Brenden Epp
DigiPen Year : Junior
Engine : UE 5
Team Role: Technical Director
Team DinoCats:
8 Programmers
1 Music and Sound Designer
4 Game Designers
8 Artists
9 to Fright is a Monster themed shop keeping simulation focused on customer interaction. Play as Ada, a Vampire, and help Slimes and Werewolf's find the items they need.
9 to Fright is a junior level game made at DigiPen. This is the first time that we were allowed to use a commercial engine for our game team projects. After carful consideration of the different engines we decided on Unreal because we wanted to gain experience using an engine that most of the team were unfamiliar with.
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The initial idea for the game was a dialogue focused shop keep simulator. It would have a rich world and detailed customers with interesting interactions. There would additionally be a focus on store inventory management where you would have to purchase your stock and thoughtfully place them in your store to help customers have a better shopping experience.
The finished game has you stocking shelfs and interacting with customers all while given the option to use the new addition of vampiric abilities. It is similar in concept to the original idea, yet dulled down so it was more manageable to create.
Introduction
Responsibilities
Technical Director
For this role I managed the tech aspect of the team and had a main focus of checking in with the programmers and making sure they had work.
My responsibilities were:
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Create a coding style guide
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Create and test the weekly builds
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Fill out any technical related documents
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Compile, backlog, assign, and review the tech teams tasks
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Report, catalog, and assign found bugs.
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Communicate to the other departments about technical issues
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Resolve any technical issues specifically related to the engine and the game
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Attend leads meeting to discuss each departments status and the games
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Meeting with other departments to write up tech tasks
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Host weekly tech stand ups to learn the status of each individual
Programming
Between my directorial obligations I was able to contribute that time to programming.
The scope of my work contained a variety of tasks, such as coding Emotes, Rumors, the Night Cycle, Level and Global Data Management, Structural Code, and various other UI elements.
As an all rounder who had other responsibilities, I worked on odd jobs that weren't assigned, yet my main focus was structural code and UI.
Additionally, some of my programming was indirect, as the technical director I gave advice and suggestions of possible implementation techniques and debugging help.
Designing
Being the Technical Director, I was able to closely work with the designers and could give them my feedback and suggestions.
When creating new tasks, I worked with the designers to flesh out all the details and came up with structural ideas on how each feature could be programmed.​
In addition, I was apart of major design discussions and was able to make some valuable points and ideas.
Transitioning to Working with Designers: My Experience as Technical Director
This game had a rough development phase. The team couldn't agree upon a core gameplay cycle and we only had rough ideas of supporting mechanics. Because of that a lot of time was wasted on designing and programming mechanics that ultimately got removed from the game each iteration. Now I understand that game design is a process where things are eventually going be be thrown out, but in this case the team just continued on with an unfished core and hoped the rest would fall in place.
No matter how much the design team was lacking, I wasn't supposed to worry about it as I had my own tasks. This was my third leadership role, and I had to learn how to translate designers' ideas into actionable tasks for my tech team. In previous teams, I was the person taking responsibility for the game's vision but I tended to guard it anxiously. I rarely allowed others to participate in the design process and instead provided detailed instructions to my team on how I wanted things done.
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However, with a team of designers, I no longer had to bear the entire burden of game vision. I trusted them to create a game that was fun, well-designed, and polished. Now I didn’t just sit back and watch them do everything. As a half-designer, I provided feedback on how I saw the game and what I though should be changed and how to do it. I did not force my ideas on the team, but instead I presented them with suggestions and allowed them to consider and use them as they saw fit.
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Despite the challenges, the experience of working with designers was liberating. It enabled me to focus on my strengths as a technical director and to work collaboratively with a team of experts who could contribute their own unique perspectives. By stepping back and trusting the designers, we were able to create a game that was truly a team effort, with each member contributing their skills and expertise to achieve a shared vision.
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With that set up, I feel I could have done more. I could have voiced my concerns to the team about the shoddy design to hopefully point out the issues. The hard thing to do is to know how much I should dip my hands into design while still managing the tech lead position. The bear minimum I can do is just point out the problem, and the most is getting into managing the design team or even designing it myself. However that is quite outstepping my boundaries. This whole situation is tough to deal with and I strive to notice it sooner next time and try to help put a stop to it.