[TRENCHES] Thursday, February 13, 2014 - Crowd Control

Geth · February 2014

Crowd Control
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/crowd-control

The ultimate multitasking task
Anonymous

The project I was on was shaping up to be a pretty good game. It was an FPS “adventure” game that used a time control gimmick. We had our usual quota of bugs but the real fun began when multiplayer online testing started.

This game supported 8 player teams, with several maps to choose from and about 5 different characters on each faction to play. That meant there were plenty of iterations to go through in order to test the weapons, special abilities, and spawn points of every map. The only problem was that our team had about 15 people split between the 360 and PS3. In order to facilitate the full online team testing we had a workstation set up with eight 360s, an HD monitor, and a switchbox.

Then came time for us to run test sweeps. Everyone dreaded getting stuck on the online testing workstation because that meant you had to handle 8 controllers by yourself and constantly switch the monitor between all the boxes. This would usually involve an elaborate mess of cords and papers spread all over the desk, and trying to keep track of which controller went with which switchbox input was a pain in the ass! Oh and don’t forget the all-important “automated tester tool”.

One game mechanic was that characters could not stand idle for more than 2 minutes or they would be kicked from an online game. This meant that all characters had to be moving around in some fashion. The logistics of handling 8 controllers was a mess, but with a few “automated tester tools” it could be managed. This was basically a rubber band wrapped around the movement and aim control sticks.

As testing progressed I actually got used to running a few of the multiplayer sessions. Setting up multiple stations (with rubber bands on controllers), shouting commands across the room to the other team, filling out a whole worksheet meant for 8 people. Tearing down the workstation at the end of the day was not so bad. We even got to where we could make an entire multiplayer sweep in about 4 hours. But no one dreaded the words “new build” more than the guy who had to hop on the PS3 multiplayer station (very similar to the 360 setup) and win 100 games to get the achievement. That person had to run their games solo.