Bit Fry Game Studio Scales to Meet Their Release Date With Perforce Helix Core
Founded in 2013, Bit Fry’s goal was to deliver a high-quality arcade experience for mobile. What started as a simple game quickly evolved into a gaming franchise. After their hit game Ultimate Rivals: The Rink, Bit Fry embarked on their follow up title.
To meet their release date, teams needed to accelerate. Perforce was a critical partner in this journey.
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flexibility, and iteration. You can share files very easily and have access to what you need.
Challenges Scaling Development
With teams constructing over 137 players and counting, Bit Fry needed to scale, fast. Their teams were struggling to get the files and feedback they needed. Sync times were long. Builds took forever. Desperate for a solution, Bit Fry looked at moving to Git.
But unlike Perforce Helix Core version control, Git cannot easily handle the large files and binary assets required for game development. It also lacks workflow support for non-code contributors, including game animators, designers, and artists. Instead of moving to Git, Bit Fry contacted Perforce professionals to optimize their environment.
Chris Kuffert, Engineering Director at Bit Fry explains, “I'm very glad we didn't switch to Git at the end of it. The biggest reason was I don't know how effectively it could handle locking of files. It is not as simple as Perforce Helix Core.”
How Perforce Helix Core Outperforms Git
File locking, exclusive checkouts, and support for creatives helped Bit Fry iterate and test more. It prevented team members from overwriting files and binaries, which would have been a time-consuming and costly mess. This is because nothing can scale like Helix Core. Teams could access everything they needed without the wait. And build times shortened, allowing for more frequent testing.
“We're now at a point where we not only have five consistent builds running, but also the opportunity for all our engineers to run a subset of builds on shelved code. That has increased our velocity immensely,” according to Kuffert.
With Helix Core, sync times went from 18-28 minutes down to just four or six. Developers could check in code more frequently and artists could upload their assets without delay. Because with Helix Core, teams can version everything in one central depot, making it easy for Bit Fry to enhance collaboration across disciplines.
Bit Fry Dream Team + Perforce = Winning Combination
With Perforce in their corner, Bit Fry can continue building hit games. “Perforce has really opened us up to a process that keeps assets up to date and the game stable, without sacrificing developer time, which has been massive for us,” according to Brooks. And for creatives like Sean O’Toole, “Perforce makes our jobs a lot easier.”
Want to see Bit Fry in action? You can check out their latest release Ultimate Rivals: The Court in the Apple store. If you want to learn more about how Bit Fry made it work, check out our recorded webinar Level Up Indies: How to Scale Your Studio. We sat down with a panel of Bit Fry team members — from engineers to animators — to learn how an indie studio moves up to build bigger and better games.
How to Scale Your Studio (Like the Pros)
Are you a small team with big ideas? Don’t wait to migrate to the best tools. “If you spend the time and effort learning how to do it or set it up yourself, you're setting your company up for more success and more flexibility.” — Just take it from Alexander Brooks.
Start using the industry-standard, Perforce Helix Core version control, free. You can discover why 19 of the top 20 game development studios trust Perforce.