FUSER

- EXTERNAL LINKS -

- Website -

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TAKE CONTROL OF THE MUSIC!

FUSER is a creativity focused rhythm game in which the player takes on the role of a DJ playing various sets at a massive music festival. To keep the crowd entertained & having fun, they're able to mix and combine different sections of different songs to create a completely new mix. Players can also share their mixes with other DJs, work together in cooperative freestyle, and compete with each other for the attention of the audience.

- DOCUMENTATION -

Live-Set Event Design Document

FACTS

Developer

Harmonix Music Systems

Role/Development Period

QA Analyst (7/2022-10/2023)
QA Tester (12/2019-7/2022)

Publisher

NC Soft

Engine

Unreal Engine 4

Responsibilities

QA
Level Design
Content Design
Live-Support

Platforms

CONTRIBUTIONS

Probably my biggest game design contribution on FUSER was creating Live-Set Events. These were weekly challenges in our Social HUB that had players complete objective via the various music mixing tools at their disposal. They played much like FUSER's campaign in which you complete goals to get as high a score as possible. Where they differed though was that player's could compete with each other to get the highest score possible and earn rewards.

When the team started making events, my main work was participating in testing sessions with our designer and giving them feedback. But as development on other features started picking up, we didn't have anyone to set up the events on our backends. So with that in mind, I took the initiative to learn how to use our administrator tool, and do the setup myself. And with my success there combined with my game design background, the team decided that I was the best fit to make more events when the team downsized in the following months.

First, I would plan out all the specifics of the event in a spreadsheet, such as the length of the event, goals, and gameplay curveballs. After this, I would enter the editor and put all the pieces together in time for a build review with the team. This meeting would be used for another team member to play the event, and offer feedback based on their experience. Using this feedback, I would make the appropriate adjustments to the event before hosting a playtesting session with the company to get additional feedback. This would be followed by more adjustments and a final review by the team before the event was considered ready. The final steps would be setting up the event to go live to players with our admin tools. If you'd like to read more about my design process for making events, you can check out the design template below.

FUSER Live-Set Event Design Document

Game Design

Concepting, building, and iterating on post-launch levels (Live-Set Events) using Unreal Engine 4.

Managing live-service cosmetic offers in FUSER's Diamond Store and various events via administrator tools and spreadsheets.

Documenting development tools, project features, and best work practices.

QA

Organizing testing sessions with both internal and external QA teams.

Discovering and logging new bugs with JIRA, assigning them to the appropriate person for a fix, and verifying said fixes after they are made.

Writing and running test cases on various features for exit testing.

Participating in daily scrum meetings with other developers to stay up to date with each other's work.

One of my biggest contributions to FUSER was our daily testing session. Throughout my entire time working on the game, I took QA ownership of all three of our multiplayer modes:

Co-op Freestyle: a cooperative mode where players join an online multiplayer server, and work together to craft new and unique mixes.

Battles: a PvP mode in which two players compete to win over the attention of the audience with their DJ skills.

Diamond Stage: a larger-scale version of Co-op Freestyle that supports up to 250+ players as part of FUSER's Headliner Spotlight update.

For each of these, I would organize daily testing sessions with the rest of the Harmonix QA team and our external QA teams. In preparation for these sessions, I would take note of each team member's work in our daily scrum meetings, and determine if any new features were ready for QA input. From there I would also collect any information on other key features in development and our backlog of resolved bugs, and prioritize what we should look at.

Once I had all this information, I would create my outline for the external QA team. This would include specific details based on which feature we were testing, the primary goals of the session, and a list of known bugs, and bugs that had been fixed since the previous session and needed to be verified as fixed. To keep track of everyone, I would also create threads in our slack channel, which would be where the teams could communicate about platforms, bug fixes, and session goals. After the sessions, I would compile all of our findings into a detailed report for team leads, which contained feedback notes, logged and resolved bugs, and suggested next steps the team could take.

During the earliest stages of development for Battles and Live-Set Events, myself and another QA tester were brought in to help with the prototyping stage. This included daily meetings with the lead game designer on each feature and testing changes they had made since our previous meeting. Rather than checking for bugs, these meeting acted more as playtests, in which each of us would play the new build and give feedback based on what we felt was working and what could be improved. From there, the designer would make modifications to the prototype in time for our next meeting until we felt that the prototype was ready to move towards more bug-focused testing.

POST-MORTEM

As FUSER was the first AAA video game that I worked on, there's been so much I learned about game development from being a part of this team:

UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT PLAYER DEMOGRAPHICS

With the work that I did on Live-Set Events, I got a lot of good experience with understanding the player demographics of FUSER. In the beginning, most of the levels that I made were with a competitive mindset, as that was the testing background I adopted from being a tester for both previous Live-Set Events and Battles. While that was still a good thing to keep in mind, the play-testing we did for my events taught me that a lot of FUSER players want to emphasize creating a good mix. Thanks to this info, I've been able to adjust previous events and make new ones that offer a balance of both creative and competitive gameplay, and they've shown to be much more enjoyable.

UNREAL EXPERIENCE

Unreal Engine 4 was something that wasn't apart of my college curriculum, even though it was an engine I always wanted to learn how to use. Thanks to my work on Live-Set Events though, I finally got that chance. I feel like I got to learn a lot about the basics of the engine, and with my knowledge of other game engines, it was actually really easy to navigate. With this new engine at my disposal now, I'm looking forward to creating some personal project in the future with it.

WORKING WITH OTHER GAME DESIGNERS

Even though I'm not a designer on FUSER, I feel like I got a lot of design insight from working with the different game designers on our team. Being able to be a part of the scrum teams that I have, and getting to give feedback and listen in on team meetings has offered me a lot of knowledge from senior designers. Not to mention that I've gotten to be part of features that are in their early development stages. I think it's helped me learn about how so many others think of design, and how to communicate with them on what we think could be good and maybe not so good design choices.

ADMINISTRATOR TOOLS

Knowing how to use our admin tools was an absolute necessity for my work with Live-Set Events and the Diamond Store, and I think I was able to learn how they worked very effectively. This knowledge was beyond helpful when I moved over to the live-support team, as I started scheduling diamond store offers and setting up my created events so that they were ready for players.

WORK FROM HOME EXPERIENCE

With the COVID-19 pandemic going on for most of my time on FUSER, the entire studio transitioned to work from home very early on. It forced a lot of us to adapt to new work styles, and to balance our work lives with our personal lives. Even though I didn't work in our office long, I think it gave me a good impression of how to put more focus on my work when I need to be focused, and I think that helped me as a whole when I began working from home. Whether the future holds more working from home or going back to an office, I think I'll be prepared for either now.

BILLY BEANLAND
Game Developer

wcb482@gmail.com