Sunday, March 26, 2006
Agile game development
I've been looking at various software development methodologies lately and I've found some pretty interesting blogs on one type that is very exciting.
Agile game development
Agile game development is one method to developing software that can include the ideas of extreme programming (XP), rearranging teams to include QA during the whole process instead of just at the end, and doing new builds of software as often as possible in a team.
It's a very vague method which requires further tuning than just what's listed above. One method that is actually used is called Scrum which Highmoon game studio is using in their software development. In using the Scrum method, teams meet frequently (often daily) and work quickly on tasks so that they have a product that they can quickly asses the completion state of, all of the teams (artists, designers, QA, programmers...) are involved in development at once, their code base is solid, release schedules are frequent, changing something later in development costs far less and finally, giving the teams ownership of the product they are working on.
It's agile game development but these methods don't have to apply to games which is why I'm so interested in them. These methods seem as if they would work in any development arena. Now, most of these things seem obvious to me. Now I really wonder, "Why isn't this how software is typically developed?"
Interestingly, implementing only part of the Scrum methods will cause it to fail. I'm sure that for many company leaders, the idea of letting the people below them control the direction of the product without their constant supervision seems like a scary situation but Highmoon has thus far shown that is capable of producing a quality piece of software using the methodologies.
If you're interested in some good blogs to find further information, the CTO of Highmoon has a blog all about agile game development practices, the Lead Technical Architect of High Moon Studios Noel Llopis and there is a Google groups devoted to Agile Game Development . ¶ 4:54 PM
Agile game development
Agile game development is one method to developing software that can include the ideas of extreme programming (XP), rearranging teams to include QA during the whole process instead of just at the end, and doing new builds of software as often as possible in a team.
It's a very vague method which requires further tuning than just what's listed above. One method that is actually used is called Scrum which Highmoon game studio is using in their software development. In using the Scrum method, teams meet frequently (often daily) and work quickly on tasks so that they have a product that they can quickly asses the completion state of, all of the teams (artists, designers, QA, programmers...) are involved in development at once, their code base is solid, release schedules are frequent, changing something later in development costs far less and finally, giving the teams ownership of the product they are working on.
It's agile game development but these methods don't have to apply to games which is why I'm so interested in them. These methods seem as if they would work in any development arena. Now, most of these things seem obvious to me. Now I really wonder, "Why isn't this how software is typically developed?"
Interestingly, implementing only part of the Scrum methods will cause it to fail. I'm sure that for many company leaders, the idea of letting the people below them control the direction of the product without their constant supervision seems like a scary situation but Highmoon has thus far shown that is capable of producing a quality piece of software using the methodologies.
If you're interested in some good blogs to find further information, the CTO of Highmoon has a blog all about agile game development practices, the Lead Technical Architect of High Moon Studios Noel Llopis and there is a Google groups devoted to Agile Game Development . ¶ 4:54 PM
