Superior Performance Over SVN Convinces Tequila Works to Select Helix Core

Tequila Works Gaming Roots

Headquartered in Madrid, Spain, this innovative games studio reaches across the globe. Their team members stretch from Madrid, to Galicia and San Francisco. The company's founders previously worked at companies such as Blizzard Entertainment, MercurySteam Entertainment, Pyro Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Weta Digital. Tequila Works is best known for its award-nominated game Deadline for XBOX™. Currently they are launching RIME, which is developed for Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Europe on the PlayStation® 4 platform.

Bigger Deals Scale Past SVN

As with many new studios, Tequila Works started with open source version control tool Subversion (SVN). When the studio was commissioned by Sony Computer Entertainment, it decided to review its version control requirements. Tequila Works realized that SVN did not meet the needs to develop RIME for PlayStation 4.

Tequila Works’ primary concerns included:

• Ability to support a growing code repository of approximately 400,000 files and 40 GB
• Integration across other software development tools and platforms, including UNREAL, TeamCity, C++, Maya and 3D Max
• Efficient collaboration between global teams
• Fast and reliable performance
• Support for Continuous Delivery
• Visibility into a complete version history

Perforce Is About Performance

Following a thorough evaluation, Tequila Works selected Helix Core. Perforce’s solution provided better overall performance and speed when compared to SVN. Helix Core also supported dispersed and remote workers, while having a centralized development environment. Powerful branching capabilities and local support via Perforce partner DS Data Systems Iberia, all enforced Tequila Works decision.

"Perforce does exactly what we need it to do," says Martinez. “Its performance is superior to other products."

Painless Migration to Helix Core

Tequila Works installed Helix Core in June 2013. Because of their small team environment, they were able to take advantage of the Helix Free for Small Teams program. This provided a full but completely free version of the software. The team quickly adopted Helix Core and now has licenses for additional programmers, artists, and designers.

Helix pushes the data to TeamCity, a continuous integration system, every 15 to 30 minutes. This creates a working build of the game with clear and rapid error management. Tequila Works then uses Helix Core to identify the most recent check-ins to identify bugs and get them fixed straight away. Although trainings were available from both DS Data Systems Iberia and Perforce, the team was able to learn independently. This was because of the system's intuitive and simple to use design.

Switching Off SVN Leads to Profits

Since the installation of Helix Core, Tequila Works has observed tangible benefits. They were able to achieve full return-on-investment (ROI) within the first year. Helix Core adoption helped them adopt Continuous Delivery and met the deadline for the development of RIME.