DLC in Video Games: What, Why and How?
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Here are the slides from a presentation I gave at a school in Coppell, TX for Middle School students in the summer of 2018. Keep in mind that my target audience here was middle school kids, the last few slides are a little text and game development heavy, but came in handy for the game development activities we did afterwards. I would love to give more talks like this so if you are interested, let me know! Also, feedback is always appreciated!
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DLC in Video Games: What, Why and How?
- 1. DLC In Video Game What, Why and How? Scott Velasquez – Lead Programmer
- 2. Quick Backstory About Myself • Entered the game industry in 2000
- 3. Quick Backstory About Myself • Technology around me at your age
- 4. So what Is DLC?
- 5. So what Is DLC? DLC stands for Downloadable Content. It adds extra content and/or functionality to a video game after a game's release.
- 6. So what Is DLC? DLC stands for Downloadable Content. It adds extra content and/or functionality to a video game after a game's release. It can be released as a paid or free update to the game.
- 7. DLC Examples
- 8. Maybe One More DLC Example
- 10. Before DLC
- 11. Why DLC?
- 12. Why DLC?
- 13. Ok, So Why DLC? • (Picture skills are on cooldown, incoming text!)
- 14. Ok, So Why DLC? • The game industry has learned over the years that DLC is important for many reasons, but here are three to consider:
- 15. Ok, So Why DLC? • The game industry has learned over the years that DLC is important for many reasons, but here are three to consider: Customer Acquisition Monetization Player Retention
- 16. Customer Acquisition • Getting somebody interested for your game/DLC • Can apply to any game, but more so towards social games Inherent game mechanics Facebook/mobile game designs Could build friend referral systems that award DLC items • Announcing DLC plans early can build customer confidence
- 17. Monetization • Getting somebody to give you money for your DLC • Game prices remain the same, development costs climbing Something had to change • Law of build once, sell many My favorite thing about writing software! Build more things you already support to maximize profits • Listen to your community
- 18. Retention • Keeping players playing your game • Perhaps the most important! Especially for multiplayer games • New content and changes will keep current customers interested And bring back some who had taken a break • Free DLC, high value DLC, and addressing community issues are goodwill builders For current and future games by your company
- 19. How DLC Gets Into A Live Game
- 20. How DLC Gets Into A Live Game Ideally we plan & test ahead so we end up with something like this
- 21. How DLC Gets Into A Live Game Rather than an unstable and hacky thing like this
- 22. How DLC Gets Into A Live Game • (3 parts, incoming text!)
- 23. How DLC Gets Into A Live Game (1/3) • Plan ahead! Reserve some RAM during main game development Understand first party requirements Scale testing as necessary Build a simple DLC example and test before shipping main game • Build it! Great care should be taken so as to not break the main game. DLC content should not be referenced by the main game Use budgets and reference the main game as needed • Binaries are typically delta patched or replaced wholesale • Content layout/run-time use depends on game engine
- 24. How DLC Gets Into A Live Game (2/3) • Release Engineering Typically responsible for things like: File/package/chunk management per platform Branching the game per DLC/patch and per platform release Integrating DLC team’s changes & propagating to the correct branch Uploading builds to QA and first party certification • QA & First Party Certification Test for random game issues as well as certification rules they have on their end Generate reports and score issues that need addressing Eventually the DLC will pass and marked as GOLD!
- 25. How DLC Gets Into A Live Game (3/3) • Marketing Collaboration with marketing to raise awareness and excitement about upcoming DLC • Release Many switches to flip at once May want to pre-release some items or display news as well • Micropatching Becoming popular way to address game issues in-between “big” patches Micropatches are tiny, typically in the single kilobyte range! Same changes should be made in DLC so micropatches can be retired eventually • And a News system Text, image, video & URL support ideal for marketing’s needs
Editor's Notes
- First presentation of the day, let’s get this thing started!
- Here’s a few of the franchises I’ve worked on over the years (better list can be found at http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,82004) Before video games I wrote multiuser finance software and contract web programming in Arizona.
- This is what my life looked like when I was around your age! No Google, YouTube, Twitter, Steam or Twitch! Things were much different then, but there’s always opportunities when it comes to technology and our favorite type, video games!
- Here are a couple of examples from Rocket League and Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild.
- But maybe one more example would help, yell out if you know what game this DLC appears in?
- I think you get the picture on what DLC is now, but what about before DLC was a thing?
- When I was a kid, the game I bought was the game I got...forever, for better or worse. Think about that for a minute… There wasn’t a way for developers to patch their game to adjust the game’s balance, fix bugs, or address poor performance. As a game developer I can tell you that this is pretty scary especially today as games have become incredibly complex to build and TEST! By the same token, however, there also wasn’t a way for developers to offer extra content or features. We couldn’t purchase DLC for Super Mario, Tetris, or Legend of Zelda. Sports games today have all sorts of neat features we could only dream of back then (roster updates, digital trading cards, etc)…in fact, one of the earliest times I can remember thinking about programming was when my best friend Ez and I ran Tecmo Bowl seasons for our neighborhood. Tecmo Bowl was rather simple, but we were stat junkies and highly competitive. We hand recorded stats for every play of every game and then calculated running averages and totals for bragging rights. As you can expect, that was a lot of work for us! But, totally something the developers could have offered in a free DLC update if there were such a thing back then.
- So why do games need DLC? I’m sure somebody in here has probably asked a math teacher why they need to learn a particular formula! It’s a great thing to ask and I believe questions like that help you remember what’s being taught. Most people would probably guess we build DLC because…
- …game developers just want to be rich, but that’s not true!
- The game industry has learned over the years that DLC important for three reasons: Acquisition, monetization and retention.
- The game industry has learned over the years that DLC important for many reasons, but here are three to consider: Customer Acquisition Monetization Player Retention
- Let’s jump into Customer Acquisition Acquisition
- Ok, Monetization Game prices haven’t changed much over the years, however the cost to create them has increased a lot. DLC allows developers to earn additional income which can offset the costs of development and ideally earn profits to keep the company going and the employees paid. One of the awesome benefits of software is that you can create something once and sell it many times. DLC benefits from this concept greatly because you can build DLC systems once that you use many times to release new content (Ie. customizations like heads, skins, and emote). The upfront development cost is large, but additional costs are low resulting in more potential profits. Think about a chore that you always have to do every day or every week and how nice it would be to build something that would take care of it for you automatically. DLC systems and game development in some ways are similar to that! Listen to your community, they’ll tell you lots of things they would be willing to pay for which could spark some ideas.
- Ok, Retention Last, retention is a big reason to consider DLC. If you’re a multiplayer game, your game most likely depends on other players playing for systems like matchmaking to function probably. Consistently building and releasing DLC is a good way to keep your players interested and playing your game. Free DLC and DLC priced well below its value is a great way to build goodwill with your players both for your game and for your company. Think Borderlands keys!
- Slightly technical, but heavily simplified. Happy to discuss in more depth after the talk!
- Plan ahead! Reserve some RAM during main game development (might need more global objects in a DLC, make room now) Understand first party requirements (number and frequency of patches, sizes, etc) Scale testing as necessary (self contained DLC is tremendously easier to test than one that will also impact the main game!) Build a simple DLC example and test before shipping main game (cannot stress enough how much it’s easier to fix before the game is live!) Build it! Great care should be taken so as to not break the main game. (same as building a simple DLC example early, it’s painful to fix main game issues when it’s live) DLC content should not be referenced by the main game (doing so could force the main game to run out of memory!) Use budgets and reference the main game as needed (you’ll be thankful later) Binaries are typically delta patched or replaced wholesale Content layout/run-time use depends on game engine (Ie. some engines will put DLC content in their own folder and load it first before the main game’s content)
- Release Engineering Typically responsible for things like: File/package/chunk management per platform Branching the game per DLC/patch and per platform release Integrating DLC team’s changes & propagating to the correct branch Uploading builds to QA and first party certification QA & First Party Certification Test for random game issues as well as certification rules they have on their end Ie. When a player is using voice chat we must display a microphone icon Generate reports and score issues that need addressing Eventually the DLC will pass and marked as GOLD!
- Marketing Collaboration with marketing to raise awareness and excitement about upcoming DLC Release Many switches to flip at once at the right time and on the right day Multiple platforms and time zones May want to pre-release some items or news as well Doing so might require a system not talked about yet called Micropatching Becoming popular way to address game issues in-between “big” patches Micropatches are tiny, typically in the single kilobyte range! Same changes should be made in DLC so micropatches can be retired eventually And a News system Text, image, video & URL support ideal for marketing’s needs