Bringing auto dynamic difficulty to commercial games: A reusable design pattern based approach

Auto dynamic difficulty (ADD) is the technique of automatically changing the level of difficulty of a video game in real time to match player expertise. Recreating an ADD system on a game-by-game basis is both expensive and time consuming; ultimately limiting its usefulness. Thus, we leverage the benefits of software design patterns to construct an ADD framework. In this paper, we demonstrate that the usage of these design patterns and this framework results in a reusable approach, both in terms of source code and process, based on our experiences with the commercial sandbox game Minecraft. We also discuss the benefits of adopting such an approach in terms of improved software quality and optimized development practices.