Code optimization and detection of script conflicts in video games

Abstract

Scripting languages have gained popularity in video games for specifying the interactive content in a story. Game designers do not necessarily possess programming skills and often demand code-generating tools that can transform textual or graphical descriptions of interactions into scripts interpreted by the game engine. However, in event-based games, this code generation process may lead to potential inefficiencies and conflicts if there are multiple independent sources generating scripts for the same event. This thesis presents solutions to both perils: transformations to eliminate redundancies in the generated scripts and an advisory tool to provide assistance in detecting unintended conflicts. By incorporating traditional compiler techniques with an original code-redundancy-elimination approach, the code transformation is able to reduce code size by 25% on scripts and 14% on compiled byte-codes. With the proposed alternative view, the advisory tool is suitable for offering aid to expose potential script conflicts.