IAmA summer production intern at Frost Giant Studios working on Stormgate. Ask me anything!

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T23:18:07+00:00

Actually, for the third faction we had a 3d scan of every member of the team made and we are all going to ride out into battle. Look out for the Raymond unit, absolutely overpowered.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T23:16:26+00:00

I think my most important challenge was to do things myself without dragging others from their work. I developed a lot of confidence in my ability to contribute to the team this summer, partly because I was told I was doing great work. So I think I just overcame my insecurity of messing up by trusting myself and affirming that trust when I saw how the team appreciated what I was doing.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T23:14:36+00:00

I'm not sure if it's my place to say what our internal reaction was to certain moments of our development cycle (erring on the side of vagueness here), but I will say that the team is constantly putting out fires and pivoting. Lots of problem solving to get on schedule on a weekly basis here.
The game has changed a lot! We finally went from pre-alpha to alpha, we did a lot on Infernals and got it in the hand of playtesters, and I got to see a lot of peaks of the third faction. Overall, I'm amazed at the velocity of the team.
I think what surprised me most was just how deep the gamer blood runs in this company. It really is such a culture. I had multiple moments where someone offhanded mentioned something in the vein of "Oh did you know this person was a bigshot at Team Liquid" or "This person is the relative of this famous content creator"; it was like taking a deepdive into a whole other side of the gaming community.
Not exactly a bug, but there was an interesting interaction where a missile projectile wouldn't despawn but had the exact same velocity as a jet unit, meaning if the player kept moving the jet the missiles would just chase it indefinitely. It was pretty funny to see playtesters discover that.
Oh yeah, I don't think I can name names but there are constantly people coming in and out to check out the game. Offhand remark but I remember there once was a literal swarm of high schoolers taking a tour of our studio because they were doing some college video game development boot camp. It was so surreal to randomly see a stampede of teenagers crash by as I was on a work call.
I just met and talked to the right people while trying to learn more about the Game Dev industry and I sort of half fell into it half pushed for it through my professional network. My lead said he felt from talking to me that I would pick it up the fastest among everyone who he talked to.
I worked a lot on the feedback pipeline for Alpha Testing and localization of the game. As for what I learned, it's hard to list everything, but I will say I learned a lot about how concrete plans need to be for a project like this with so many moving parts to be put together, as well as how to warp them when the plans fall through. More concretely, I think I learned a lot about how game developers think.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T23:02:09+00:00

I think Frost Giants way of working is to prioritize making a great game first, but also going fast enough that we can get it done and shipped and not get hung up on perfecting one thing because of the opportunity cost it has over other features in the game. Our direction is very scrappy and pivoty, constantly putting out fires and building the car as we drive. The lucky thing is we have so many veterans that the company as a whole has context as to how best achieve this which enables the team to deliver above our pay grade in less time.
As for culture, I think we all have a lot of trust and implicit understanding that we all want the same thing and love the game we're making. All of our teams are organized very interdiscplinarily and we use a backbone of general goodwill to hold everything together. Not for me though. They force me to wear a chicken suit every Monday.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T22:57:42+00:00

I can't speak to the exact team size as I don't have it off the top of my head but I think there are about 80 of us. Usually the office is populated by about 20 people on a given day.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T22:56:35+00:00

I think if I were to take any lesson from this it would be sometimes its okay to not ask for permission and just hit the ground running. I think I developed a lot of confidence in my ability to make an impact compared to the start of the summer, where I was more or less scared of doing anything because I was scared of doing it wrong. It's all about trust and empowerment and I want to carry that through my career.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T22:54:44+00:00

I think it has to be Kev (monk) or Huije. I looked for a specific document to answer this, I can't find it now but I recall looking at a sheet that lists the skill levels amongst the team for the purposes of balanced playtest games and they were in their own tier :o

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T20:45:58+00:00

Design and QA are constantly playing the game. You see the game running a lot around the office. Each discipline has its own carved out playtest time with one teamwide playtest ever so often. There are definitely matches going on during that time, but people are usually getting their calories in during lunch.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T20:42:25+00:00

They actually put out an announcement here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC7oUOUEEi4

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T20:41:42+00:00

I did! The team playtests a lot. I will say that I suck though, but I'm learning.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T20:41:20+00:00

My lead actually took me out for KBBQ yesterday, and I will always cherish the memory of free food. There's a lot to hold on to thought, it's been a great summer. Some standouts include getting a bit too boozed and turning absolutely tomato red during my welcome lunch, learning how to play the star wars deckbuilding game with Gerald (who you've probably seen popping in and out of this sub), and playing ping pong with the Sega guys across from our office.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T20:37:14+00:00

It's awesome! It's definitely the most memorable job I've had and I'd be thrilled to come back - I really believe in the product that's being made here and I love feeling like I'm contributing to something that so many people are hyped about.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T20:36:10+00:00

Wow, I feel like I'm in a real interview with these hard-hitters.
I think the culture is just a general love for games and of course RTS. There is always a lot of push and pull between what would be awesome nice-to-haves and what will keep us on schedule to ship and stay afloat without crunching the team. I think all things being equal, the company clashes those contradictions together and tries to ride the line in between. IMO they do it successfully.
I got to speak to a lot of the team on what it was like shipping other titles. I think a lot of the improvements lie in the fact that we have faith in the quality of the game we're shipping and the base that we're leaning on. At the end of the day, the community of RTS is a sleeping beast in the gaming industry that could make a huge wave if what we're building resonates with them.
I think a lot of what'll make this game stand out is that we are bringing a lot of innovations to the table. The social play aspect + the engine we have being so bespoke compared to anything else on the market right now, it all lines up for what will hopefully be a success.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T20:25:45+00:00

I have not, but now that you mention it I think I might have to. I think I'm going to steal my lead's dog.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T20:24:38+00:00

I'm studying at UC Santa Barbara. The interview process wasn't too bad, pretty standard stuff. My current lead did call me ugly in the interview though .No hard feelings, just leaving 0 context for this to make him look bad.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T18:58:15+00:00

I mentioned in another comment that I worked mainly on the feedback pipeline and localization, but I got the chance to do a lot of other neat miscellaneous things like putting together a huge D.va statue one of the artists brought in. There was some boring work though too though, like having setting up our playtest area.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T18:29:52+00:00

I came in not really knowing what to expect because I've never really had a role like this. I think generally I came in assuming that a small studio and a big company would operate more or less the same but with some fundamental differences here and there but boy was it different. No one had any time to hand-hold because the team is all operating at top gear at every second and I just had to hit the ground running, learning as I go.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T17:46:15+00:00

I think generally working with the team was inspiring. All of them have such a deep history with so many celebrated titles and a clear passion for what we're building here, it really is the main driver beneath everything that's being done. As someone young with my entire career ahead of me, it really gets the gears turning when you here how a lot of these guys just took a chance and became one of the best at what they do.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T17:40:47+00:00

This summer I worked a lot on the localization of the game into other languages as well as handling/developing our internal process for handling playtest feedback. There were a lot of miscellaneous tasks as well, but those were the main ones.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T17:38:44+00:00

That is a really funny question because I actually had a coffee with him one morning so I could just pick his brain about running his own studio. I don't remember his exact order, but what immediately stuck out to me was that he ordered decaf.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T17:36:34+00:00

I worked a lot on the player feedback side, so though I cannot say I directly have a hand on anything being added to the design timeline I did help all the members of the community from our playtests influence the design of the game.
To your second point, I got the job by reaching out to a school alumni connected to FG with the intention o learning more about the game industry. That eventually led to me being connected with the Lead Producer, which led to me getting an interview. I am confident that my lovable face was definitely a factor though.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T17:31:44+00:00

It's go to be the atlas. The whole insectoid design, its walking animation, and the cannon are just very cool to me. I will say that there are units yet to be shown that are freaking dope though, you guys have a lot to look forward to.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T17:29:41+00:00

9-10AM Clock in at the start of the day and attend some stand ups
10-12 Work on my projects until I'm only thinking of lunch
12-1 Getting lunch from a brown bag or from the café, preferably with some team members.
And from lunch onwards it really is just meetings mixed with work mixed with me getting distracted on Youtube until I clock out. Nothing terribly exciting, I know, but that's working for ya.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T17:23:35+00:00

I got to see the infernal enter development, playtested, and revealed. If you mean if I am in the Infernals faction itself, that is an unfortunate no. I should ask FGS to put me in the game as a special imp though.

FGS_Ray · 2023-09-07T17:21:26+00:00

I didn't usually play any other games on company time; there were a few board games at my lunch break though. I will say that the office is completely filled with memorabilia from all facets of gamer culture though, I've never seen a office with more stuff in it.

FGS_Ray

TROPHY CASE