Company: Supermassive Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment
Project Overview
The Inpatient was a psychological horror game developed exclusively for PlayStation VR and served as a narrative prequel to the hit title Until Dawn. The project’s goal was to leverage the immersive power of VR to create a tense, atmospheric experience where player choice directly impacted the game’s branching storyline.
My Role & Responsibilities
As a core member of the development QA team, this project represented my first venture into the world of virtual reality testing. My responsibilities included:
- Mastering VR Testing: Quickly learning the unique challenges and requirements of testing on the PlayStation VR platform, including comfort, performance, and hardware specific issues.
- Coordinating a Hybrid Team: Taking a leadership role in onboarding several testers from Sony’s internal QA team, assigning their daily tasks, and getting them up to speed on the project.
- Creating Test Documentation: Authoring detailed test plans and guides in Confluence to facilitate collaboration between our core team and a remote testing team based in Liverpool.
- Narrative & Lore Integrity: Paying exceptionally close attention to story details to ensure all references and plot points were consistent with the established lore of the Until Dawn franchise, a key expectation for the dedicated fanbase.
The Challenge
The primary challenge was adapting to an entirely new platform. Testing in VR for the first time required a complete shift in approach, focusing on player comfort and immersion in addition to standard functionality. Furthermore, coordinating a distributed team of both in house, embedded, and remote testers presented logistical challenges that demanded clear, concise documentation and strong communication to ensure everyone was aligned.
Gameplay Highlights
Here is a highlight from the scenes in VR that I was responsible for testing.
My Approach & Actions
- Became a VR Platform Expert: I dedicated myself to learning the ins and outs of VR testing, quickly becoming a knowledgeable and efficient tester on the new hardware.
- Mentored and Led New Testers: I took the initiative to guide the incoming Sony testers, providing them with the necessary knowledge and daily test plans to integrate seamlessly into our workflow.
- Developed Remote Testing Resources: To overcome the challenges of working with the Liverpool team, I created robust testing guides in Confluence that served as a single source of truth for test cases and project knowledge.
- Championed Lore Consistency: I meticulously tested all narrative paths and permutations, flagging inconsistencies with the original Until Dawn story. I successfully advocated for several changes to be made, ensuring the final product would meet fan expectations.
Impact & Results
- My rapid mastery of the VR platform was recognized by designers and producers, establishing me as a reliable and key member of the QA team for future VR projects.
- My leadership and coordination efforts successfully integrated external testers into the team, increasing testing bandwidth and efficiency during a critical phase of the project.
- The detailed test plans I created in Confluence enabled effective collaboration with the remote team, ensuring consistent testing quality across multiple sites.
- My keen attention to narrative detail was praised by colleagues and directly contributed to a more coherent and faithful prequel, which was crucial for satisfying the loyal Until Dawn fanbase.
Technologies & Tools Used
- DevTrack (for bug reporting and tracking)
- Confluence (for test plans, guides, and QA knowledge base)
- Unreal Engine 4
- PlayStation VR
- Proprietary Supermassive Games debug tools