The video game industry is booming. In 2020, the gaming industry along totalled $155 billion in revenue, and they are projected to generate over $260 billion by 2025! The growth of the video game industry is due in part to the increasing popularity of mobile games, but it is also driven by their ability to improve mental abilities and advances in technology that allow for more realistic and immersive gaming experiences.
DevOps also improves collaboration between developers, testers, and ops teams. These teams used to work in silos and there was little communication between them. However, utilizing the potential of DevOps, these teams are brought together and they work closely together to release new games. This improved collaboration results in better quality games that are released faster.
As the video game industry continues to grow, so does the need for DevOps in game development. Coupled with container registries like JFrog, video game development get so much more secure, seamless, and even more powerful! That said, here are 9 reasons why DevOps is essential for video game development:
Shortened Lead Times
DevOps is a methodology that brings the two teams, the development team and operations team, together to work collaboratively from code development all the way through to production. With DevOps, there is continuous integration and delivery of code, which means that code changes can be quickly and safely deployed to production.
So the most obvious benefit of DevOps is that it shortens the lead time between when a game is ideated and when it is released. In the past, it could take years to develop a video game. But now, with DevOps, game developers can release new games much faster, as it automates many of the tasks that are required to release a new game, such as provisioning servers, configuring networks, and deploying code.
Improved Collaboration
DevOps also improves collaboration between developers, testers, and ops teams. These teams used to work in silos and there was little communication between them. However, utilizing the potential of DevOps, these teams are brought together and they work closely together to release new games. This improved collaboration results in better quality games that are released faster.
Increased Efficiency
DevOps increases the efficiency of game development teams by automating tasks, such as provisioning servers, configuring networks, and deploying code. Such automated tasks save time and allow developers to focus on more important tasks, such as developing the game itself. In addition, DevOps also increases the efficiency of testing and ops teams by providing them with better tools and visibility into the game development process. Here we can introduce the terms ETL vs ELT data processing. For ETL, the process of data ingestion is made slower by transforming data on a separate server before the loading process. ELT, in contrast, delivers faster data ingestion, because data is not sent to a secondary server for restructuring. With ELT, data can be loaded and transformed simultaneously.
Reduced Costs
Another benefit of DevOps is that it can help to reduce the costs of game development. Game development could be a very costly endeavour due to the sheer fact that it requires the purchase of expensive hardware and software. But with DevOps, game developers can utilize cloud-based infrastructure, which is often cheaper than traditional on-premise infrastructure. Furthermore, DevOps also reduces the need for manual labour, helping to further reduce costs.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is increased by providing them with new games faster. Customers are always looking for new games to play, and with DevOps, game developers can release new games more frequently. DevOps also allows developers to quickly fix any bugs that are found in the game. Smoother gameplay means improved customer satisfaction!
Improved Security
DevOps improves security as it allows developers to quickly fix any security vulnerabilities that are found in the game. In addition to this, DevOps also helps to prevent breaches by providing better visibility into the game development process and by automating tasks, such as provisioning servers and configuring networks.
By automating tasks, DevOps increases the reliability of video games. Such automation helps to ensure that the game is always available and running smoothly.
Greater Scalability
With DevOps, game developers can easily scale their games to meet the demands of their customers. If a game becomes popular, DevOps allows developers to quickly add more servers and improve the game’s performance. On the other hand, if a game is not doing well, DevOps can help developers to quickly reduce the number of servers they are using, ultimately helping to save costs.
Increased Reliability
By automating tasks, DevOps increases the reliability of video games. Such automation helps to ensure that the game is always available and running smoothly.
Better Visibility Into the Development Process
DevOps provides game developers with better visibility into the development process. With DevOps, developers can see how the game is performing at every stage of development.
This allows developers to quickly identify and fix any problems that may arise, all thanks to DevOps as it successfully connects development and operation teams together in a well-collaborated manner.
Conclusion
DevOps is a software development practice that helps to improve collaboration, efficiency, security, scalability and reliability. By utilizing DevOps, game developers can release new games faster with improved quality and reduced costs. In addition to this, customers are happier as they receive new games more frequently and gameplay is smoother.
Finally, thanks to the increased visibility into the development process, developers can identify and fix problems more quickly and early during the development process.
