CONTROL 101
Jase Lindgren, Senior Solutions Engineer at Perforce Software, on how version control (a mainstay of game coders) is now a tool for management and creatives too
Image courtesy of Dimension and DNEG360 W
idely used in game development projects, today’s version control is far more than just a tool for programmers to track code. Version control is increasingly needed to
support organisation and collaboration across teams— technical and non-technical, whether a start-up or a triple-A studio—especially as file counts and complexity increase. Think of it as an orchestra looking at the same sheet of music, each playing their own instruments. As version control technology has evolved, it has become far more
accessible to creatives, regardless of technical expertise. This means that version control can be a shared place across the wide variety of roles touching a game development project. A ‘single source of truth’ across multiple contributors, teams, systems, and file types, whether code or binary assets like high-quality images and audio content, is the standard. Organizations, subsidiaries, and developing studios—even those
with experienced, long-time coders—could benefit from a fresh look into a VCS, as growing expectations for real-time and AI-assisted development are changing the way we all work. Version control is often not formally taught and developers and technical artists tend to pick it up as they go along, potentially missing out on some of the fundamentals and latest best practices.
VERSION CONTROL’S JOURNEY At a basic level, version control software (also known as source control management) tracks and manages changes to files, streamlining the process to keep everyone up to date while enabling users to return to any previous version of a file or a whole project. On an individual
48 | MCV/DEVELOP August/September 2025
level, users can more effectively manage changes to their files over time without the tedious work of copying and renaming files to make manual backups. Technology-agnostic, version control software tools typically integrate with game engines like Unreal and Unity. More widely, version control provides a system for everyone to
work on files in the same project, while contributors stay in their own workspaces and submit their changes when ready to share. This matters, because collaboration continues to be an issue for the industry: the 2024 Perforce State of Game Technology Report found that 21% of the survey’s respondents said that collaboration was their biggest challenge. lDaily examples include seeing who is currently working on a file (to help avoid duplicated effort or overwritten files) or spotting potential conflicts being committed to the game’s development mainline. However, this is just how version control works: its actual impact and evolution is where things get interesting.
FOR ARTISTS TOO In the early days of game development, building a game required mostly software development tasks around the gameplay itself. Today, modern game engines and asset marketplaces have standardised many of the common gameplay elements and the art — the visuals, the sounds — is now the showcase and differentiator for a game. Consequently, this has changed the ratio of artists needed to create a game, with everyone increasingly working in environments with more ambitious project timelines and resource needs. Creative content may account for more than half of the work on a game – and much more than half the total file size.
VERSION
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
