CI/CD

A game build pipeline has to compile code, cook assets for several platforms, run automated tests and put a playable build in front of the team, often several times a day. The size of the data is what makes it different from ordinary software delivery: caching, incremental cooks and build farm capacity decide whether a pipeline takes twenty minutes or four hours.

The usual stack combines a build server such as Jenkins or a hosted runner, containerised build agents, scripted packaging steps and deployment to test devices, store channels or game servers.

For live games the same pipeline carries hotfixes and server updates, which is why rollback and staged rollout belong to the skill. It sits close to build engineering, DevOps and tools programming, and separates the people who ship weekly from the people who ship when it happens to work.