Lean & Tonic?
Joakim Sundén
På tisdag kommer Aðalsteinn "Alli" Óttarsson, Production Director på CCP Games i Reykjavik, till Stockholm för att ta hjälpa Södertörn högskola att ta fram en utbildning i Agile Game Development. Han är intresserad av att träffa lite "agile folks" så jag tänkte ta med honom till Pressklubben runt 18:00 i morgon tisdag och hoppas att någon/några av er dyker upp.
Allis företag har gjort en mycket intressant resa de senaste åren, han har bl.a. pratat om den på Game Developers Conference i USA (se nedan).
Vi ses!
Joakim
Twitter: @joakimsunden
Building Global Bridges: the Benefits of Cross-Border Agile Game Development
When CCP launched the massively multiplayer online game (MMO) EVE Online in
2003, the independent game developer was a small Iceland-based company with a
tight-knit team of less than 50 people. With the entire team working under the same
roof, communication and coordination between projects and departments was easy and
fluid. Today, CCP’s operations span three continents with offices in Atlanta, Shanghai,
London and, of course, Reykjavik, and involve nearly 400 employees in its global game
development efforts.
As EVE Online steadily grew in popularity year-over-year, attracting nearly 300,000 loyal
players, CCP rolled out increasingly elaborate expansions. As the developer geared up
to design and produce its largest and most ambitious expansion in EVE’s history, EVE
Online: Apocrypha, it explored new disciplines in production management that would
continue to promote inter-departmental coordination and information sharing on a global
scale. As a result, CCP adopted an Agile development approach for the project in 2008.
The methodology involved unifying separate local projects into a holistic development
effort, using the Scrum framework.
After finding great success applying and scaling the Scrum process skeleton globally
in the development of EVE Online: Apocrypha, CCP adopted Agile methods for its
portfolio of projects: EVE Online; the recently announced console first-person shooter
DUST 514; and a third major title. CCP has since become a “poster child” for Agile game
development with Clinton Keith, who introduced the application of the practice to the
gaming industry at prior Game Developers Conferences, citing CCP’s approach to large
scale game development in his upcoming book, Agile Game Development.
CCP Production Director Aðalsteinn Óttarsson will share CCP’s experiences applying
Agile game development methods and Scrum to its three main large-scale development
efforts, including challenges encountered and overcome, and how it now shapes the
company’s global organizational strategy. Óttarsson will then offer developers guidance
in determining how to best put Agile development into practice.
Short Bio
Aðalsteinn Óttarsson began his career in 1999 as a web developer at OZ.com
and its spin off virtual world company, Smart VR. In 2001, he joined CCP and
built the internal and external web infrastructure to support the launch of EVE
Online, the massively multiplayer online game (MMO). Soon after, Mr. Óttarsson
took on the role of Web Cell Lead, leading CCP´s web development and billing
solution efforts. Later, he was appointed Technical Producer in 2007, and
subsequently earned the certifications: Certified Scrum Master and Certified
Scrum Product Owner. Mr. Óttarsson has been the primary Agile catalyst within
the company and has introduced Agile methodologies to CCP’s three offices in
Atlanta, Reykjavik and Shanghai. He is now Production Director at CCP.