Presentation from Supermassive Games at the European Merge World Tour - Supermassive using Perforce for Agile Game Development

1. Perforce
Merge
Event
2013
Presented
by
Jonathan
Amor

2. USING
PERFORCE
FOR
AGILE
GAME
DEVELOPMENT
– Setting
up
and
using
Perforce
at
Supermassive
Games
– Version
control
challenges
in
game
development
– How
we
use
Agile
methodology
in
the
studio

3. • COMPANY
HISTORY
– Established
in
2008
in
Guildford
– Independent
development
studio
– Our
published
games:

4. • CURRENT
GAMES:
– Until
Dawn

5. • CURRENT
GAMES:
– Wonderbook:
Walking
with
Dinosaurs

6. • WHEN
WE
STARTED
– People
• 12
people
by
Christmas
2008
– Perforce
• One
Windows
Server
– Perforce
version:
2010.2

7. • TODAY
– People
• Over
110
people
in
May
2013
– Perforce
• 3
servers
(1
Windows
Server,
2
Linux)
and
a
proxy
– Perforce
versions:
2010.2
and
2011.1
• Current
database
sizes
– 10.7M
Ziles
– 5.3TB
data

8. • FUTURE
– People
• Continuing
to
grow
– Perforce
• Current
large
project
like
Until
Dawn
– 4.6M
Ziles
– 3.7TB
data…
and
growing
• ‘Next-­‐gen’
large
project
– 5-­‐6M
Ziles
– 12-­‐14TB
data

9. • MIXTURE
OF
PEOPLE
– A
wide
spectrum
of
Perforce
users
-­‐
extremely
technical
to
very
creative

10. • MIXTURE
OF
PEOPLE
– A
wide
spectrum
of
Perforce
users
-­‐
extremely
technical
to
very
creative
• FAST-­‐PACED
CHANGE
– In
the
games
– In
the
business

11. • THE
AGILE
‘MANIFESTO’:
– We
value
INDIVIDUALS
AND
INTERACTIONS
over
processes
and
tools
– We
value
WORKING
SOFTWARE
over
comprehensive
documentation
– We
value
CUSTOMER
COLLABORATION
over
contract
negotiation
– We
value
RESPONDING
TO
CHANGE
over
following
a
plan

12. • USING
SCRUM

13. • WE
VALUE
INDIVIDUALS
AND
INTERACTIONS
OVER
PROCESSES
AND
TOOLS
– Get
out
of
your
seat…
and
talk
to
people!
– Iteration
to
Zind
the
‘fun
factor’
– …
but
processes
and
tools
are
still
important

14. • WE
VALUE
WORKING
SOFTWARE
OVER
COMPREHENSIVE
DOCUMENTATION
– Regular
build
reviews
– Autobuild
machines
– Branching

15. • WE
VALUE
CUSTOMER
COLLABORATION
OVER
CONTRACT
NEGOTIATION
– Game
players
– Our
publisher
– The
team

16. • WE
VALUE
RESPONDING
TO
CHANGE
OVER
FOLLOWING
A
PLAN
– You
still
need
a
plan!
– A
‘safe’
environment
to
support
change

17. • A
BAD
DAY…
THAT
GOT
PROGRESSIVELY
WORSE!
• WHAT
WE
SAW:
– Server
RAM
and
CPU
not
overloaded
– Network
not
overloaded
– Perforce
processes
locked
and
backing
up
• THE
SHORT-­‐TERM
SOLUTION:
– I
had
to
act
as
gatekeeper
for
check-­‐ins!

18. • ON
MORE
THOROUGH
INVESTIGATION
– Revisited
the
Perforce
Knowledgebase
– Reviewed
the
log
Ziles
– Reviewed
client
specs
– Checked
the
database
• WHERE
WE
WENT
WRONG?
– You
think
it
will
never
happen
to
you!

19. • WHAT
WE
DID
TO
FIX
IT
– Narrowed
client
specs
as
much
as
possible
– Changed
to
a
custom
‘sync
to
head’
batch
Zile
– Set
Max
Results,
Max
Scan
Rows
and
Max
Lock
Time

20. • SIZE
AND
COMPLEXITY
OF
ASSETS
INCREASING
– A
steady
increase
in
the
number
of
Ziles
– A
large
increase
in
the
size
of
data
• PERIOD
OF
CHANGE
IN
THE
INDUSTRY
– Need
to
adapt
and
change
quickly
– Need
to
stand
out
in
the
crowd

21. • BUILDING
OUR
REPUTATION
– High-­‐quality
games
– Focus
on
character-­‐performance
and
story
• STAYING
AGILE
– Improve
server
infrastructure
– Implement
Streams
– Keep
iterating

22. • WEBSITE:
www.supermassivegames.com
• EMAIL:
j.amor@supermassivegames.com
• Thanks
for
their
help
with
this
presentation
to:
– Frank
Tindle
– Ollie
Purkiss
– Justin
Rae