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Elizabeth Batman
It is an arduous and time-consuming process to make great video games. It’s not unheard of for a game to take more than a decade to fully develop and release. While many gamers have grown used to the long wait times between their favorite sequels, modern collaboration tools have the potential to put a video game development process into warp speed.
The key is centered around improving development life cycles through collaboration and integration.
Instant communication platforms like Slack obviously help the modern gaming industry. In fact, did you know that Slack was originally born as a side product made by a gaming company?
It’s true, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield has quite the passion for creating video game companies. He was creating a MMOG when his team built a photo sharing tool to better communicate their issues, projects, and roadblocks with one another. That photo sharing tool ultimately became Flickr.
After Flickr was bought by Yahoo, Stewart decided to try his luck again with another video game company. Their runway didn’t allow them enough time to finish the game. However, he and his team created an instant messaging platform to help speed production along. Unfortunately, this game didn’t pan out – but the IM platform did. It became Slack.
In addition to Slack, the gaming industry relies on many crucial tools in their development process. One of the most important is Jira. Jira is the tool that ultimately drives gaming projects to completion, but if you’ve worked in Jira, you know it can be time-consuming and cumbersome.
The most effective gaming companies know that finding ways to integrate their various processes can shave critical time off their release by boosting collaboration and performance. According to a Slack study, integrating Slack and Jira together has the powerful affect of:
This same study showed that, “the vast majority (99%) reported that the Slack and Atlassian product integrations helped them regain time in their day. In fact, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed reported saving more than six hours a week. That’s 312 hours a year—nearly two weeks.”
Most modern PC or console games take anywhere from three to five years to complete. By harnessing the power of a Slack to Jira integration, you could potentially get to market 15% faster – or about six to nine months earlier than with no integration.
When we set out to create our integration tool, Jira Integration+, we knew it would absolutely disrupt certain industries. The gaming industry is a big one.
Integration+ has allowed our gaming clients to remove unnecessary interruptions, fast track their most important issues, and offer customizable notifications so their employees can create a feedback loop that emboldens their productivity.
By removing the need to switch context, our clients in the gaming industry are seeing gains in team collaboration, creativity and most importantly, time to market. Ultimately, by using integration, they are getting a leg up on the competition and boosting their bottom line.
