Development Tester and Associate Dev Team-Lead. (2012-2014)
The first game I worked on with Ubisoft Toronto was Splinter Cell: Blacklist. I joined Ubisoft at the beginning of April, 2012. My first role on the game was a Development Tester, focusing on debugging the E3 Demo, that would be shown in ~2 months.
Being thrown into a game and being told “find what bugs you can and what you can break” was a dream for me back then – this is what I do with every game I play. See that ledge? Can I jump up there and jump out of the map? Can I run forward through the level and then back to break the level script? Oh, that scripted cutscene sequence? Oh, you know I’m going to find ways to break that! And so on…
Post E3 I was assigned a few Singleplayer Campaign Maps that I would “own” as a Dev Tester. This meant, that on a daily basis I would play-through these maps, and look for new ways to break them. Essentially my goal was an attempt to play the game in every possible way I could think of. I had to consider everything and get clever with attempts to find bugs. Also, lots of CRASHING! A big part of a DevTesting is Helping re-produce bugs so Programmers can identify and squash them.
After Map Testing was done every morning, I would assist in other ways – such as provide Training for new hire Testers, orienting them with the teams and explaining their tasks to them.
Post Gold Certification, I switched over to Multiplayer Testing. My attention to detail and ability to find completely over-looked bugs and gameplay issues secured my path towards the Associate Dev Team-Lead on Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. High attention to detail and thorough evaluation of pending for submission assets is key to prevent unexpected or difficult to diagnose bugs from occurring later on in development.
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Working on Blacklist was a fantastic way for me to learn all the various departments within a AAA production, and gain a complete understanding of what the different cogs and gears do to develop a game from an on paper concept, through blocking to a AAA quality game.
During this time I made some incredible connections within Ubisoft Toronto, and life long friends. I felt so grateful to join the studio as it was growing and maturing, and be part of that growth. I made it well known within the studio that I wanted to move towards Level Design, and outside of work I had been building a Counter-Strike map in my spare time. Voicing this desire to contribute more towards the game development process led to an eventual Junior LD test, where I secured my transition from Tester to Level Designer.
LEVELDESIGN.XYZ 