The theory behind Modularity

I was asking some of my readers about my blog and queried them if there was anything missing that they would liked to of seen on here and two of them suggested more information or an explanation about modular assets and what their specific purpose is in a game and the theory behind them. From I've been looking online at articles and found a post by a Bethesda studio employee named Joel Burgess and he explains the theory of modularity and the benefits it gives to his game studio.

Joel explains that modular assets are an import factor within their games due to the fact that the majority of the games he's been involved with are hugely scoped. Fallout 3 (2008) and Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (2011) are games which consist of vastly open worlds which all need filling with content, filling this world with unique designs and models would just be inefficient for the development team as well as the game engine running the games.

Joel mentions that to construct their levels the team construct systems known as 'kits' In this instance he explains how a pipe kit can be used over many different areas within fallout 3 and it's levels. A kits purpose is to be a set of models or items that can be positioned together or uniquely to create something that is often larger as a whole. This pipe kit below from fallout 3 is made up of only four pieces but have a variety of combinations when used together.

Modular assets are fundamental when it comes to Bethesdas techniques in making their games. Although Skyrim was made by a team of only 90 people they were able to make one of the largest open world games on a console to date. Apparently the content in game spans over 16sq miles, this is a big space to fill, and with a small team this would of been impossible without modular assets. Well not impossible, but extremely inefficient and time consuming nonetheless.

Bethesda use the principle that the main character, if humanoid should be exactly 6ft tall or 128 and about 32 Unreal Units wide. As I'm also making a first person game with doorways I will have to also take this into account. Joel suggests that all of their doors within their games are wide enough so that two characters can pass through the doors at the same time, so at least two characters wide. And so maybe I should also take this into account.

I have also noticed over the articles I've seen about modular assets is that they all use a type of grid or scale. Joels calls it a 'footprint' in this article and he stresses how important it is to keep to the grid laid out initially at the start of development. Kit pieces that a level designer finds that don't fit with the grid quite right should be noted and given back to the artist to create a solution for. Luckily the way in which the Chinese build their houses is relatively symmetrical, so constructing houses on a scaled grid would hopefully be pretty straight forward.

Carcassonne, a well loved board game of mine was also mentioned to contain modular art assets within it's creation, however I attempted to think of  my own board game which consisted of different modular assets within it. Settlers of Catan I also consists of modular assets also I believe, with the same principle as Joel explains that is used in Carcassonne, Catan creates a different game board everytime you play a new game, if you don't use the regular set up for beginners.

Links

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JoelBurgess/20130501/191514/

https://starfosterblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/settlers-of-catan.jpg