Channing Eggers - Game Programmer

Showcase banner of TC:TD2-WoNY
The Division 2 - Warlords of New York Ubisoft Page
Professional Internship AAA Snowdrop C++ AI/NPC 2020
Team Size: AAA Behaviour Trees Squad-Based AI NPC Animation Control Visual Studio Perforce Jira
Third-Person Tactical Shooter Multiplayer Online COOP Open World Live Service

The Division 2 - Warlords of New York

‘Tom Clancy’s The Division 2’ is an online action role-playing tactical shooter video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. ‘Warlords of New York’ is a content & narrative expansion to the base game.

The ‘Warlords of New York’ (WoNY) expansion shipped on March 2nd, 2020, for PC, XBox One, PlayStation 4, and Stadia.

Internship

During my internship as an Junior AI/Gameplay Programmer, I joined the AI/NPC team which was part of the gameplay department. This was on-site in Sweden (Mälmo), but the last couple of months were remote due to COVID policies.

I joined The Division 2 project when it had already launched prior that year. And because of that, I have worked on several post-launch updates for the base game. Although, for the development of the expansion - Warlords of New York, I took part in the majority of its development. Doing both feature work and periods of (post-launch) bug-fixing & polishing.

My internship started in September 2019 and concluded around June 2020. This period can be split up into multiple parts:

  1. Getting familiar with the tech and development environment.
  2. Working on post-launch updates — bug-fixing and working on live issues & crashes.
  3. Working on the WoNY expansion — notably on cooperative NPC behaviour.
  4. Working on post-launch WoNY — polishing of systems, bug-fixing, and working on live issues & crashes.

Role(s) & Main Responsibilities

AI/NPC Gameplay Programmer

General:

  • Was a full member of the NPC team, joining in stand-ups, sprint reviews, meetings, play-tests, fika etc.
  • Worked on post-launch updates for The Division 2 base game and its expansion.
  • Was responsible for NPC and AI Systems within The Division 2.
    • Debugging, bug-fixing & polishing of systems.
    • NPC Behaviour Trees, Detection Systems, Motion Planning, and more.
  • Helping (level) designers regarding NPCs.
  • Monitoring and resolving live server issues & crashes especially regarding NPCs.

Additional details:

  • Worked on the ‘WoNY Intro Mission’ and adding additional NPC cooperative behaviour.
    • Specifically working on Kelso, who is an NPC that meets up with the player. She guides & fights alongside you throughout the mission.
    • Closely collaborated with level design on missions with cooperative NPCs.
    • Added additional NPC-related systematic control options for level designers.
  • Instigated and added more onboarding documentation for NPC/AI.
  • Worked on several issues that were slightly more related to gameplay systems or 3C.

Learnings

  • I have learned a lot from working The Division 2 and Warlords of New York. As it was my first AAA commerical product that I have been a part of. It being a live service game was also an interesting yet valuable learning experience.
  • I did notice that my school had prepared me well for the game industry as integrating into the team went smooth and without issue.
  • That I should make sure to try and keep a better balance between making things fun for the player and perfecting of systems/code/features.
  • To make sure to keep a healthy work-life balance as it is important for physical & mental health.

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