Agile Game Development: Build, Play, Repeat, 2nd Edition

Agile Game Development: Build, Play, Repeat, 2nd Edition

by Clinton Keith
Released July 2020
Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 9780136204831

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Book description

In Agile Game Development, Clinton Keith offered game development team members the first complete blueprint for leveraging the power of Scrum and Agile methods to deliver games more efficiently, rapidly, and cost-effectively; create games that offer more entertainment value; and make life more fulfilling for every development team member. Now, reflecting his unsurpassed experience helping more than 150 game development studios succeed, Keith has thoroughly revamped his classic guide for today’s radically transformed industry. The only Certified Scrum Trainer to help build 20 AAA-level games, Keith is singularly well-placed to help game developers solve the problems they actually face. In this edition, he:

  • Addresses the modern challenges of mobile, free-to-play, and Massively Agile games

  • Adds a completely new section on large-scale Agile game development, and new chapters on managing the first release, forming and leading Agile teams, game pipelines, and more

  • Presents many new date stories about the experiences of actual game development teams, with actionable takeaways

  • Illuminates advanced Agile projects through new “Things to Try” sidebars

  • Covers Kanban and other Agile methodologies as well as Scrum

Around the world, thousands of professional game developers have already used Agile Game Development to dramatically improve their effectiveness — and enjoy their work more. This 2nd Edition offers today’s professionals even more value — no matter what types of games they’re developing, what development roles they play, or what environments they’re working in.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. About This eBook
  3. Halftitle Page
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright Page
  6. Dedication Page
  7. Contents at a Glance
  8. Contents
  9. Foreword
  10. Preface
    1. The Second Edition
  11. Acknowledgments
  12. About the Author
  13. Part I: The Problem and the Solution
    1. Chapter 1. The Crisis Facing Game Development
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. A Brief History of Game Development
      3. The Crisis
      4. What Good Looks Like
      5. Summary
      6. Additional Reading
    2. Chapter 2. Agile and Lean Development
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. What Is Agile?
      3. What Is Lean?
      4. Why Game Development Is Hard
      5. Applying Both Agile and Lean
      6. Why Use Agile and Lean for Game Development?
      7. What an Agile Project Looks Like
      8. The Challenge of Agile and Lean
      9. What Good Looks Like
      10. Summary
      11. Additional Reading
  14. Part II: Scrum and Kanban
    1. Chapter 3. Scrum
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. The History of Scrum
      3. Product Backlog, Sprints, and Releases
      4. Scrum Roles
      5. Customers and Stakeholders
      6. Chickens and Pigs
      7. Scaling Scrum
      8. What Good Looks Like
      9. Summary
      10. Additional Reading
    2. Chapter 4. Sprints
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. The Big Picture
      3. Planning
      4. Tracking Progress
      5. The Daily Scrum Meeting
      6. Sprint Reviews
      7. Retrospectives
      8. Sprint Challenges
      9. What Good Looks Like
      10. Summary
      11. Additional Reading
    3. Chapter 5. Great Teams
      1. What Are Great Teams?
      2. The Solutions in This Chapter
      3. An Agile Approach to Teams
      4. What Good Looks Like
      5. Summary
      6. Additional Reading
    4. Chapter 6. Kanban
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. What Is Kanban?
      3. Improving the Workflow
      4. The Difference with Scrum
      5. What Good Looks Like
      6. Summary
      7. Additional Reading
    5. Chapter 7. The Product Backlog
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. A Fateful Meeting
      3. Why Design Documents Fail
      4. The Product Backlog
      5. Creating the Product Backlog
      6. Managing the Product Backlog
      7. Defining “Done”
      8. Challenges
      9. Dysfunctional Product Ownership
      10. What Good Looks Like
      11. Summary
      12. Additional Reading
  15. Part III: Agile Game Development
    1. Chapter 8. User Stories
      1. Speaking Different Languages
      2. The Solutions in This Chapter
      3. What Are User Stories?
      4. Levels of Detail
      5. Acceptance Criteria
      6. Using Index Cards for User Stories
      7. INVEST in User Stories
      8. User Roles
      9. Collecting Stories
      10. Splitting Stories
      11. Advantages of User Stories
      12. What Good Looks Like
      13. Summary
      14. Additional Reading
    2. Chapter 9. Agile Release Planning
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. What Is Release Planning?
      3. Estimating Feature Size
      4. Release Planning with Story Points
      5. What Good Looks Like
      6. Summary
      7. Additional Reading
    3. Chapter 10. Video Game Project Management
      1. Midnight Club Story
      2. The Solutions in This Chapter
      3. Minimum Viable Game
      4. Contracts
      5. Hitting Fixed Ship Dates
      6. Managing Risk
      7. The Need for Stages
      8. The Development Stages
      9. Mixing the Stages
      10. Managing Stages with Releases
      11. Lean Production
      12. What Good Looks Like
      13. Summary
      14. Additional Reading
    4. Chapter 11. Faster Iterations
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. Where Does Iteration Overhead Come From?
      3. Measuring and Displaying Iteration Time
      4. Personal and Build Iteration
      5. What Good Looks Like
      6. Summary
      7. Additional Reading
  16. Part IV: Agile Disciplines
    1. Chapter 12. Agile Technology
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. The Problems
      3. An Agile Approach
      4. What Good Looks Like
      5. Summary
      6. Additional Reading
    2. Chapter 13. Agile Art and Audio
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. Concerns About Agile
      3. Art Leadership
      4. Art on a Cross-Discipline Team
      5. What Good Looks Like
      6. Summary
      7. Additional Reading
    3. Chapter 14. Agile Design
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. Designing with Scrum
      3. What Good Looks Like
      4. Summary
      5. Additional Reading
    4. Chapter 15. Agile QA and Production
      1. Agile QA
      2. The Solutions in This Chapter
      3. The Problem with QA
      4. Most QA Is Just QC
      5. Agile Testing Is Not a Phase
      6. The Role of QA on an Agile Game Team
      7. Agile Production
      8. What Good Looks Like
      9. Summary
      10. Additional Reading
  17. Part V: Getting Started
    1. Chapter 16. The Myths and Challenges of Scrum
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. Silver Bullet Myths
      3. Scrum Challenges
      4. What Good Looks Like
      5. Summary
      6. Additional Reading
    2. Chapter 17. Working with Stakeholders
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. Who Are the Stakeholders?
      3. The Challenges
      4. Building Trust, Allaying Fear
      5. Agile Contracts
      6. What Good Looks Like
      7. Summary
      8. Additional Reading
    3. Chapter 18. Team Transformations
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. The Three Stages of Team Transformation
      3. What Good Looks Like
      4. Summary
      5. Additional Reading
  18. Part VI: Growing Beyond
    1. Chapter 19. Coaching Teams for Greatness
      1. What Is a “Great Team”?
      2. Why Coaching?
      3. The Solutions in This Chapter
      4. Coaching Skills
      5. Coaching Teams to Higher Performance
      6. Team Maturity Models
      7. Coaching Tools and Practices
      8. What Good Looks Like
      9. Summary
      10. Additional Reading
    2. Chapter 20. Self-Organization and Leadership
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. Self-Organization
      3. Leadership
      4. Systems Thinking
      5. Intrinsic Motivation
      6. Flow
      7. Studio Coaches
      8. Adoption Strategies
      9. What Good Looks Like
      10. Summary
      11. Additional Reading
    3. Chapter 21. Scaling Agile Game Teams
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. Challenges to Scaling
      3. Should You Scale Up?
      4. Scaling the Wrong Process
      5. The MAGE Framework
      6. The Product Backlog
      7. Team Organization
      8. Product Ownership
      9. Additional Roles
      10. Releases
      11. Sprints
      12. Managing Dependencies
      13. Distributed and Dispersed Development
      14. What Good Looks Like
      15. Summary
      16. Additional Reading
    4. Chapter 22. Live Game Development
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. Games As a Service
      3. Why Agility for Live Games?
      4. DevOps and Lean Startup
      5. Feedback Loops
      6. Part One: Plan
      7. Part Two: Develop
      8. Part Three: Deploy and Support
      9. Part Four: Measure and Learn
      10. What Good Looks Like
      11. Summary
      12. Additional Reading
    5. Chapter 23. There Are No “Best” Practices
      1. The Solutions in This Chapter
      2. Visualizing Your Work
      3. Developing for New Platforms
      4. Agile and Indie Game Development
      5. What Good Looks Like
      6. Summary
      7. Additional Reading
  19. Conclusion
  20. Index

Product information

  • Title: Agile Game Development: Build, Play, Repeat, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Clinton Keith
  • Release date: July 2020
  • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
  • ISBN: 9780136204831