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Using Agile Methodologies To Make Games?
simoniker writes "Using Agile methodologies for programming is a concept that's been around for a while now, but some firms are now applying the concept to video game development." There has been a lot of talk lately about what the 'next big thing' in development will be. Could this be it? Or is this just another step along the way? From the article: "Agile puts the emphasis on producing demonstrable iterations of a game almost immediately into production, creating prioritized vertical slices that iterate on the most critical elements and features. The method also puts great emphasis on the organization of teams and the relationships therein, as well as the cycles in which teams must plan and carry out their project objectives."
"creating prioritized vertical slices that iterate on the most critical elements and features"
Can someone tell me what this means?
Sure. It means get something simple working as quickly as possible and improving it over and over.
prioritized - Pick your most important features and implement them first. For example, if you're writing a word processor the ability to save a file probably has a higher proiority than a spell checker.
vertical - This means "specific" as opposed to "general" (also called horizontal). So you work on specific features (like the saving of a file mentioned above) rather than more general ones (like optimiztion).
iterate - You're not going to do things all at once. As an example, perhaps your first iteration of saving a file only saves text and no formating information. You're second may add formatting, your third may add additional formats.