Bridging the Distance through Agile Game Development

Bridging the Distance through Agile Game DevelopmentAðalsteinn “Alli” Óttarsson

Who am I ?

• Aðalsteinn “Alli” Óttarsson• Technical Producer• Core Technology Group• Joined CCP in 2001

Company

Founded in 1997, privately heldEVE Online launched in 2003Acquired White Wolf Publishing in 2006

Prosperity

Grown from relative obscurity to moderate success

Culture

We care about each other and our customersWe dare to take calculated creative risksWe recognize that we can only reach our destination with teamwork, trust and friendship

4

CCP Overview

CCP employees are spread between four offices in three continentsIceland / Reykjavík

Headquarters~210 Employees

China / Shanghai~60 Employees

USA / Atlanta~100 Employees

UK / London

CCP employees represent over 20 nationalitiesThe number of languages spoken by employees exceed 30Melding 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




Laika




Crystal




Phoenix




Mandala

Emerald

EVE Online

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 testing

Approved

Released to operation

25

220710

244551

220000

230000

240000

250000

260000

270000

280000

jan. feb. mar. apr. maí jún. júl. ágú. sep. okt. nóv. des. jan.

Active Subscribers by day for 2008

Fanfest

Trinity 1.1

GDC 2008

EVE on Steam

MacWorldWingman

Empyrean Age

Reactivation Campaign

NewsletterNewsletter

Reactivation Campaign Ends

EA 1.1

StacklesssIO/EVE64

WARHAMMER Quantum Rise

QR 1.0.1

Age of Conan

13. Wrath of the Lich King18. Mines of Moria18. TheShadow Odyssey

Reactivation Campaign Ends

HAMMER

EVE Subscriber Trends 2008


• 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 testing

Approved

Released to operation

SCRUM TEAMS

2 weeks

24 hours

Scrum

2 weeks

24 hours

TeamProduct Owner Scrum Master

Product BacklogPrioritized by Product Owner}

Sprint BacklogFeatures committed to a sprint by the team

Backlog ItemsTasks expanded by the team

Daily Scrum15 minute dailyteam stand up meeting.

Product IncrementFunctional working software.

Sprint ReviewNew functionality is demonstrated

Sprint RetrospectiveTeam reflects on last sprint and make continuous process improvements

改善

Apocrypha

Product Managers

VISION:Theme: True Exploration

Features: Unknown Universe

Unstable Collapsable WormholesAncient Races

New EncountersNew Technology

Enhanced New Player ExperienceStory telling of epic porportions

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 ScrumsAgile

Transition Team

Release Plan

Features & Stories

Task

Features & Stories

Features & Stories

MuSCoW Analysis

Features & Stories

F1 F2 F3 FN…

MUST HAVE

SHOULD HAVE

COULD HAVE

Features & Stories

SPRINT 1: <TEAM NAME>

F1

F2

F3

F1 F2 F3 FN…

SHOULD HAVE

COULD HAVE

MUST HAVE

Release Planning Day

Syncronized Iteration Cadance

Sprint Team

Sprint Team

Sprint Team

Sprint Team

Sprint Team

Product Backlog

Integrated DemoPlayable MMO

2 Weeks

Global Demo via HD Video Conference

Live Video

Live Video

Shanghai

Live Video

Live Video

Atlanta

Live VideoReykjavik

Live Video

HD720p

HD720p HD720p

HD720p HD720p

Streaming (Quality

Video+Audio)

Reykjavik

Reykjavik

HD720p

HD720p

HD720p

Streaming (Quality

Video+Audio)

Streaming (Quality

Video+Audio)

Desktop End User

Desktop End User

Desktop End User

Meeting Room

Meeting Room

Meeting Room

WWWM

PLS

10m

bps

MPLS 20mbps

MP

LS 2

0mbp

s

HD

720p

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

The Agile Planning Onion

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The Agile Enterprise Big Picture

The Agile Enterprise Big Picture

© Leffingwell LLC. - Inspired by collaboration; Leffingwell LLC & Symbian Software Ltd.

The CCP Release Train

CONFIDENTIAL TO CCP HF 66

PROJECT-X : HELIOSRELEASE -1 JULY 28th

WoD: Year 1 R5 JULY 17th

EVE Online: Rubicon RELEASE -1 AGUST 18th

PROJECT-X : HELIOSRELEASE -2 SEPT 29th

EVE Online: Rubicon RELEASE -2 NOV 11th

WoD: Year 1R6 OCT 30th

Literature

• Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises

• Scaling Lean & Agile Development:Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum

Defect Tracking

Bridging the Distance through Agile Game Development

Technology

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