What Does Continuous Integration Mean For Gaming Development
Continuous Integration is rather a buzzword in the application development corridors; however, it may not be as common with gamers. In this article we shall look at the whole phenomenon of continuous integration and what it means for gaming development.
What is Continuous Integration (CI)?
Continuous Integration is part of the software development life cycle (SDLC) that involves testing. Basically, Continuous Integration is a software development process that seeks to as many times as possible integrate the software code into a shared storage.
From the storage option, the software code could undergo various integration tests to ensure software is free from integration problems. One main advantage of frequent integration is that programmers are able to notice errors, bugs and defects faster and identify them effortlessly.
Continuous Integration is frequently conducted. This is because the aim is to have small changes identified every time, making it easier to detect the small change that could be responsible for any problems. This greatly reduces the need to backtrack to identify defects.
As a result, developers are left with more time to build more features of the gaming app. Continuous Integration, therefore underscores the urgent need to conduct integration tests as you develop.
As is always said in the software development realm:“Ten minutes of coding results in ten hours of debugging.”
With time, continuous integration has not only become a noble software development best practice but also a means to ensure reduced cost through the easy detection and fixing of defects.
“Continuous Integration doesn’t get rid of bugs, but it does make them dramatically easier to find and remove.”
Martin Fowler, Software development Expert
Why Continuous Integration is Vital
Continuous Integration offers a bunch of benefits both to the software owner and the development team.
Firstly, using Continuous Integration tools removes all the last minute hassle of cleaning up the app to ensure it is compatible and bug-free. Through CI, developers conduct these tests on a daily basis. This way, they can track their progress quite easily.
The second benefit of conducting a continuous integration is that it helps the team to identify problematic areas of the app and fix bugs more easily. Learning earlier in the development process enables software developers to predict buggy code combinations and avoid them.
Continuous Integration for Gaming development
Game developers are often faced with the single-most challenge that there exists no automated tests for the rendering layer and developers have to test this daily as a result.
The other challenge with the gaming application development is that most of the source codes generated in games are meant for the graphics. This, in a sense, makes continuous integration for the gaming software development a mirage.
For the game applications, fool-proof tests will for a long time be determined by human intervention.
The future of Gaming with Continuous Integration
In a world fixedly trained on minimal disruptions and more efficiency, DevOps are quickly revolutionizing the gaming experience for gamers.
In the near past, gaming apps could send out annoying notifications of an update every so often. However, with the coming of CI, minor developments and improvements could subtly be effected without any disturbances to the gamers.
Generally, the future is more concerned with the Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment and Continuous Delivery of thoroughly developed gaming applications.
Conclusion
Continuous Integration is part of a wider efficient process of software development life cycle that will ensure seamless development, deployment and maintenance of gaming applications. Gamers, therefore, stand the biggest chance to be at the centre of this major boost in the User Experience.