Bravo Team (VR)

Company: Supermassive Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment

Project Overview

Bravo Team was a first person cover based shooter built from the ground up for PlayStation VR. The project aimed to deliver an immersive and tactical co-op experience for two players online, translating the intensity of an action movie into a virtual reality setting.

My Role & Responsibilities

As a key member of the QA team, I leveraged my experience from The Inpatient to tackle this more action oriented VR title. My responsibilities evolved to include:

• Adapting to a New Genre: Applying my VR testing skills to the unique demands of a first person shooter, focusing on mechanics like aiming, cover, and player movement.
• Networked Multiplayer Testing: This was my first experience testing a networked co-op game, requiring a deep dive into online multiplayer functionality and stability.
• Test Case Authoring: I took a lead role in creating a comprehensive suite of test cases specifically designed to validate the game’s handling of various network conditions.
• High Difficulty Testing: My proficiency and skill as a player were utilized to thoroughly test the game’s higher difficulty levels, ensuring they were challenging but fair.
• Team Coordination: I continued to develop my leadership skills by helping coordinate daily tasks for a hybrid team of on site and remote testers, which was crucial for covering both single player and co-op scenarios.

The Challenge

The primary challenge was adapting my testing methodology to two new areas simultaneously, the fast paced mechanics of an FPS and the complexities of networked multiplayer. Ensuring a stable and seamless co-op experience was paramount, which meant rigorously testing for issues related to lag, player synchronization, and gracefully handling unexpected disconnects.

Gameplay Highlights

Here is a highlight from the action packed gameplay in VR that I was responsible for testing.

My Approach & Actions

• Developed FPS Specific Test Strategies: I quickly got up to speed on the conventions of FPS testing, focusing on weapon handling, enemy AI, and level design within the constraints of VR.
• Authored a Network Test Suite: I took the initiative to write a detailed set of test cases for the online co-op mode. This suite covered critical scenarios such as players disconnecting, experiencing high latency (lag), and joining or rejoining a game already in progress.
• Executed High Skill Playthroughs: I used my skill in the game to perform extensive testing on the hardest difficulty settings, identifying bugs and balance issues that were only apparent under high level gameplay.
• Coordinated Co-op Test Sessions: I organized and led numerous two player test sessions, ensuring that both the on site and remote teams were efficiently covering all co-op and single player content.

Impact & Results

• My custom authored network test suite was adopted by the team and became a crucial tool for ensuring the stability of the online co-op feature, which was a main selling point of the game.
• My ability to excel at the game’s higher difficulties allowed me to uncover unique bugs and provide valuable feedback on the game experience that would have otherwise been missed.
• My growing leadership and coordination skills helped maintain a high level of efficiency and test coverage across the distributed QA team for a complex multiplayer title.
• I successfully expanded my skill set into two new critical areas FPS and networked multiplayer testing which became foundational for my later career roles.

Technologies & Tools Used

• DevTrack (for bug reporting and tracking)
• Confluence (for test plans and guides)
• Unreal Engine 4
• PlayStation VR
• Proprietary Supermassive Games debug tools