BioWare Blog: The Long Road to BioWare, Part Three
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For every hour or two of scripting I put in, I play the level of the game on our development kits. Sometimes this is playing as if I were a player exploring the level for the first time, reading everything, making choices like a player who's concerned for Shepard's outcome. Other times its hitting X as fast as I can through conversations so I can concentrate on combat or even going straight to loads to right before a fight, bypassing large sections of the level. To someone on the outside it might seem '˜fun' or initiate the response I usually get when asked what I do: (must be nice). And don't get me wrong, I do have one of the best jobs in the world. But testing the game is not the same as sitting down at home and playing Halo, or Mass Effect 1 for that matter. Playing an area I have scripted requires constant and repetitive testing of the logic, and sometimes this will mean playing the same area, over and over again in a row, to ensure that it doesn't break, or that it works as intended. The more complicated or free-form the area, an area with lots of choice or variation, the more times I have to play. Sometimes I will play through the entire level, testing everything I've done for the day, only to find out that one simple line of logic is broken, requiring me to play that area over again.
Sometimes I'll tinker with logic and object placement in between plays to tweak the fun factor, changing how and where enemies spawn and sometimes even changing what is spawned. It's a back and forth process: back and forth between artist and Level Designer, Level Designer and writer, Level Designer and QA, QA and the focus testers. Rinse, wash, repeat.
