Category Archives: Software development

Development without a name

Posted on November 26, 2008 by

After the rant, it’s time to be constructive.  I was pleasantly surprised last time round by the comments: while I may have vented more strongly than some would have liked, there’s a clear dissatisfaction with capital-A Agile in many quarters, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management for Geeks, Software development | 2 Comments

The Agile Disease

Posted on November 16, 2008 by

The games industry is rushing headlong to Agile development methodologies just now; it’s a great source of excitement for some, with conference sessions and magazine articles left, right and centre, and “evangelists” spreading the word. I’m sick of it.  I … Continue reading →

Posted in Game development, Management for Geeks, Rants, Software development | 87 Comments

Extensible tools

Posted on September 6, 2008 by

Part 6 (final part) of “Building World-class Art Tools” from Develop 08 The more you’ve invested in a tool, the more projects you want to use it on, to recover that investment.  This means in turn that it’s harder to … Continue reading →

Posted in Develop 08, Software development, Tools

Model View Controller is Extinct

Posted on August 30, 2008 by

Part 5 of “Building World-class Art Tools” from Develop 08 Today’s post has been a particular pleasure: one of those special times when writing changed my mind.  At my original talk at Develop, I said “use Model View Controller”, loud … Continue reading →

Posted in Develop 08, Software development, Tools | 1 Comment

The case against C++

Posted on August 10, 2008 by

Part 4 of “Building World-class Art Tools” from Develop 08 This post boils down to one simple headline: don’t use C++ for game tools development.  But nothing is ever quite that simple – so if you have time, read on … Continue reading →

Posted in Develop 08, Software development, Tools | 3 Comments

Why not to build in-house tools

Posted on August 2, 2008 by

Part 1 of “Building World-class Art Tools” from Develop 08 Before I talk about how to build great in-house tools, I want to talk about why to build in-house tools, or looked at another way, why not!  Understanding the motivation … Continue reading →

Posted in Develop 08, Software development, Tools

Get your source under control!

Posted on June 12, 2008 by

A common pattern I’ve noticed is that the games industry is frequently a step or two behind the rest of the software development world – more or less as you’d expect given our rapid growth – we’re like the fast-growing … Continue reading →

Posted in Game development, Rants, Software development | 1 Comment