Karin Weekes @karinweekes I was really relieved to learn in an afternoon meeting that @biomarkdarrah stands fully in support of accurate and multifaceted representations of tea-consumption porcelain and mugware in our games. ☕️
Charlie Cordes aka. Sylien #FreeChelseaManning @sylien_ A new kind of character customisation: choosing the design of the characters favourite mug.
DJ Shepherd 🏳️🌈 djshepherd I'll leave this here #Solas #DragonAge
John Epler @eplerjc Checks out. @norseartemis
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes HEY.
John Epler @eplerjc
Gabe Heiland @norseartemis 10/10 still would
Though I do sometimes feel like you all have backed me into a very specific corner where I now have to defend some really odd things in the name of balance 😁
John Epler @eplerjc I am merely an agent of the swirling chaos.
Gabe Heiland @norseartemis I know a trickster god who could help you out there
John Epler @eplerjc I mean honestly, I feel like I must always rag on Solas. We are but two actors in the cosmic play known as life.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes Everybody is so mean to my sad elf.
Autocorrect just tried to change that to “dad elf”.
Et tu, autocorrect?
Gabe Heiland @norseartemis Don’t worry, I remain steadfast in catering to the feelings of all my sad fictional boyfriends
John Epler @eplerjc The Twitter relationship I share with most of the other @bioware folks I follow is best described as ‘respectful shit giving’, and I love it.
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod "It's crystal clear ... for the engineer who wrote the system." "Ah, this feature is 'programmer complete'!" #overheardintheoffice
BioWare @bioware Join the conversation over at #YEGFEMDEV! today where women from BioWare will be talking about their roles in game development. #InternationalWomensDayBioWare added, #YEGFEMDEV!
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Good Morning! I'm Crystal McCord and I am an Assoc. Producer for @bioware in #yeg . The women of BioWare are going to be TAKING OVER @yegfemdev today in celebration of all #womeningames for International Women's Day! Please follow along and feel free to ask us any questions!
A little more about me: I have worked in various forms of media for 17 years now, starting in Film & TV and now working in video games! I am also a Lead for our Women's Ultimate Team, whose goal is to support the women in our studio and in the community. This means a lot to me.
It means a lot for me that women feel included in the work space, but it really means a lot to me that EVERYONE feels included. No one should ever feel discriminated, ignored or left out. We all have value and the more everyone feels included the more we can all be our best!
As a new Mom and a working parent I also feel it's important that we all find time for work/life balance. I absolutely love my job at BioWare and I come home a happier mom to my son. I want him to grow up knowing that if I can succeed, he can also do anything he sets his mind to.
BioWare @bioware Join the conversation over at #YEGFEMDEV! today where women from BioWare will be talking about their roles in game development. #InternationalWomensDayBioWare added, #YEGFEMDEV!
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Good Morning! I'm Crystal McCord and I am an Assoc. Producer for @bioware in #yeg . The women of BioWare are going to be TAKING OVER @yegfemdev today in celebration of all #womeningames for International Women's Day! Please follow along and feel free to ask us any questions!
A little more about me: I have worked in various forms of media for 17 years now, starting in Film & TV and now working in video games! I am also a Lead for our Women's Ultimate Team, whose goal is to support the women in our studio and in the community. This means a lot to me.
It means a lot for me that women feel included in the work space, but it really means a lot to me that EVERYONE feels included. No one should ever feel discriminated, ignored or left out. We all have value and the more everyone feels included the more we can all be our best!
As a new Mom and a working parent I also feel it's important that we all find time for work/life balance. I absolutely love my job at BioWare and I come home a happier mom to my son. I want him to grow up knowing that if I can succeed, he can also do anything he sets his mind to.
I work with the Creative Performance Team casting models to be the faces of our games, and actors to be the voices and physical performances for these characters. PCAP, MOCAP, VO, Headscans are our main focus. I love working with all different depts to be creative. @ea #mocap
There are some real genius people working here at @bioware. My mind is blown every day with the talent, expertise and creativity that everyone brings to the table. If you want to work in games, but you think it's not achievable, you're wrong! So many diverse backgrounds and ppl.
Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten I’m going to ask a stupid question. What on earth does PCAP stand for?
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Not a stupid question! We at BioWare decided to call it "Performance Capture" when it became more than just the bodies being captured in Motion Capture. We capture body movement, facial animation and voice over all together as the actors play out an entire scene together.
If you want to get to know me, feel free to follow me on Twitter @mrscmccord for an unorganized rambling of being a working Mom, wine and occasionally a video game update or two. I am so excited for you to meet these upcoming ladies from @bioware today! They inspire me every day!
Coming up next is Emily Taylor pentapod . She is on the Women's Ultimate Team with me here at BioWare and she does SO much to improve diversity and inclusion here. She is incredible!
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Hi! I'm Emily Taylor (pentapod), I'm a senior level designer at BioWare. I've been in the game industry since 2007, at BioWare since 2017, and I'm here and I'm here to answer any questions you might have about quest design, so ask away! #WomenInGames 😊
My path here was a bit unusual, as I got an M.Sc . in Molecular Plant Pathology. I spent two summers growing petri plates full of fungi! It wasn't until ~10 years into my career that I transitioned into the games industry, before that I worked in IT support.
Some of my favourite memories of working in the game industry include getting to work on the EverQuest franchise, a franchise that I've loved since I picked it up the first EverQuest in 2000 and through which I've made friends all around the globe.
I'm super passionate about getting more women into the industry and tech in general, and talking at local schools and summer gaming camps and supporting initiatives like @yegfemdev are one way I can help.
Day to day, my job involves a lot of meetings, documenting things, and liaising between many departments to get all the different elements needed to make a quest great, before I even get to start creating the quest schematics in our editor! 😮
Some of my favourite quests I've made include the "Shipwrecked" series of tradeskill quests in EverQuest 2 featuring the adorable ratonga kid, Raffik. I also made Agent Yarrow's quest line in Anthem. "Strong alone, stronger together!" 💪
On Anthem, I worked directly with our awesome writers, particularly @jaywatamaniuk for Yarrow's quests, to plan out his overall story arc, what Yarrow's motivations are, what type of things he'd want to teach players, and how that all contributes to understanding the world.
Thanks so much for talking with me today! This is Emily signing off, and handing the account over to Katrina Barkwell, one of our awesome programmers here at #BioWare! If you want, you can find me on pentapod where I tweet lots of cat photos and occasional fungus info. 😄
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Hey! I'm Katrina Barkwell (@velocitrina), I'm a junior programmer at BioWare. I'm new to the industry and if you have questions on getting in right out of school (or co-ops), programming, or POC representation in games/tech - I'm your girl.
I very purposely aimed to get into the industry since I was a kid. I have a BSc. in computer science from the University of Manitoba and through their wonderful co-op program got a internship at BioWare. Thankfully I got a full time offer at the end of my term.
I over-prepared as a kid and made sure I had a solid foundation in art, music, and programming to make my own games. I actually went with comp sci because I googled "best degree to make games" when I was 16. No regrets! I love coding and we need more women in tech and games.
Currently I'm a RPG programmer, but I started on UI (shout out to Åsa if you wanna ask her about UX at 2!). It's a common starting point for programmers as you can see exactly what your code is doing. From there I transitioned to the RPG team and am having a blast coding systems.
If you identify as female/are non-white, it can be hard to see yourself in the industry. Sometimes it can feel like you're a fraction of a fraction in tech. But I assure you it's not because you're not qualified, not a good fit, or not valuable.
So if you're interested in games, but cautious because few in the industry look like you, I promise you that we're here, we're valuable and talented and qualified, and we need you. You can always @ me on twitter or see me on panels or recruiting events
Lesbian Disaster @xespera What languages do you suggest someone learn if they want to get into games?
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Great question! My day to day is 90% spent in C++, and a little C#. Both of these are great because they're popular in lots of game engines but really if you've learned 1 programming language, you can learn em all.
Thanks @yegfemdev for having me! Thanks everyone for chatting with me! I'll leave you in Rachel's safe hands!
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Heyo! I'm Rachel Hammond (she/her), a programmer at BioWare specializing in Online / Multiplayer systems. I've been making games since 2006 and at BioWare since 2010. I'm trans, lesbian, and I'm here for questions on queer representation in media, programming, and debugging
One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Brothers with my older sister when I was around 4 years old and thinking "I want to make these when I grow up". At first I wanted to design games and make levels, but back then, to do that, you had to program first
I started trying to teach myself programming in middle school. There weren't online courses or free compilers back then, I wound up studying what amounted to a college textbook and trying to build my own text-based Zork-likes because I couldn't figure out graphics in C back then
Through this, I was getting more and more into games. Back in the 90s there wasn't really any positive trans representation; I didn't think anyone else felt the way I did. I was terrified and alone and I didn't know how to express it. Games gave me a place where I could be myself
Through games and online communities I eventually found out I wasn't alone. I learned being trans was a thing, transition was possible, and I came out. My parents kicked me out, I fought my way through college where I studied CS, then I got my first gig in the games industry
Games are important to me. They show us whole new worlds and experiences and give us a chance to see so many new things, including who we really are. I'm proud to be able to make them
Hey! This is Rachel, offering a programmer's perspective.
The best advice I've ever found is "Make things". Show you can do the job by doing it as a hobby first. You'll be able to gut check and make sure you like the work, be creative, AND have something to show off in interviews
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod As someone fairly ignorant of programming subtleties, I’m wondering what’s the difference between the type of programming you do and what Katrina does? And how does someone new to the industry choose which they might like to get into?
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Programming has a lot of different branches, I work mostly with online, which is dealing with multiple machines talking to each other, communications protocols, timing bugs, etc. It can be very difficult tracking down issues having to have several consoles hooked up together trying to figure out why, on one, everyone suddenly goes T-Pose
There's also graphics programmers, who work with shaders and renderers and making things look as awesome as possible without setting your CPU on fire with the load Audio programmers have to find ways to modify sounds to fit the environment. If you're in a metal tunnel things should sound different than if you're in a field
Gameplay programmers cover a huge variety, with some doing "Cover it all" and others specializing to AI or Systems
Some make tools, working to let designers more easily alter the world and set up the scene. It's fun doing that because you get to see people you work with get REAL happy when you fix a big bug.
For a long time I switched between all of these, any can be a career
Thanks so much for letting me ramble on here @yegfemdev and thank you everyone for your questions! I can only steal this account for so long, now it's time for me to hand it over to Faye
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Hello, Hello ! I'm Faye, and I'm a new QV Project Lead at BioWare. My knowledge is based on my experience throughout the past 9 years working at multiple companies (big studios, small ones, 1st party and 3rd party). Let's talk about testing Games!!!
I applied for my first job as a mobile game tester at EA, not because I was a gamer, but because husband and friends loved games. I wanted to be sure that others got the highest amount of joy possible from the games they play.
Testing Video Games has many names: Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Quality Verification, Quality Standards, or just good old-fashioned Game Testing. We QV devs may have different titles, but if you break it all down, we are the voice of players who will be playing the game.
Many people use QV as a stepping stone into the industry—and that does work. I've seen testers go to become designers and producers. I decided to focus on growing within QA and took a project management course to gain team management expertise.
Jen @jhcl56 How do you keep the game “fresh,” for you to experience if you have to test the same level/quest over and over? 😊 So you don’t miss small details and such
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev It is a skill. If you are able to put yourself in a "first time experience mindset"that you will be highly valued. One way to practice is to take everything on screen at face value. You may know how to complete the level but is something on screen telling you that?
We do sometimes "cheat" as well and organize User Research groups to gain the "fresh eye" experience
Testing games has allowed me to watch games grow and change before my eyes. Each bug filed and fixed makes the game better. I love seeing the changes I helped drive in on behalf of the end user—the people who will one day play this game.
Thanks for listening, Hope something was learned or at least felt during our brief time together.
Stay tuned for Caroline and more of the awesome BioWare employees who are giving there time and energy today to support Women in Games.
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Greetings! My Name is Caroline Livingstone (@cablivingstone) and I produce, cast, direct, wrangle.... all of our Voice Over and Performance Capture here at BioWare.
My first gig at BioWare was, wait for it... voicing the Healer in the original Neverwinter Nights all the way back in 2002. Trippy.
Performance Casting is amazing work. Mostly because it's so multifaceted... from script and shot breakdowns to table reads, casting sessions, and of course shoot day. And it doesn't even end there. Basically, it's always different. Always evolving.
One of my favourite actors to work with was Martin Sheen. He said I reminded him of directors who filmed huge army sequences in large budget Hollywood films. So....that was pretty cool.
Jen @jhcl56 How do you decide on casting? I know you’ve your regular amazing talent like @jhaletweets but otherwise? 😊
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Casting is the hardest part of the job. So much talent, so little time. My goal is to put together a group of diverse actors who are going to tell our stories by helping us find each character's personality, voice, and movement.
TBH, often times I'm not sure what I am looking for in a character until I hear/see the actor perform in the audition... and then there's that eureka moment! "That's it! That's the character!"
I've cried many times while directing Voice Over.The Mass Effect trilogy is very close to my heart. I still vividly remember @jhaletweets doing the final scene with Anderson... and the final scene with Garrus @brandonjkeener... sheer bloody magic.
The final session for Mass Effect was with Jennifer remotely and I remember crying for so long she finally had to say "... are you still there?" @jhaletweets
✨Mostly Doing Her Best ✨ @mostlyybex What a freaking badass job omg
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev The greatest part of PCAP development is the team collaboration. From the story concepting to casting, to script workshopping; creative teams at BioWare, sitting in a room listening to actors read the words, combining our visions to create a story that will impact our players.
The creative energy actors bring to the set is a thrill. I love it when a day player comes on set because they haven't been fully immersed in the story. It's my job to get them to the same understanding of the story that a Principal would have, and seeing that unfold is cool.
Thanks for listening! Please welcome to the twitter stage Gabe Heiland (@norseartemis)
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Heyo! I'm Gabe Heiland (@norseartemis), I'm a Product Management Director at BioWare. I've been in the games industry for 13 years, and a Product Manager for 8! I've been at BioWare a year and I'm excited to dig in today on how I use behavioral data to guide design! #WomenInGames
Like many people, my path to getting into game dev was fairly random! I got a degree in history, my main interest was in working in theatre (Stage Managers, shout out!). I graduated college in 2006 and had no idea what to do with a looming recession and a non-trade degree.
So my World of Warcraft guildies convinced me to move to California and try Quality Assurance testing at Sony! I tested for a few years and while I really enjoyed it, I didn't find it fulfilling as a career.
I asked my Game Lead at the time, who was a Product Manager, what I could do to grow my career - and thus I entered the sorcerous world of behavioral data!
Most of my day is spent staring at tables of numbers - or at graphs I made to try to make sense of the numbers, and that may not SOUND like the coolest job but it's basically a puzzle figuring "What Humans Do"! #MathNerd
"All my data is anonymous - I can't tell anything about who you are, and truthfully, I'm not interested
I want to know: How fast do you level up? What things do you spend your in-game currencies on? Do you interact with other people who act like you?"
"I use this data to do a TON of design! I could raise the level cap, or add items, or recommend people who play like you. I am always trying to find ways to give you more of what you love, and fix what you don't like.
Jen @jhcl56 You can track how fast we level up? Wicked!
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev I like to track in percentiles! So I'll look at my data and see that the 99th percentile will hit level cap in X days, while my median are on track for Y and then I have to figure out if we have enough content to keep you ALL happy
Maximum Derek @derekheiland Ask her about pivot tables if you wanna kill some time
Karin Weekes @karinweekes The words "pivot table" chill me to my very core. #wordperson
Jen @jhcl56 *shudder* I’ll pass! I only use them when I must and then with great trepidation 😬 I’m more of an Access gal myself. Or Word. Anything but Excel 😕 But work requires it 😩
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev PIVOT TABLES ARE SO COOL!! Excel basically does all the work and I can just sit back and sip some coffee and pretend I'm really really smart 😉
Ha, you would be surprised how much game design we do in excel. I have had entire games that literally ran out of an excel export!
Karin Weekes @karinweekes So what is something data has told you that will surprise the heck out of us gamer folk?
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev I can see when you're exploiting my game, KARIN. I have models that I run alongside the data so I can see when you're gaining things faster than you should be, or if you have something that you couldn't get legitimately....
Karin Weekes @karinweekes WHAT NO I WOULD NEVER EVER
Charlie Rae Jepsen (they) @publicstilli okay look I know I cheated a bunch to get infinite money but in my Defense! I really wanted that Armor!!
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev
Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten I love that we have someone finding this data for us because I can use this in my designs and how we introduce players to the game.
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Yeah, fundamentally my function should be empowering all of you to be more informed! If I steer you guys correctly we can make the game better for our players
Ok, I'm at time! I'm going to hand this over to Melissa, a creature designer whose amazing work makes me jealous I can only do math.
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Hey! I'm Melissa Janowicz (deedlite), I'm a gameplay designer at BioWare focusing on creature design, and I also run @yegfemdev, which is a monthly meetup for gender diverse developers and allies here in Edmonton. I'm open to questions about any of this!
Any part of gameplay design (player, creature, 3C's, etc.) is difficult to get into because there are few schools which teach people how to do it well. Game design in schools is often taught with no focus - so you'll learn an engine and some very basic concepts...
Fernando Melo DiscoBabaloo Hey Melissa, for those that don't know, can you elaborate on what 3C's are?
...If you're lucky, you'll have a professor who really understands level or systems design, and that will help you on your way. But I've never heard of a school that taught gameplay design well. Gameplay designers are often sourced from other design fields, QA, or something else.
So these are all people who are learning from trial and error. From disassembling other people's games, from adapting content and twisting it to be something new, and from creating their own rules for combat or other types of gameplay interaction.
The top things that I would suggest to someone starting off in this is to find or create an environment where it's ok to experiment, and ok to make mistakes, and it's okay for everyone on the team - even non-gameplay people - to have an opinion and a voice.
One of the best anaologies for what we are actually doing is that combat is a conversation, and when you are a game designer, you are actually a full-time problem solver. It's both creative and highly technical. One minute you're brainstorming with colleagues...
...Then ur in the engine building out the most complex parts of the thing you just decided on together in the brainstorming meeting. Every day I talk to people in all parts of the development process and we work together to find and solve these complex problems...
...So that when the final product gets into your hands, you can make choices on how to respond to what's happening in the world around you. You can have all kinds of feelings and be challenged, and maybe even have fun.
And that's really what it's all about. Teamwork, creativity, finding great solutions, building cool prototypes, getting a rise out of people being excited and having a great time, learning from what you did and making it even better.
Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten Melissa’s been doing a ton for the women in games in Edmonton and to top that off, she’s a super good creature designer.
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Hi Everyone!! I'm Jen @jencheverie Associate Producer at BioWare. I'm here to talk about how I got to where I am now (seriously, how the heck did I get here!?) and take your questions! #womeningames
I was in school studying digital media when I found out that BioWare, who made some of my favorite games, was a local studio. Wait a minute.. is this real? I love gaming! Could I work at BioWare??
I wanted to be an artist, but I knew my portfolio was a little (a lot) sad-looking. That didn't stop me from telling anyone who would listen that some day I'd be at BioWare. Eventually I met a friend who worked in QA and encouraged me to apply as a Tester.
I spent 7 years in QA, and it was AWESOME!! I got to see first-hand how a game comes together, get some technical experience, and I discovered that I really loved being a team lead and project manager.
Enabling others to succeed and seeing the progress they made was such a great feeling! I knew that this is what I wanted to be doing... but how could I do more? I started asking questions about the day-to-day of the people I worked closely with.
I encourage anyone who wants to work in games (and at BioWare!) to talk about it! Make something cool and try to meet people who are also making cool things (powerpoint decks might not be cool to everyone but that's my jam lol)
Michael Ward @mikewarddraws What skill set would you recommend for someone interested in being a producer? What should they emphasize to ace that interview?
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Definitely organization skills, ability to understand how people work, and positive attitude! Your job as a producer is to champion the vision, which usually for me means being a champion for the team.
Production was really interesting to me. The chance to help drive the project and work with even more of the amazing people around me was exactly where I wanted to be. THROW ME AT YOUR PROBLEMS!
Zaire 🔜 ✨Train Jam and GDC ✨ @zlanier21 Makes sense! What advice do you offer to ppl looking to get into producing and maybe something you knew when you first started?
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev I knew I wanted to help the amazing devs around me when I first started, if I could give myself some advice back then, I would say to find or define the goals of what you're working on, and hold to them like they are your north star.
Producers champion the vision and goals of the game, and I really believe that these can't be realized unless the team is healthy - supported and enabled to do the absolute best work they can!
Being a champion means I do a lot of walking around, talking to people and trying to get them really excited about what we're doing. A big part of being a Producer is finding answers to the questions that everyone has so that we all know the common goal we're working towards.
Day to day I am in emails, slack, walking around, booking meetings (sorry team haha) and shifting focus to unblock my team members as soon as possible. I also do a lot of presenting, which is scary but getting easier the more I do it.
So if you're interested in working in games make sure you tell people - tell anyone who will listen! Hard work is part of what will get you there, but opportunity is a major piece of it.
The relationships you develop with the community of awesome game developers around you will help you find those opportunities. And if you do work in games, you might be very surprised at what you end up doing!
Thanks for chatting with me (@jencheverie) today, and feel free to fire any questions my way! Up next is Esther, our Lead Creature Animator!
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Hello! I'm Esther (@esssko) - the Lead Creature Animator at BioWare, a co-host for the GDC Anim Roundtables, & an organizer for @animstate's Animation Exchange. I'm honored to be here w/these amazing BioWare women and here to answer any questions about gameplay animation!
I didn't know this was a "real job" until I already graduated with a degree in Economics & spent another year trying to find a career that would be fulfilling for me! Thanks to a chance convo, I found out about being an artist for games, applied to @fiea and made my first reel.
My day to day is always different & creatively fulfilling! Sometimes I'm planning creatures with my amazing gameplay/art/story teammates, sometimes I'm testing my latest animations in my build and seeing what we need to animate next, sometimes it's planning the next mocap shoot!
James @_chuwawa What's the trickiest part of creating animations for games?
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev To me, it's keeping in mind that no matter how much glorious squash/stretch/appeal/etc I put into my animation, it's how it interacts and plays IN GAME that truly matters (the two can be vastly different)! It's tricky but also the best part of animating for games in my opinion
To me, the best part of being a gameplay animator is you get to think beyond your individual animations and delight in working WITH designers, VFX artists, tech animators, audio artists and MORE in building the gameplay experience & the systems that make them possible!
So I'm gonna tweet some advice I've learned so far in hopes that they are applicable to SOMEONE out there! (anyone?!). Please feel free to shoot me any questions and I'll do my best to answer them! But you can always find me @esssko afterwards with any more questions
In general - don't be a jerk! The gamedev world is surprisingly small & your rep absolutely precedes/follows you EVERYWHERE. I've seen many applicants get hired b/c of glowing references from past coworkers, and otherwise perfect applicants get passed over b/c of the opposite!
Animation reels - ONLY show your best work (don't let a shot stand out for the wrong reasons). Keep it 1 min or less! Research the style & needs of the specific studio/role you're applying to, and consider how your reel can make YOU ~*~sparkle~*~ as the best candidate.
You don't need an expensive fancy degree to get a job in gamedev/animation! There are so many resources/online communities/game jams as well! Your portfolio & experience (& team compatibility) itself is a billion times more important than the school on your resume.
Thank you for hanging out with me! Feel free to reach out to me @esssko if you have more questions about animating for games (or if you enjoy your feed being flooded by goofy game dev posts). For now, I'm thrilled to hand this over to the brilliant Åsa, our Principal UX Designer!
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Hi! My name is Åsa Roos (@devilkitten) and I'm a Principal UX Designer at BioWare. I've been in the industry since 2001 at a bunch of different companies. I'm going to talk about UX design and I'll happily answer any questions. #WomenInGames (also I won't talk about pivot tables)
I started out in mobile games as a game designer, and since then I've tried everything from narrative design to production, but UX is what's closest to my heart.
UX design stands for User Experience Design and covers the way the player interacts with the game as well as experiences we want the player to have when playing. UX design leans heavily on the data that Gabe was talking about earlier so we do a lot of user testing and research.
(Still no pivot tables though.)
User experience is not the same thing as user interfaces. It has a bit to do with UIs but that's not our main job. We look at what we want the player to experience in a specific game or in a specific situation. Feel free to ask, it's a tricky job to explain!
A typical day consists of meetings, conversations about game features and making wireframes. I do a lot of prototyping, talking to other game designers and making sure we have plans for "how to enter and exit a mission with as few loads as possible."
I think the fact that there are UX designers in games is the biggest shift. When I started about 20 years ago, UX design was not a thing. I started doing UX about 8 years ago, and even then UX was fairly rare.
I think the biggest thing is that we care about the player nowadays. We want people to have a good time and we care about making that happen.
Lesbian Disaster @xespera What's something you wish people noticed more about UX development. A pitfall or overlooked needed feature
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Onboarding and tutorials. How to teach the player the game without walls of text. If the game team puts some effort into thinking about how the game is introduced to the player, the player will have a much better time as they play.
esther ko @esssko I have a question (as someone entirely ignorant to the inner workings of the wonderful world of UX design)! What is a wireframe?! 👀
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev A wireframe is a conceptual image of how a screen looks, meaning it roughly describes where things show up on the screen. Usually it's just a bunch of boxes with text in them. Game wireframes are a bit trickier, because we also have to show game states.
Charlie Rae Jepsen (they) @publicstilli so is this to do with like, musical and on-screen cues type of thing? sorry if I've totally misunderstood!
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Don't apologize! It can definitely be a part of UX, but it's not all of it. We try to look at flows through the game. How you enter a mission, how you exit it, what the game tells you and when the game tells you what you need to do. I'm sorry if it's unclear, it covers so much!
Grimothy @timthegriffith What are some recent examples of games you think have very effective UX design?
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev That's a question that's hard to answer because if the game is giving you the information you need when you need it, it's an effective design. UX design is contextual to who the player is, what they're playing, when they're playing and why they're playing.
The easiest answer to the question is "it depends". For my personal tastes, I love the Assassin's Creed games that gradually introduce you to the systems in the game in a very soft and laid back way, never overwhelming the player with complexity.
I've been a UX designer for 8 years and I really love it, because I get to think about how the player experiences things all the time and I get to help create defining moments that resonate with players. Do you have any favorite moments you'd like to tell me about?
Ylva Grufstedt ylva_grufstedt Hi! Can you name a skill that you find very relevant to UX design but that might be generally somewhat underrated?
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev I'm one of those annoying people who think in systems, meaning that I follow a flow from start to finish and then find all the problems or issues with the flow. I think being able to see a whole system from start to finish and understanding it is very useful for a UX designer.
I'm not sure how to _teach_ that skill though, it just seems to be something I do naturally.
Pivot tables don't count.
Thank you for reading and if you have questions beyond this thread, feel free to send me a tweet (@devilkitten). My name is Åsa and I'm handing this off to the amazing Presley, audio designer here at BioWare.
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Hello! My name is Presley (@phrequencies) and I am an audio designer at Bioware! I've been in the industry since graduating in 2018. I'm here to chat about audio design, how I got here, and answer any audio questions along the way! #womeningames
After trying classical percussion performance, theatrical composition and sound design, and live sound mixing, I felt that I want to be more in the post-production setting, which is what inspired me to go to Vancouver Film School to study Sound Design for Visual Media!
I found my calling while at VFS, and realized that I 100% need to be in game audio. So I focused on that, and after graduating, started applying. 5 months later, I had a gig at BioWare and knew that this is absolutely where I should be.
My favorite part of the job is just how creative it is. Having the chance to grab a microphone and experiment is SO MUCH FUN and you never really know what you're going to find. What's awesome is that you don't need to have expensive equipment to start!
If you're interested in audio, you don't need a super expensive microphone and software to get started. Your phone will do, or a cheaper (sub-$100) recorder is great! Reaper (audio software) is free to try and cheap to own and is very common in the industry.
Shoutout to Marshall McGee on Youtube for demonstrating this so well
On Anthem, some of the designers realized that the dishwasher was super rusty and gross sounding. So they went and recorded it and it ended up being a lot of the basis for the arachnids. It sounded sooo fantastic.
For Game Audio, a lot of your thinking is about how to make something sound natural in the world no matter what the player decides to do. Variations are super important. Each sound having different layers with multiple variations to them so they always sound unique.
Having the exact same pistol sound, or same reload, same creature vocalizations, etc over and over again can get tiring to listen to, so ensuring there are a bunch of variations on that sound make it more fun for the player, and make it a more immersive experience.
Within the audio team, we call the Colossus our friendly dump truck, so it's totally accurate A lot of the audio for it actually came from a recording session at a scrap yard dropping giant bits of cars / metal / etc on the ground.
It definitely happens. Sometimes it's about frequency content - just things not sitting right in the mix once EVERYTHING is playing at the same time at the right levels. Might be a great sound, but can't be heard over everything, so we need to find a new place for it to sit.
Michael Ward @mikewarddraws Ever had to make a noise that you hated so much? Like a screeching or something gross maybe?
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev I had to do a week of polishing all of the elemental explosions for Anthem. After bouncing out ~500+ assets of just explosion sounds, I was pretty done with the explodey stuff for a while
Michael Ward @mikewarddraws It never even occured to me that you'd have that many explosion sounds in a game.
#YEGFEMDEV! @yegfemdev Multiple layers of multiple variations of each type of elemental add for an explosion means... lots of layers hahahaha
Additional shoutout to @emaudible for this wicked talk about Night in the Woods.
Before I sign off, I want to encourage you to start experimenting if you're interested in sound design. Pick up your keys, a book, your dinner, whatever is around you, and really listen to what kind of sounds these items make. Record it and see what you can make out of it!
Thank you all for tuning in to #YEGFemDev and the @bioware takeover. Thank you so much to YEGFemDev for lending us the account and thank you all the wonderful women taking the time out of their busy days to impart their wisdom on us.
Crystal McCord @mrscmccord We had an incredible celebration of women today at @bioware for International Women’s Day. I am so proud of the women I am surrounded by on a daily basis and they all inspire me so much! To all the #womeningames , Moms, Grandmas, Sisters, Aunts, and Friends - cheers to you!
Jen is one of those people that I always say “I get the pleasure of working with her!” Seriously, she is so hardworking, creative, positive, forward-thinking and so much fun to be around! I just cannot day enough about how lucky we are to have her at Bioware! @scyllacosta *cough*
Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten We’re super fortunate to have Esther as a creature animator at BioWare. Talented, smart and fun to talk to!
Karin Weekes @karinweekes 3 badass women pentapod having photo booth fun with karmaphotobooth.com/ - another local women-run business that donates 5% of its proceeds to nonprofit orgs. 💜💜 @bioware #InternationalWomensDay
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod Celebrating International Women’s Day at #BioWare with gorgeous (and delicious cookies from Milk & Cookies Bakeshop 🥰 And if you missed our twitter takeover earlier, check over at @yegfemdev! #WomenInGames #YEGeats #YEG
Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten I spoke to @bbattye today about how Cullen always derails my attempts at romancing Blackwall. I’m trying this again. I’ll play Inquisition and THIS time I’m getting it together with Blackwall. No blond ex-Templar is going to keep me from the bearded tank!
Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten I spoke to @bbattye today about how Cullen always derails my attempts at romancing Blackwall. I’m trying this again. I’ll play Inquisition and THIS time I’m getting it together with Blackwall. No blond ex-Templar is going to keep me from the bearded tank!
Brianne Battye 🦇 @bbattye
Gabe Heiland @norseartemis What if he does that back of the neck rub thing while talking to you though?
Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten 😍
No, Blackwall. Blackwall!
... I hate you...
Gabe Heiland @norseartemis Ok, but what about when he starts singing?
Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten Stop. It!
Brianne Battye 🦇 @bbattye I'm just laughing 🤣
Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten I’m REALLY trying here!
This is probably not the time to post a pic of the coin I made, because Cullen, but you might as well realize the depth of my crush.
Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten One of Those Moments – Introducing the Brood Mother discordia.se/?p=9495
So I have 35 drafts on discordia right now that I haven't published, and at least 10 posts written in my notebook that I haven't transcribed and I blame all of it on the fact that every day when I come home, my youngest cat won't let me use my laptop or my stationary computer.
And when I say "won't" I mean that she literally walks up to the keyboard and demonstratively plants her butt on my hands if I'm writing.
Brianne Battye 🦇 @bbattye Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights is out there! Thanks to everyone who worked on it and to those reading. Are you ready for some new adventures in Thedas?
A lot of the audio for it actually came from a recording session at a scrap yard dropping giant bits of cars / metal / etc on the ground.
