Scrum and game development go together as well as chocolate and peanut butter. In this book, Clinton Keith does a perfect job of showing how to put them together.
The book is split into five parts. The first part describes the crisis facing game development because of the explosion in complexity and game size. Not wanting to end on a down note, Part 1 also describes how agile/Scrum address these problems. Part 2 is probably the best overall introduction to Scrum anywhere. I now even recommend this Part (100 pages) to my non-game development clients. Part 3 goes deeper into many of the specific challenges facing game projects--planning, creating cross-functional teams from such a variety of disciplines, and reducing the overhead of iterating. Part 4 dives deeper into the specific disciplines and offers great advice in the areas of art, audio, design, qa, and production. The concluding part contains 3 chapters describing some of the challenges you'll face, how to work with a publisher, and how to start.
This is a great book that is chock-full of stories from author Clinton Keith's fifteen years in the game industry. The writing is crisp and conversational with topics covered in just the right amount of detail. The hand-drawn look of the illustrations match the book perfectly.
Agile Game Development with Scrum should be required reading for anyone on a game project. And it offers a great deal to anyone starting out with Scrum.
