Session: Software as a Service: Cultivating a respectful programming team in a multi-discipline games studio
When part of a code team in a games studio, you operate in service of the other disciplines creating the game. The code team's customers are not just the end users, the players, but also the other teams in the studio. From putting requested features into the game, to completing tasks which unblock other disciplines' work, to creating tools which improve the pipelines of the rest of the studio, our work is varied and needs careful communication. Part of creating a respectful environment includes understanding how to plan and schedule all the interlocking tasks in order to balance your own team goals with the dreams and vision of the Design team and with pre-requisite work required by other disciplines such as Artists and Animators. This talk will outline some strategies I've employed as Lead of the code team at Silver Rain Games to help us serve the studio.
Bio
Nikky Armstrong is a Software Engineer with 10+ years experience across a number of different industries. She worked for most of her career in Australia for various mining software companies, most notably for Immersive Technologies creating mining simulators for operator training. This proved to be a very similar development environment to AAA games and she successfully made the transition to working at Ubisoft Reflections, before accepting a role as Lead Programmer with Silver Rain Games. She is passionate about mentoring and teaching, and bringing practical concepts and workflows from software development into the games industry.