Agile Game Development with Scrum

How Scrum and Agile methods can help game developers deliver better games faster, on budget - and start making money and having fun again! Why game development is in crisis - and how Agile methods can bring stability and predictability back to the process. How to successfully adapt Scrum-based Agile best practices to the game industrys unique challenges. Authored by seasoned industry veteran Clinton Keith, the foremost expert on Agile game development; edited by Mike Cohn, world-renowned Agile guru. Game development is in crisis: increasingly, games are too expensive to develop, processes are too complex to manage, and time to market is just too slow. Its no wonder so many game developers are struggling to survive. But there is a solution. Agile methods and the Scrum framework are already helping to transform development outside the game industry; they can do it for game developers, too. This book shows exactly how to successfully adapt Scrum and Agile to the unique arena of game development. Using this books techniques, programmers and teams can deliver games more efficiently, rapidly, and costeffectively, build games that offer more entertainment value -- and make life more fulfilling for themselves at the same time. Clinton Keith has spent fifteen years developing games, five of them with Scrum and agile methods. Drawing on this exceptional expertise, he first reviews the critical challenges facing todays game development teams. Next, he shows how Scrum can help address those challenges - bringing new stability and predictability to virtually any project. Readers learn to build Agile teams that incorporate programmers, producers, artists, and designers, and promote effective collaboration within and beyond those teams. From long-range planning to tracking progress and continuous integration, he offers dozens of tips, tricks, and solutions - all based firmly in reality and hard-won, in the trenches experience.