AgileGD: um processo inspirado em abordagens ágeis para o desenvolvimento de Jogos

Abstract

The adoption of software processes is a need in systems development. Although there is a huge amount of processes to guide the traditional software development, this situation changes when related to game development. Besides the lack of processes formally described that meet the needs of a game development, game developers still present resistance in adopt the existent processes. In big game companies, variations of processes described in the literature are used by developers, once these adapted processes fit better to the interdisciplinary profile of the development team. However, the specific needs of these projects often lead to the adoption of ad hoc variations, leading to the uncertainty of the project effectiveness. This study aims at the proposal of AgileGD process, a process inspired by agile approaches and adaptable to different contexts in the game development, considering that specific processes used for game development are not adaptable to different types of teams or they have other limitations that compromise the quality of the final product. In order to identify which agile methodologies are being used in the development of games, we perform a Systematic Literature Review in order to figure out which agile methodologies are most used, why they are adapted and what has been adapted in the structure. After the systematic review, we began to elaborate the process with the objective of following some requirements raised during the analysis of the data coming from the related works. It was modeled in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). Finally, the process was validated through a Focus Group with students who have experience in the area of game development and the use of agile methods. After soon after the implementation of the Focus Group the data were analyzed and positive feedback was identified with few reports of criticism or changes in the process. We evaluate the participants’ reports in the light of game development, incorporating features that we deem necessary, discarding features that do not fit the process structure and keeping record of features in the zone of uncertainty so that the reader can judge their relevance. The process presented in this work has evidences that it has achieved its objectives, optimizing the work of the team in game development, offering the necessary process support to the team and following the defined requirements.