Want to succeed at multi-site development?

Projects spread across multiple studios or companies is a common element to modern video game production – and two exclusive features posted to Developmag.com today aim to examine how you can best succeed at managing this.

We hand over to Perforce’s Dave Robertson for part one, ‘Decoding the future’, in which he outlines the key issue for developers managing multi-site projects.

"An effective management system is therefore vital to a games developer trying to bring all of these assets together in a cohesive way," he says "The challenge has become harder since the industry realised titles could be developed more effectively using specialist houses to concentrate on particular areas."

Drawing on his experience as head of Perforce UK, he offers up points studios should bear in mind: "For the industry in general, that future is likely to see talent being sourced increasingly from regions such as Romania and Russia, where talent is high, and human resource costs are relatively low. In that context, the need for tight integration of distributed, heterogeneous development systems will only grow."

In the second part we turn to TechExcel’s Alex Potier.

His tutorial offers key advice on those looking to get a grip on the management challenges posed by multi-site dealings – and he outlines the cultural, communication and technological issues one should bear in mind.

Part one can be read here, part two can be read here.