34 / wfmag.cc
Weather Factory is a
three-person studio
working from home. Two
work with this stunning
view in the background.
Don’t underestimate how long this can take!
In some cases, it could take a while to get back
into the same mental position so that person is
able to continue with their work.
Whenever someone interrupts someone else,
the first question should be, ‘Why?’. Could you
make it so that in the future, someone with a
similar question can get the answer they need
without interrupting
someone else? In some
cases, the answer is no,
but interrupting someone
else should be the
last resort. This is where
asynchronous communication – using Slack,
Microsoft Teams, and so on – comes in handy,
since the person responding can do so at a
time that’s good for them. Try not to use direct
messages; open up the question to the team.
You may get a quicker response. You may also
get a better response if the question sparks a
discussion among team members. The answer
may help someone else who reads it from
needing to ask the same question in the future.
Finally, ensure that work is planned, so that if
someone finds that they need help, they won’t
be blocked while they wait for an answer.
When a question is asked, ask yourself
whether that question should require a person
to be at the other end to answer it. Could they
have searched for the answer – perhaps
someone else has previously asked the same
question in the communication tool of choice.
Could a piece of software give them that
information instead?OUR TOOLS
Most game developers will use a continuous
integration server such as Jenkins, TeamCity,
CruiseControl, and so on. The role of that
server is to monitor for additions or changes
to the project and, when detected, build it
for the various platforms being targeted.
This is done automatically without human
intervention. This means that a short time after
submitting a change to the game, there will be
a playable build of it provided automatically
for all the platforms you want to release it on.
Some expand on this so once the game has
been built, tests are run automatically to verify
correct functioning of the game. If there are
any issues with building or testing the game,
the developer will be informed so that the issue
detected can be resolved quickly.
A further extension we’ve added at
Ultimatum Games is a bot, which is a small
piece of software we’ve written to watch for
requests or questions in our asynchronous
communication system. It’s able to respond
back to developers, providing information
and answers to questions. It’s also able to
communicate with our continuous integration
server where it can
fetch the results of work
previously done – for
example, the last built
version of the game for
a specific platform. It can
also request work to be done by the continuous
integration server.
An example of this is that a user can ask the
bot to request a light bake of a specific level in
our game. The bot will take this request and
ask our continuous integration server to start
that work. The bot will then communicate with
the requesting user to inform them that their
requested job is in progress. When the job has
finished, the bot will then inform the user that
the work is done. In this example, the user may
have made a change to a level in the game,
requested it to be light baked, then went on to
do some different work. Some time later (light
bakes can take a long time), the work will have
been done for them and there will now be a
beautifully lit new level in the game. While this
has been going on, the developer has been able
to get on with other work without their own
personal computer being tied up doing the light
bake itself.Distributed game development: the future?Toolbox
Weather Factory co-founder Lottie
Bevan worked on Cultist Simulator in
a spare room of her flat. Sweets on
the left, cats on the right.REMOTE
CONTROL
“I’ve been working remotely
for 15 months now,”
D’Archambaud says. “I spend
some days on-site at
companies, but the majority are
spent in my attic. I set the hours
I work, and these vary from day
to day. Often, I’ll choose to do
extra hours early in the week so
that I start my weekend earlier.
Some days I’ll end my day
abruptly if the sun’s shining and
I want to head outside. I work
when I’ll be most productive.”
“A user can ask the bot to
request a light bake of a
specific level in our game”