Game Development Process

[jomoengineer]

I thought I had posted this already, but it looks like it did not post for some reason.

So I've read books and articles on game development and most seem to cover either the programming aspect or how to structure the game environment but I was curious as to what a typical, if there is any, game development process looks like.  Like other software development or application development efforts, does game development go through some sort of formal process to come up with the architecture such as Agile or the older Waterfall model?  Is something like Model-View Controller used considering a game is basically a User Experience?

I have the Scott Rogers Level Up! (2010 edition) and it is a fun book to read with a lot of good info, but its mainly focused on the Game Designer.  I'm looking for some more inline with the software architecture process that is common in game dev.

Any thoughts or info would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Jon

[Brian Beuken]

Now thats a good question, but it is a very broad answer. As it depends a lot on the team invovled, the scope and scale of the project and the company/individual attitude to project managment.

It can be a very formal system using traditional PM systems but these days agile development is much more common, with small projects often going through a multiple fast protyping system.

Larger projects tend to be driven by a designer as a vision holder who keeps PM's on track with concept and revision as well as iteration when needed.
Agile these days is the norm, but honestly its very much down to company mentality.

Small one man projects really sufffer when agile is overused, I once had a producer on a project drive me insane by constantly iterrating on working code 5 or 6 times. As a solo coder it was frustrating. But in a team with others it can be very effective.
Lets hope others can add comment to this so we can get more personal insights.

[jomoengineer]

Hey Brian,

Thanks. Yeah, sounds similar to other software development environments. Agile is quite interesting but that is even up to interpretation. I've done a Maker project where I forced myself to try to follow an Agile model, but being a Scrum Master, Product Owner and Team member was a bit schizoid. Daily stand ups were interesting though. I still think the folks that created Post-It notes were in cahoots with the Agile folks as a way to sell more of those little sickies. Agile does seem to keep things organized if done properly.

I would be interesting to hear other folks experience as well.