The Feature Creep Perception in Game Development : Exploring the role of feature creep in development methods and employee engagement

Abstract: Game developers often find themselves coming up with ideas along the production period of a game varying in size and may go unnoticed or seem insignificant to the scope of the project but in the long run add up to break deadlines, budget and affect the morale and engagement of developers. In the modern game development industry agile development methods have increased in popularity allowing flexibility in the development process. This agile approach has emerged from traditional software development where waterfall development methods are common practice (Kanode and Haddad, 2009). Through in-depth interviews with developers from Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom this study aims to explore how feature creep is perceived by the individual developer and its effect on the day-to-day development. The ambition is to establish whether feature creeping as a phenomenon can be a useful tool for innovation and work culture.