A subject that has always been very near and dear to my heart are video games. Throughout my life I have always deeply enamored with games and the process of their creation, from the intricacies of 3d modeling to the various game engines in use. Despite that, I wouldn’t say I am an expert in modern game development by any means. As my classes have progressed however, I’ve begun to understand more about the inner workings of software development and how how teams are managed. This lead me to look into how game developers use these tools to manage projects and keep everything orderly. After some research, I found that prominent game engines like Unreal Engine have their source code up on Github. Not only that but Godot, a free open source engine, uses the MIT license and is entirely up on Github. Of course, even if an engine doesn’t have their code on Github or Gitlab that doesn’t mean you can’t just host your code in an online repository. Thanks to what I’ve learned this semester I now know how to create game projects and host them, as well as keep a neat record of commits.
In terms of project frameworks, agile methodologies has seen widespread use within the video game industry. Scrum is the most prominent of these methodologies, and has been adopted by various companies. Due to the nature of video game development, there is a greater need for cross-discipline teams comprised of developers versed in various skills. Game development can be effectively chopped up into tasks that fit nicely into each increment. I hope to one day make use of scrum and help create a game of my own.
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue-on-github
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/production/agile-game-development-with-scrum-teams
https://starloopstudios.com/best-agile-practices-in-game-development/
From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.