2K streamlines game development with new digital ecosystem

Tim Morrow, Chief Technology Officer, 2K

The challenge

The fast-paced world of gaming moves quickly. Developers need to add, update and improve in-game features as rapidly as they can to stay ahead of the competition and keep players happy. To accelerate game development and improve the player experience faster, leading publisher 2K was looking to streamlining processes for integrating new in-game features into existing products. Its preferred route was establishing a framework that allows developers to reuse standard game components and backend services.

The solution needed to be robust enough to make these processes repeatable through a single platform and reduce the amount of time and cost it took to go from the inception of game development all the way through to launch. Software development partner Mindera was given the task of solving the problem.

The solution

Following a thorough investigation into existing systems, processes and 2K’s key objectives, Mindera’s gaming development experts decided the best option would be to establish a shared platform. Powered by the knowledge and expertise of a rapidly assembled team of over 100 Mindera engineers, the platform would offer a comprehensive suite of microservices enabling game developers to explore, select, combine, and preview 2K services all in one place. The microservice architecture provided cohesion and independence of business logic allowing greater parallelisation of development and finer control of scalability and operational monitoring.

The digital gaming platform was built to serve the entire game developer ecosystem, from 2K’s in-house team to external partners and unaffiliated developers. The initial aim was to support the core in-game features to boost the player experience. This acted as a single engine that allowed 2K’s internal teams to integrate and re-use core features for multiple end-to-end cycles. As a result, Mindera was able to streamline the release process, reducing complexity and improving efficiency.

Tim Morrow, Chief Technology Officer, 2K

The results

Mindera’s shared platform has enabled 2K to build and maintain critical features that support numerous game titles developed by multiple studios via their proprietary technology across its ecosystem. These include:

• Promotions Management – Allowing 2K to manage promotional content in real time (without requiring any in-game update) with target audience capabilities and user segmentation.
• Player Matchmaking – Enabling game studios to host game servers and open them up to players based on custom game studio logic, while handling infrastructure management to cut operating expenditure.
• Achievements Management – Delivering this service in-game without the need for a new game build.
• Leaderboard Service – Enabling customised leaderboards to be created per game.
• Campaign Management – Creating and overseeing campaigns linking player audiences to features such as Promotions, In-Game Messages, Catalogue Items, Virtual Currency and more.
• Real Time Notifications – Allowing services to “push” message to in-game clients in a fast, reliable and secure way.
• Ecosystem Gateway – Dynamically monitoring and controlling all traffic entering the 2K ecosystem.
• Multiplayer capability – Enabling more than one player to play in the same game environment at the same time.
• Cloud Scalability – Transitioning 2K’s on-premise solution to the cloud and refactoring its business logic so millions of concurrently connected users can be accommodated.

By removing the need to implement and maintain these services for each new game, the shared digital gaming platform is enabling 2K to make major savings in capital and operational expenditure.

This successfully designed and built gaming ecosystem is a testament to the countless hours of work and dedication Mindera’s software development team has committed to streamlining the end-to-end cycles of 2K’s game development.

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About 2K

Founded in 2005, 2K develops and publishes interactive entertainment for video game consoles, personal computers, and mobile devices sold in store and online. The Company is home to many talented development studios, including Visual Concepts, Firaxis Games, Hangar 13, Cat Daddy Games, 31st Union, Cloud Chamber and HB Studios.