Do you use any modeler language or method (uml or rup) to create yor games?

When designing code, i like to do a couple things. First of a paper diagram it. Which is simple drawing out the general design on paper, as its easier to change or discard, then i like to use UML. UML is nice because the right UML program can create code for you and in instance where have code existing already, it can sometimes reverse engineer it for you and create designs.

Try StarUML, i researched alot of open source UML apps and this was the best i had found.

Yeah, I use UML and Visio when I'm working on a larger project with a few programmers. For games it's just hobbyist stuff so I don't get too anal with the UML, but I like to layout the general structure of the class hierarchy and different game components.

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Original post by Tang of the Mountain Try StarUML, i researched alot of open source UML apps and this was the best i had found.

Seconded. StarUML is as good as $3,000+ commercial UML tools I've used.

For my personal project: I put up a big whiteboard in my study room, and I have a camera on my phone. If I ever make a drawing that is worth holding on to I snap a picture and I put it in the repository.
The whiteboard is open source, the phone is not, and neither were free... sadly.

At work: same as above.

Both at home and at work the code changes so often and rapidly that it's a hassle to maintain "real" diagrams/documentation. Our unit tests are the documentation.

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I guess professionals use it.

This little sentence that you put in your post triggered me. I'm not sure if you meant it as I interpret it though.
I don't believe the use of certain tools makes you any more or less "professional".
I just want to say, don't use such tooling because it makes you -look- professional, use it because it works for you and it helps you.




But that aside.
In the past (4 years ago) I used Poseidon UML. At that time it worked OK-ish. It had a few stability issues, and it was slow (but I had a crappy PC and it's Java), but it must have improved over the years.
The community edition is still there I see, though it mentions a "Rent Subscription" now. Don't know if you can still use the community edition without paying for it though, so you'll have to try it out.

Visio is also good, but not for the UML plugin in my opinion (may also have improved with the latest version). I always preferred to draw plain rectangles in Visio rather than use the UML things.

Even further back in time, at school, I used Rational Rose. That's a heavy weight design tool. I remember I was pretty impressed by it when we used it at school. It's expensive, it's heavy, and it's "professional".



Again, use what works best for you.