top of page
Forza Street (2020)
Software Design Engineer
Turn 10
Summary
Forza Street is a mobile spinoff to the famous Forza racing game franchise. The game consists of a simple, timing-based race game, supported by a metagame focused on collecting, customizing, and improving vehicles. I was hired onto this project as a contract software engineer, employed as a generalist. Much of my work involves implementation of quality-of-life fixes to the metagame and streamlining the internal game data architecture.
Challenge — Pandemic Dev
One of the perks I was excited for when I received this job was the walking distance office - no commute! However, by the time I started the job, the COVID-19 pandemic had hit, and I've been working remotely ever since. The lack of separation between work space and leisure space, as well as the general stress of the pandemic, have made game development significantly harder. I try to stay on top of my mental health through frequent walk breaks and informal calls with coworkers that allow us to coexist in a shared virtual space and combat isolation. This is not a challenge I face by having a clever solution, but by being gentle with myself and others, giving me and them the extra space we all need right now.
Challenge — That's a Big Depot!
Another major hurdle I faced with this project is having to dig through a codebase larger than any I've ever worked with. This has been my first professional project, after all. Integrating with the project and the company has required me to openly ask questions, keep the company's Confluence on hand, and leverage my curiosity to my advantage. When looking at a file in any part of the game, I've spent some time seeing what other files it refers to, where the classes it defines get used, making an effort to improve my mental model of the project. By slowly understanding how the parts connect into systems, and the systems connect into a game, I've been able to get a handle on the project.
bottom of page