Working on Apocrypha for EVE Online was the first time CCP Games implemented the ‘agile’ method of software development, ”really gung-ho about it.”
It’s the first time their Atlanta, Reykjavik, and Shanghai studios worked in concert with one another on a single project. CCP looks to keep the change, doesn’t miss ”huge waterfall phases”.
”In the old waterfall method, you just had a bunch of designers off in a corner doing their designs. Then it would go to the programmers and they would bang away at the programming, and then… they would say, “Well, this design is broken; OK, start over to four months ago,” EVE lead designer Noah Ward tells Gamasutra in an interview.
”But now that we’ve switched over, we don’t have these huge waterfall phases anymore, it’s just iterative, agile two week sprints, and we have a demo day at the end.”
”…and it’s just amazing to see how much is actually produced in those two weeks.”
”And so this agile stuff… I’m really gung-ho about it,” Ward comments.
It’s not been without some issues and ”growing pains” though, CCP has had to done some team restructuring to accommodate this new found philosophy and boost to productivity.
”You know, one producer really wants his lighting system and the other producer really wants his animation, and that kind of thing. So, there’s some juggling, but we work through it, pretty much.” All in all, it delivered the Apocrypha expansion into gamer hands faster - a fairy tale ending then.
