Why SCM systems are ‘crucial’ for MMO studios

Speaking to Develop in a special feature looking at how CCP maintain the huge MMO EVE Online, software engineer and configuration manager Berglind Rós Guðmundsdóttir has detailed how an SCM system has become integral to the company’s infrastructure.

“Having an SCM system is crucial, because it allows us to selectively release updates from our development codeline and keep track of how the code has evolved over the last five years," explained Berglind. "It also gives us the option to work on projects in a separate codeline until they are stable enough to be brought into the main development codeline."

EVE Online, which courts over over 300,000 subscribers, is maintained in three countries by some 200 developers, and as a result Perforce has become an essential tool.

“By using Perforce proxies to cache files and reduce the network traffic across the globe, we were able to have all the teams working in the same codeline and on the same server, without too much latency. It helps us deal with remote worker collaboration," revealed Berglind.

To read the full feature, click here.