Agile Game Development Build, Play, Repeat

The definitive guide to more effective and personally fulfilling game development with Agile Methods—now revamped to reflect ten more years of experience and improvements

Game development is in crisis—facing bloated budgets, impossible schedules, unmanageable complexity, and death-march overtime. It’s no wonder so many development studios are struggling to survive. Fortunately, there is a solution. Agile and Lean methods have revolutionized development in the game development industry. In Agile Game Development, long-time game developer and consultant Clinton Keith shows exactly how these methods have been successfully applied to the unique challenges of modern game development.

Clint has spent more than 25 years developing games and training and coaching hundreds of game development teams. Drawing on this unparalleled expertise, he shows how teams can use the practices of Scrum and Kanban, customized to game development, to deliver games more efficiently, rapidly, and cost-effectively; craft games that offer more entertainment value; and make life more fulfilling for development teams at the same time.

• Contains several new chapters on live games, leadership, and coaching, including an all-new section on Agile for large teams of up to 1000 developers
• Updates to all chapters to reflect a decade of experience with more than 200 studios
• Now covering Kanban and other Agile approaches alongside Scrum
• Understanding Agile goals, roles, and practices in the context of game development
• Discovering how Agile benefits every specialty in game development from art to QA
• Communicating and planning your game’s vision, features, and progress

Game developers and leaders are recognizing the modern challenges of gaming. Game development organizations need a far better way to work. Agile Game Development gives them that—and brings the profitability, creativity, and fun back to game development.

Clinton Keith has 20 years of product development experience, including defense-related projects and cutting-edge technology research, including work on the F-22 fighter. He has 15 years of experience in video game development and has led technology efforts on the latest platforms. He introduced the video game development industry to Scrum and Agile in 2003, when game projects had grown to exceed $20 million budgets and 100+ team members. He has been an independent certified Scrum trainer and Agile coach since early 2008, and is a nationally recognized leader, communicator, and innovator.

Part 1: The Problem and The Solution 1. The Crisis Facing Game Development 2. Agile and Lean
Part 2: Scrum and Kanban 3. Scrum 4. Sprints and Events 5. Teams and Roles 6. Kanban
Part 3: Agile Game Development 7. User Stories 8. Agile Planning 9. Managing the First Release
Part 4: Agile Teamwork 11. Agile Technology 12. Agile Art and Audio 13. Agile Design 14. Agile QA and Production 15. Team Formation 16. Leadership
Part 5: Large and Live 17. Scaled and Distributed Development with MAGE 18. The Live Game Pipeline 19. The Myths and Challenges of Agile 20. Working with Stakeholders 21. Agile Transitions 22. Conclusion