reset to:
HKLMSOFTWAREWow6432NodeMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionAeDebug
(REG_SZ) Auto = <deleted>
(REG_SZ) Debugger = "C:WINDOWSsystem32vsjitdebugger.exe" -p %ld -e %ld
ProcDump is no longer the Just-in-time (AeDebug) debugger.

40. Crash Dump Analaysis
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Deferencing a nullptr that will cause a crash

41. Crash Dump Analaysis
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Minidump File Summary in Visual Studio

42. Crash Dump Analaysis
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Debugging a Minidump in Visual Studio

43. References
• Croy, Bayer, Kawaguchi. Jenkins CI. http://www.Jenkins.io, May 2017.
• Oracle. Javadoc. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/index-jsp-
135444.html., May 2017 6.
• Woodruff. Sandcastle Help File Builder. https://github.com/EWSoftware/SHFB, May 2017.
• Dimitri. Doxygen. http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/, May 2017.
• GameAnalytics. GameAnalytics. http://www.gameanalytics.com/, May 2017.
• Microsoft. StyleCop. https://github.com/StyleCop/StyleCop, May 2017.
• JetBrains. Resharper. http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/, May 2017.
• The Eclipse Foundation. Eclipse. https://www.eclipse.org/, May 2017.
• MSDN. Crash Dump Analysis. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/windows/desktop/ee416349(v=vs.85).aspx, May 2017.
• MSDN. Collecting User-Mode Dumps. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/bb787181(VS.85).aspx, May 2017.
• Russinovich. ProcDump. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/dd996900.aspx,
November 18, 2016.
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44. Thank you!
http://www.npruehs.de
https://github.com/npruehs
@npruehs
nick.pruehs@daedalic.com

45. 5 Minute Review Session
• Which steps can be automated using a build server?
• How can API documentation be generated automatically?
• Which data can be tracked by analytics?
• How can you enforce a consistent code style within your team?
• Which tools can help you to detect code quality issues?
• How can you debug applications that crashed outside of Visual
Studio?