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Massive Entertainment

Petter Sydow

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Starting facts

Petter Sydow, Vice President of Product Development

Massive Entertainment, Malmö, Sweden

World in ConflictWorld in Conflict is Massive’s third strategy game

Released September-07PC September 07Xbox 360 version later this year

Good Critical AcclaimGamerankings.com – 89%Metacritic.com – 89%IGN – Best Online Multiplayer GameGamespot – Most Innovative GameStrategy Game of the Year – most places

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Project Outline

Green-lit May 05Focus on Multi Player – with small tutorial campaign

Changed Project Manager April 06Team without Project Manager for 2 months

Changed scope of single player campaign August 06Added immersive storyAdded in-game cinematicsMoved release date from March to September

Released September 07After hitting GM date

Team sizeAt start 40At finish 100

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Our Method

Evolutionary developmentInternally designed agile method by CEO Martin Walfisz

Iterations lasting two weeksBuild on ThursdayPlanning on Friday

Feature driven planningAlways implement the highest prioritized feature

Game playable from day oneWhole team tests the game every build dayLiving workspace

Lean organizationRather slim management teamLeads preferred to Associate Project ManagersMeetings on a daily basis

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Our Way

Everybody is responsible for their partSub-teams are strong and task owners Organized to create clear ownershipMakes staffing easier

Flat hierarchyFew titlesVery few specialists

Personal contactsLet people break the organization chartTake the risk of getting odd things in the game

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Our Way 2

Directed experienceAvoid feature fighters – a hard to solve paradoxLead designer and Art Director close to the team

Redoing is funAlways test and evaluate a feature and plan for redoing itSometimes hard for the team to accept

Avoid ordered overtimeResponsibility gives people a reason to do what it takes

Overall time-lineEasy to readLarge objectives and releases

Common feature listOne feature list for the gameFocusing on designSome teams have individual detailed lists

Individual iteration plansArt is not the same as code

Plan for IterationsCreate plans which means evaluating and re-doing

Planning and Tracking

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Massive vs Scrum

Waterfall in Agile ClothingAgile is a mind set

Content is contentDon’t kid your self – 10 levels in 20 weeks means two weeks per level

Skip some of the burn-down chartsI spend my time with the team – not with excel

If it takes two iterations so what?Some things take longer time to do – no biggie

Who’s the master?Let people focus on what they are good at

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Risks with Agile

Over polishing content prematurelyPlan for several iterationsDecide what to do in each oneWaterfall counting

Feature FightersForce people to move forwardAvoid fancy titles

Paradigm changeTake it easy – do it one step at a timeBe agile about your work method as well

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Lessons learned

Teams still a bit to independentIncrease cross-team collaborationMerged art team with map team

More power to the peopleMake task forces stronger – but also demand moreCloser to Scrum

Done or Working?Improving task approval process

More unified planningOn a high levelStill differences within iteration planning

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Summary

Let people free

Plan for iterations

Find your own way