1. Game and Software Engineering Practices
Individual Presentation, Karim Sacre
04/20/12

2. Gaming Challenges Development Stages Scrum in Games Electronic Arts
Outline
Gaming Challenges
Development Stages
Scrum in Games
Electronic Arts
Rovio: Angry Birds
USC Video Game Program
Conclusion 2

3. Gaming Challenges Every game has a peek then the popularity will drop
Technology / Market changes
Too many platforms to be satisfied
Game has to be fun and NOT buggy
Games might run over budget
SEQUEL Games:
Keep up with technology
People expectations go higher
Deadline is very strict
Highly competitive business 3

4. Development Stages Concept Pre-Production Production Post-Production 4
Ideas are generated
Prototype
Green Light Approval
Pre-Production
Explore what are the fun aspects of the game
Create levels
Iterative and Incremental stage
Production
Game Statistics / Development
Post-Production
Testing
Shipment 4

5. Scrum How does Scrum Help with Game development?
“How does a project get to be a year late? One day at a time.”– Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month
Sprint Burndown
Better Productivity and Quality of Game
Better Team collaboration
Worth the overhead effort
NOTE:
Realized the delay
=> Removed 160 hours of low priority features *

6. Electronic Arts Who is Electronic Arts? 6* 6

7. Electronic Arts Shortfall
Why is EA stumbling?
Did not catch up to the mobile industry
Players are looking more for FREE online games
“EA to cease development of Battlefield IOS game”
Badly developed game / Very Buggy system
EA decided to cut its losses by removing the game from the iOS App Store
Not enough game testing. EA rushed to publish the game
Why is EA called the “Evil Empire” (John D. Carmack)?
“The company that crushes the small studios”
Maxis (1997), Westwood Studios (1998), Playfish (2009), PopCap Games (2011) 7

8. Electronic Arts Agile
"The stumbling is gone, the execution is there.“ (John Riccitiello, EA CEO) * 8

9. Electronic Arts Agile
EA (UK) Stock market goes up significantly during the month of Feb till Aug 2011 * 9

10. Rovio: Angry Birds Reason for Angry Birds Success:
Used older technology (COCO 2D)
Focused on making the game FUN and User friendly
Released a prototype that was FREE
Very cheap (0.99c) => More downloads
300 million downloads so far *
Started on 1 platform and expanded to other platforms
Used Agile/Scrum development
Divided team to smaller sub teams 10

11. USC Game Development Classes
USC Teams:
Use Agile method during entire project
Divided into groups of 5-8 people
Have weekly tasks assigned by the project leader: Google Docs
What makes USC number 1 in Video Game Design?
Professor Scott Easley  Experienced
Professor Michael Zyda  Veteran
Full Hands on practice
High Success Rate Measured 11

12. Conclusion Agile and Scrum are the best Practices for Game Development
In the case of Big Companies:
Divide Team into smaller sub teams and apply Agile and Scrum
Software Engineering Practices Help with Game Success
The world has shifted to a new Game Environment: Mobile Gaming
Takes less development time and has fewer requirements
It should be a User friendly game
On the go: Can be easily paused
Most important aspect of a game is: “SCOPE” (Scott Easley, USC) 12

13. END
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