DW

Dylan Weeks
Game Programmer

Asurya’s Embers

Trailer
Developer Panel Interview

Asurya’s Embers is a 1st-person, single-player, bow-and-arrow shooter set in an ancient Himalayan village plagued by an environmental disaster. Find safety in the shadows from the blazing heat waves as Dawa, a bow-wielding hero who protects her village from the vengeful sun god, Asurya.

Overview:

  • Role: Lead Programmer
  • Team Size: 22 developers, 7 programmers
  • Genre: 3D first-person bow shooter
  • Development Timeline: June 2023 – December 2023
  • Platforms: Windows (Steam, EGS), PS5
  • Engine: Unreal Engine 5.3

Roles and Responsibilities:

  • Led a team of 7 programmers by performing code reviews and creating sprint plans and daily tasks
  • Facilitated communication between programmers and all other disciplines
  • Presented milestone updates to stakeholders representing the game’s progress
  • Worked directly with Santa Monica Studio and id Software to present milestone updates and receive professional feedback
  • Implemented the following technical game features:
    • 1st-person character animation system
    • Advanced character movements (crouch, sprint, mount/vault)
    • Procedural hit-reaction animation system for AI enemies
    • Game progression system (checkpoints, quests, sub-quests, inventory, and respawning)
    • UI focus management system (controller and keyboard/mouse)
    • Performance management (nanite and shadow maps)
    • AI enemy and boss navigation/behavior systems
    • Light and shadow mechanic
    • Aim assist

Retrospective:

What Went Well:

  • Took a game from ideation to publication
  • Cross discipline communication with level designers, artists, and producers
  • Initial code architecture setup helped keep the project organized and concise
  • Leading the programmers from a technical, organizational, and personnel standpoint
  • Risk mitigation for all technical features
  • Projection migration to Unreal 5.3
  • Milestone updates to Santa Monica Studio and id Software helped improve and shape the game’s design

What Went Wrong:

  • Lack of subject matter expertise in Unreal UI and Unreal Nanite caused for a lot unforeseen time to be taken
  • Spreading out programmers across multiple intersecting features caused for communication errors
  • Not enough time was allocated for combat/AI features
  • Not enough of a priority was placed on porting and Steam/EGS integrations

What I Learned:

  • How to be an effective technical, organizational, and personnel lead
  • Communication pipelines between developers, leads, producers, and stakeholders
  • Documentation is important for the project’s success on every level of the pipeline and within every discipline
  • Strike teams with every discipline is an effective way to tackle new features
  • How to effectively assign tasks to each programmer based on what they desire and their skills
  • Knowledge on Unreal UI and the Unreal rendering pipeline