Disney's Pixie Hollow Online

 

 

Platform: Flash Engine: Custome Flash Engine, Panda3D Language: Python, ActionScript 3 Tools Used: Eclipse, Adobe Creative Suite Duration: 1.5 years Team Size: 30 Role: Lead Gameplay Programmer (Server)

Overview Disney’s Pixie Hollow is an online, Flash-based 2D MMO geared for all ages, but also primarily targeted at girls. Thousands of players daily enjoy the various minigames, item crafting, parties, home decorating, and wilderness adventures that Pixie Hollow has to offer. This project was developed in tight collaborating with Disney VR Studios and Silver Tree Media who has since relocated to San Francisco from Pittsburgh, PA.  We collaborated very well across three different office locations and cultures.  The design, art, and code are all very well done and it shows in the highly polished product! You can play Pixie Hollow for FREE here: http://www.pixiehollow.com   Gameplay Video

 

 

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Detailed Info

Programming
As my first project at Schell Games, I was the primary server-side gameplay programmer.

I designed and implemented all of the backend gameplay scripting for quite a while until a coworker was brought on as scope increased so that we could hit our milestones. The general rule is that the game server, written in Python using Panda3D, is the final word for everything. All client messages are passed to the game server for processing. This also means a lot of server-side logic!

Almost every feature in the game has a server-side component driving it. For example, I helped co-design and build the spawning system where ingredients spawn throughout the world and players are allowed to gather them by clicking on them. I also worked on many other backend systems such as the inventory, home decorating, event logging, multiplayer minigames, and much more.

The server system is highly configurable by letting designers change values such as ingredient spawn rates and rarities in XML files which are read by the game server.

All code was written in Python.