1 massive entertainment petter sydow. 2 starting facts petter sydow, vice president of product...
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Massive Entertainment
Petter Sydow
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Starting facts
Petter Sydow, Vice President of Product Development
Massive Entertainment, Malmö, Sweden
World in ConflictWorld in Conflict is Massive’s third strategy game
Released September-07PC September 07Xbox 360 version later this year
Good Critical AcclaimGamerankings.com – 89%Metacritic.com – 89%IGN – Best Online Multiplayer GameGamespot – Most Innovative GameStrategy Game of the Year – most places
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Project Outline
Green-lit May 05Focus on Multi Player – with small tutorial campaign
Changed Project Manager April 06Team without Project Manager for 2 months
Changed scope of single player campaign August 06Added immersive storyAdded in-game cinematicsMoved release date from March to September
Released September 07After hitting GM date
Team sizeAt start 40At finish 100
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Our Method
Evolutionary developmentInternally designed agile method by CEO Martin Walfisz
Iterations lasting two weeksBuild on ThursdayPlanning on Friday
Feature driven planningAlways implement the highest prioritized feature
Game playable from day oneWhole team tests the game every build dayLiving workspace
Lean organizationRather slim management teamLeads preferred to Associate Project ManagersMeetings on a daily basis
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Our Way
Everybody is responsible for their partSub-teams are strong and task owners Organized to create clear ownershipMakes staffing easier
Flat hierarchyFew titlesVery few specialists
Personal contactsLet people break the organization chartTake the risk of getting odd things in the game
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Our Way 2
Directed experienceAvoid feature fighters – a hard to solve paradoxLead designer and Art Director close to the team
Redoing is funAlways test and evaluate a feature and plan for redoing itSometimes hard for the team to accept
Avoid ordered overtimeResponsibility gives people a reason to do what it takes
Overall time-lineEasy to readLarge objectives and releases
Common feature listOne feature list for the gameFocusing on designSome teams have individual detailed lists
Individual iteration plansArt is not the same as code
Plan for IterationsCreate plans which means evaluating and re-doing
Planning and Tracking
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Massive vs Scrum
Waterfall in Agile ClothingAgile is a mind set
Content is contentDon’t kid your self – 10 levels in 20 weeks means two weeks per level
Skip some of the burn-down chartsI spend my time with the team – not with excel
If it takes two iterations so what?Some things take longer time to do – no biggie
Who’s the master?Let people focus on what they are good at
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Risks with Agile
Over polishing content prematurelyPlan for several iterationsDecide what to do in each oneWaterfall counting
Feature FightersForce people to move forwardAvoid fancy titles
Paradigm changeTake it easy – do it one step at a timeBe agile about your work method as well
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Lessons learned
Teams still a bit to independentIncrease cross-team collaborationMerged art team with map team
More power to the peopleMake task forces stronger – but also demand moreCloser to Scrum
Done or Working?Improving task approval process
More unified planningOn a high levelStill differences within iteration planning
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Summary
Let people free
Plan for iterations
Find your own way