Agile gets a bad rap in game development.
It never had much of a chance for one overriding reason:
Game production phase gates.
In the early 2000s, the wider software development world abandoned traditional SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) with its set phases spanning a long time.
However, game production phases (GDLC), often spanning years for AAA, continue to look awfully similar to SDLC.
SDLC:
Analysis -> Design -> Development -> Testing -> Deployment -> Maintenance
GDLC:
Planning -> Pre-Production -> Production -> Alpha -> Beta -> Launch -> Post Production
The vast majority of planning & design continues to happen up-front, with the vast majority of testing happening at the end.
You might be running sprints during production, but over-ruling phase gates thwart them.
You’re trying to be agile in a waterfall wrapper.
Adding pre-defined production milestone deliverables to the equation makes the situation even worse.
By holding on to this outdated model, game studios and development teams are missing out on:
-> Rapid player feedback
-> Minimizing crunch periods
-> Having a continuous “bug-free” build to play
-> Having the entire team contribute to the ongoing design
-> Potential early-access revenues to help fund continued development
-> Adapting and building something better than what was designed up-front
Yes, game development is different from software development, but not that much different.
Something to think about.
