COTS Approaches in Video Game Development: An Empirical Discussion

Because of increasing complexity of game software, reuse of exiting code and techniques instead of developing game from scratch becomes necessary to game industry. But games are running on various platforms and diversified with various genres, how to effectively reuse legacy code and increase productivity is therefore a problem. Appearance of game engines partly solved the problem which binds reusable components with development tools, and enables licensees modify, extend and customize source code. Further With integrating other COTS components to game engine, most of low level techniques could be obtained, and game production companies could save much time on repeatedly development. This essay discusses COTS based development practice in game industry and relates it to research on COTS, in order to get a better understanding of COTS approaches, and points out challenges and opportunities on reuse powered game development.