This is a list of all the projects I have worked on and my roles.
(This page is under construction and incomplete).
EA Sports Rugby for PS2 (2000)
QA
Released 18 years ago, this was the last EA sports game developed by The Creative Assembly, and it’s still one of the highest rated rugby games on metacritic. I was the in-house tester on the project, responsible for ensuring the game was stable for development ant that builds could be supplied to EA.
Shogun: Total War – Mongol Invasion (2001)
QA
Whilst I did some patch testing for the original edition of Shogun, my first meaningful contribution to the Total War franchise was with the release of Mongol Invasion.
Mongol Invasion was an add-on for Shogun that included a new campaign, whilst also adding features to enhanced the original campaign. A significant amount of time was spent testing the multiplayer campaign feature that would eventually be dropped.
Medieval: Total War (2002)
QA
This was the first project I worked on from the pre-alpha stage, spending nearly a year on the project. At the time it was unusual for a developer to keep their testers on between projects, but our test team had proven itself too good to let go. As a tester on this project I out performed the rest of my department, contributing more bugs by far than anyone else.
At this time the Total War team did not have a formal design team and development was semi-anarchic, anyone could contribute to the design. For Medieval my feedback and design ideas directly influenced changes to the design of the crusades and mercenaries campaign features.
Medieval: Total War – Viking Invasion (2003)
QA
As the senior of the two testers on this project, I was given responsibility over another tester for the first time.
During this project I worked directly with the multiplayer programmer to ensure the final game using the original Total War engine had the best and most stable multiplayer of a total War game up to then.
Rome : Total War (2004)
Senior QA
For Rome I was promoted to Senior Tester and given a fresh new contract. In the two years I spent on the project I made a significant contribution. At the end I accounted for more than half of the departments bugs and had set myself apart in a team that had high standards.
Spartan: Total Warrior (2005)
Senior QA
Spartan was developed in parallel with Rome, but without enough management staff within QA to handle two projects. By necessity I was given total control over the testing on Spartan and I excelled. I developed a test system that maximised the few testers I had and ensured the daily builds were stable and available to the dev team. By working directly with the Build Engineer I streamlined the time between blocking issues being found, fixed, and new builds being distributed.
Rome : Total War – Barbarian Invasion (2005)
Senior QA
After Spartan was released I was moved across to Barbarian Invasion, which was post-beta and preparing for release. I helped get the game over the line and continued to work on the patches post-release.
Rome : Total War – Alexander (2006)
Senior QA
Alexander was a small add-on for Rome with a short development time. With the core TW and console teams both at the prototype stage of their respective projects and M2:TW being developed by the Australian department, QA and PR didn’t have much to do. To keep themselves busy they created Alexander. The team had additional support from one artist, but no coders. Along with testing the game, I balanced the units in multi-player.
Medieval 2: Total War (2006)
QA Support
This was made in Australia, but we kept an eye on it from the UK. I worked remotely, giving QA support. Although I was the only tester in the UK working on the game and wasn’t in direct contact with the dev team, the studio head felt it was important that I was involved as I had a wealth of experience.
Medieval 2: Total War – Kingdoms (2007)
QA Support
I continued to work remotely assisting with QA support.
Viking: Battle for Asgard (2008)
Lead QA
As Lead QA I ran the test team for Viking. Initially I was the only QA support on the project, as new testers joined I gave them training and guidance.
As I was in a position of responsibility I was finally able to bring about meaningful changes to the QA systems, bringing in the sweep tests that redefined how QA was run, which are still the standard for the company today. They are my key legacy at The Creative Assembly, having been expanded upon and spread across to all projects within the company.
Empire: Total War (2009)
Lead QA and Design
As Total War grew in size and complexity the QA team grew to support it, one Lead QA was not enough, a second was brought in to share responsibilities. I was given responsibility for the internal aspects of testing and a bridged the gap between the dev team and QA.
I addition to this I lead testers in making scripted historical battles. At the time we were developing a new Total War engine and the game and tools were in alpha, no-one had used them to create content. I pioneered development of scripted battles, figuring out the initial steps and nuances of making them work. From there I created guides and tutorials to help all those who came after me. I then put together a team of testers and lead the research, design, and creation of the scripted historical battles that went into the game.
It was at this time I became a ‘keyholder’ for the building. Keys weren’t handed out based on seniority, but earned on merit and need. The QA team were allowed to create the battles provided the work was done outside of normal hours. This often meant coming in at the weekends, so I needed to be able to open and close the building.
Napoleon: Total War (2010)
Lead QA
Napoleon:TW was the most comfortable project I have ever worked on. From the highest level down the mistakes of Empire were rectified to create a smooth development that led to a wonderful, well polished, game.
In QA, my sweep test process was expanded upon to create the Pre-Release Checklist that is still used today. This was a test sweep that covered every aspect of the game and ensured it was fit for release. For the rest of my time at CA, no game, DLC, or patch was released without going through this Checklist.
Total War: Shogun 2 (2011)
Lead Campaign QA and Additional Design
As Total War grew we created specialised roles within the QA department. From Shogun 2 onward I was embedded within the Campaign team as the Lead Campaign Tester. I worked closely with the dev team to identify the key areas of the game that needed test focus and developed test plans to target them.
In addition to this I collated gameplay feedback reports, combining my on experiences with those of the test team to give the Ai and design teams daily updates on the state of the game.
Continuing on from my previous design work I created a number of battle maps for both the custom battle and multiplayer game modes. Using my vast experiences of Total War and extensive mental library of battle strategies I created nuanced maps deliver interesting battles. Where previous Total War games had maps that were created with zero time, effort, and consideration, Shogun 2 stood apart with maps that allowed for a diverse battle experience.
Shogun 2 was described by reviewers as having the best multiplayer of any Total War game, my battle map designs were a significant part of that.
Total War: Shogun 2 – Fall of the Samurai (2012)
Lead Campaign QA and Additional Design
I continued my role as Lead Campaign Tester with testing practices well established.
In addition to this I was rewarded for my previous design work with a partial secondment to design the custom and multiplayer battle maps for this release.
Total War: Rome 2 (2013)
Principle QA and Additional Design
As part of a restructuring and expansion of QA I was promoted to Principle Tester and placed in charge of training new testers and liaising with the new QA Coordinator in organising the test team.
In addition to this QA, once again, had the opportunity to create scripted historical battles, for this I created the Battle of Carrhae.
Captain Kaon (2017)
Code, Art, and Design
Working as a solo Indie I created Captain Kaon, a twin-stick gravity shooter. I designed it, coded it, and created all of the cool Amiga style pixel art.
Captain Kaon 2
Code, Art, and Design
I am currently making a sequel using the Unity engine
Far Cry Arcade
Design
Far Cry 5 was released with a map editor to allow maps to be created and uploaded to the Arcade. To keep my level design skills sharp, and because I enjoy creating levels for shooters, I have been creating maps and uploading them to the Arcade.
Unity
Code, Art, and Design
Along with developing Captain Kaon 2, I am also using Unity to prototype other design ideas and generally improve my skills.