Bridging the Distance through Agile Game Development

Bridging the Distance through Agile Game Development Aðalsteinn “Alli” Óttarsson

Who am I ?

Aðalsteinn “Alli” Óttarsson

Technical Producer

Core Technology Group

Joined CCP in 2001

Going to talk about.

Brief history of CCP

EVE Development

EVE Online Expansions

Our upcoming MMO title

Core development efforts

Scaling our organization and tools

Company

Founded in 1997, privately held

EVE Online launched in 2003

Acquired White Wolf Publishing in 2006

Prosperity

Grown from relative obscurity to moderate success

CCP Overview

Culture

We care about each other and our customers

We dare to take calculated creative risks

We recognize that we can only reach our destination with teamwork, trust and friendship

Company

Founded in 1997

Privately held

Culture

We care about each other and our customers

We dare to take unknown and treacherous paths

We recognize that we can only reach our destination with teamwork, trust and friendship

Prosperity

Grown from relative obscurity to moderate success

CCP Overview

CCP employees are spread between four offices in three continents

Iceland / Reykjavík

Headquarters

~210 Employees

China / Shanghai

~60 Employees

USA / Atlanta

~100 Employees

UK / London

CCP employees represent over 20 nationalities

The number of languages spoken by employees exceed 30

Melding the best of art, science, operations and business talent

CCP Overview Atlanta London Shanghai

Staged Deliveries

Iterative and Incremental approach.

Each stage delivers a full vertical slice of working software

Requirements, design, production, testing, packaging, user feedback.

Component/Feature Lifecycle and artifacts

SRS Document, Test Plan, Construction / Prototyping, Detailed Design, Development, Testing, Code Review, Integration.

Team involvement

Estimation , Feature Ownership, Peer reviews

Promotes practices for high quality and risk mitigation.

Orion Staged Delivery plan EVE is too complex. Impossible to make in one go Rinse and repeat If you can’t make in one go just try and try until it is ready

Sputnik Staged Delivery plan EVE is too complex. Impossible to make in one go Rinse and repeat If you can’t make in one go just try and try until it is ready

Laika Staged Delivery plan EVE is too complex. Impossible to make in one go Rinse and repeat If you can’t make in one go just try and try until it is ready

Crystal Staged Delivery plan EVE is too complex. Impossible to make in one go Rinse and repeat If you can’t make in one go just try and try until it is ready

Phoenix Staged Delivery plan EVE is too complex. Impossible to make in one go Rinse and repeat If you can’t make in one go just try and try until it is ready

Phoenix

Mandala

Emerald

EVE Online

May 2003

EVE Online Expansions Game design idea Rough game design Approved by lead game designer Refined game design Scheduled for production Engineer reviewed Implementation Feature testing Public testing Regression testin g Approved Released to operation

EVE Subscriber Trends 2008 HAMMER

Over 120 Developers

3 Offices in 3 Continents

Biggest EVE Expansion to Date

Shorter development time than previous expansions

Transition EVE to Agile Game design idea Rough game design Approved by lead game designer Refined game design Scheduled for production Engineer reviewed Implementation Feature testing Public testing Regression testin g Approved Released to operation SCRUM TEAMS 2 weeks 24 hours

Scrum 改善 2 weeks 24 hours Team Product Owner Scrum Master Product Backlog Prioritized by Product Owner } Sprint Backlog Features committed to a sprint by the team Backlog Items Tasks expanded by the team Daily Scrum 15 minute daily team stand up meeting. Product Increment Functional working software. Sprint Review New functionality is demonstrated Sprint Retrospective Team reflects on last sprint and make continuous process improvements

The Spectrum of Process Complexety

Apocrypha Product Managers VISION: Theme: True Exploration Features: Unknown Universe Unstable Collapsable Wormholes Ancient Races New Encounters New Technology Enhanced New Player Experience Story telling of epic porportions

Apocrypha Organization Chart Product Backlog Product Managers Product Owner Product Owner Product Owner Product Owner Product Owner Agile Transition Team Team Team Team Team Team Scrum Master Scrum Master Scrum Master Scrum Master Scrum Master Scrum of Scrums

Apocrypha Organization Chart Product Backlog Product Managers Product Owner Product Owner Product Owner Product Owner Product Owner Team Team Team Team Team Scrum Master Scrum Master Scrum Master Scrum Master Scrum Master Scrum of Scrums

Release Plan

Dean Leffingwell

Dean Leffingwell

Scaling Software Agility

Agilis 2008

Release Planning

EVE Online: True Exploration

Features & Stories Task

Features & Stories

Features & Stories MuSCoW Analysis

Features & Stories … MUST HAVE SHOULD HAVE COULD HAVE F1 F2 F3 FN

Features & Stories … SHOULD HAVE COULD HAVE MUST HAVE SPRINT 1: <TEAM NAME> F1 F2 F3 F1 F2 F3 FN

Features & Stories Mapped to a Sprint SPRINT 2: <TEAM NAME> F1 F2 F3 SPRINT 1: <TEAM NAME> F1 F2 F3

Release Planning Day

Syncronized Iteration Cadance Product Backlog Integrated Demo Playable MMO 2 Weeks Sprint Team Sprint Team Sprint Team Sprint Team Sprint Team

Global Demo via HD Video Conference

Release burn down

Road to success

Empowered Teams

Self managing and self organizing

Release Planning by the teams

Shorter more frequent releases

Tools that scale

Roadblocks!

Lack of Continuous Integration

Lack of streamlined deployment procedures

Team interruptions

Maintaining architectural integrity

Apocrypha is getting good reviews

Questions ?

?

The Agile Planning Onion

The Agile Enterprise Big Picture

The CCP Release Train CONFIDENTIAL TO CCP HF PROJECT-X : HELIOS RELEASE -1 JULY 28th WoD: Year 1 R5 JULY 17th EVE Online: Rubicon RELEASE -1 AGUST 18th PROJECT-X : HELIOS RELEASE -2 SEPT 29th EVE Online: Rubicon RELEASE -2 NOV 11th WoD: Year 1 R6 OCT 30th

Literature