9 Tooltime data parsing
This chapter covers
- Simplifying our development workflow and helping with testing gameplay changes by storing our balance data separately from runtime assets.
- Eliminating costly runtime checks by validating balance data during tool time.
- Handling live balance updates and A/B testing.
We have seen how separating the dynamic, editable parts of the asset data from the asset itself can both simplify and accelerate our development process. We moved the dynamic parts of our menu assets into the GUIRef script. This adds a check for artists to ensure they included all necessary components and makes it easy for engineers to identify the components they need to modify in code.
We want to do the same thing with our balance data. At this time, our balance data can only be edited through the Game GameObject in the Unity scene. We want to separate the balance data from the scene by moving it to an external asset, making it easier for designers to work on. After all, we may be working with multiple game designers who all want to modify the balance simultaneously.
As we discussed in section 4.2, balance data defines the rules and tuning of our game. In this chapter, we are focusing on how that data is edited, validated, versioned, and parsed.