This week we were asked to study Agile methodology. With a background in web development, I have first-hand experience of the benefits of using Agile to produce user-focused software which fits clients' ongoing needs and responds to change over the duration of the project (Beck et al., 2001).
Agile Development is a set of methods, frameworks and practices which focus on evolving solutions iteratively through small increments done by self-organizing, cross-functional teams. (Pócsová, Bednárová, Bogdanovská and Mojžišová, 2020)
Although I have experience in Agile, by nature, it is a flexible methodology with multiple ways of being deployed (Waldock, n.d.). So this is still a great opportunity to bolster my skills in this area and look a little more in the Agile manifesto.
But most importantly, I wanted to explore the practical implementation of Agile in game development. This is the area I want to improve on the most, so that focuses on my reflections this week.
Agile in gaming - is it appropriate or worth it?
Something which repeatedly keeps coming back is the importance of iteration and playtesting in game development. This has come up repeatedly in this module and my reflections and seems particularly relevant for this topic.
Looking back to week 8, I summarised that:
So at what stage should I integrate playtesting? I think it's argued really well in the book Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping, & Playtesting Games (Fullerton, Swain and Hoffman, 2004) that to avoid derivative games, this has to be done in the physical prototype stage, with playtesting performed on each iteration. (Vestby-Clarke, 2021)
Agile seems a very appropriate methodology for facilitating that iterative process that enables playtesting at these early stages and allows features to be ready soon and to discover and work the "fun" of the game earlier (Godoy and Barbosa, 2010). This is further evident in a survey done into Finnish game studios. A small pool of data suggested that studios found the quality of games improved with an Agile approach to development (Koutonen and Leppänen, 2013).
So the research out there suggests there are real-world success stories of agile game development.
How about my own experiences on the course so far?
For me, there is no doubt that using Kanban boards helped me produce my rapid ideation projects more effectively than otherwise. However, one big difference between the first and second session was that I introduced time boxing in the second. Agile requires that time-bound feature to work effectively, and I was definitely able to improve my efficiency.
But once again, coming back to what I'd like to work on more in the course, a key part of Agile was missing from both my experiences so far - teamwork. Although it's definitely possible to use Agile as a one-person band (Andrews, 2017), it comes into its own on a team. This further enforces my goal of collaborating at some stage in this module to give me the experience and opportunity to reflect on that as a practice.
Summary
This week was a very specific topic, about a subject I have a lot of experience in. That said, once again, I found myself able to take a step back and look at something I thought I knew a lot about and reflect on it from a distance. In particular, looking at how effective Agile appears to be in-game production studios is reassuring and insightful.
So what can I work towards from this?
- Using agile when collaborating on the course in future
- Researching specific Agile methods that game development studios deploy
Finally, with the module nearing its end and our personal case study due just around the corner, I'll be using Agile as a project management delivery tool to deliver it.
List of Figures
Figure 1. Giphy, 2021. Animation Chilling GIF By Inuyeh. [image] Available at: <https://giphy.com/gifs/bigliptoy-biglip-buji-yoga-yogi-catpose-bridgepose-chilling-friendship-hanging-d2ZbPXxOgFFLUcDe> [Accessed 5 August 2021].
References
Andrews, A., 2017. Scrum Of One: How to Bring Scrum into your One-Person Operation. [online] raywenderlich.com. Available at: <https://www.raywenderlich.com/585-scrum-of-one-how-to-bring-scrum-into-your-one-person-operation> [Accessed 6 August 2021].
Beck, K et al., 2001. Manifesto for Agile Software Development. [online] Agilemanifesto.org. Available at: <https://agilemanifesto.org/> [Accessed 5 August 2021].
Godoy, A. and Barbosa, E., 2010. Game-Scrum: An Approach to Agile Game Development. Florianópolis, (IX), p.295.
Koutonen, J. and Leppänen, M., 2013. How Are Agile Methods and Practices Deployed in Video Game Development? A Survey into Finnish Game Studios. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, [online] pp.135-149. Available at: <https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-38314-4_10> [Accessed 5 August 2021].
Pócsová, J., Bednárová, D., Bogdanovská, G. and Mojžišová, A., 2020. Implementation of Agile Methodologies in an Engineering Course. Education Sciences, 10(11), p.2.
Vestby-Clarke, S., 2021. Week 8: Research & Ethics | Sam Vestby-Clarke. [online] Indie.samvestbyclarke.com. Available at: <https://indie.samvestbyclarke.com/week-8-research> [Accessed 5 August 2021].
Waldock, B., n.d. Week 10: Belinda Waldock on the Agile Movement and Practice. [online] Falmouth Flex. Available at: <https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/912/pages/week-10-belinda-waldock-on-the-agile-movement-and-practice?module_item_id=54148> [Accessed 5 August 2021].