Agenda
Automated Testing at Indie Scale in 'Grave Seasons'
Nikky Armstrong (Technical Director, Perfect Garbage)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass -
Get your pass now!
Track:
Programming, Independent Development
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: Intermediate
Grave Seasons is a game with a heavy focus on branching narrative and player impact. As a small team, the developers identified early that automated testing would be required to enable the scope of the game to be achieved. This session will explain how the project was structured to remove dependence on the game's engine, allowing for both cheaper tests and multiple levels of automation, from unit tests to system tests and beyond. The talk will demonstrate the developers' "secret weapon": how the ability to run Grave Seasons entirely as a text adventure was the key to faster iteration and early detection of issues.
Takeaway
Attendees will gain insight into how Grave Seasons was structured to decouple business logic and front end code, reducing the burden imposed by the games engine and allowing for faster iteration time and cheaper tests. They will learn how to apply different kinds of automated testing that provide meaningful value for all disciplines even for a small team of 10 developers without reliance on expensive middleware or external testing solutions.
Intended Audience
Any programmers looking to (re)structure their project to support automated testing, and to better support their colleagues in "failing fast" and understanding how to verify their work.