Project Type: Internship
Where: Ziango B.V.
Location: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Duration: 6 months
During the fall and winter of 2019 I joined Ziango as an intern. During this internship I was tasked with researching and proposing changes to Ziango’s building and testing procedures.
At the start it became clear that Ziango was in need of building automation, because initial time measurements for building were well over 40 minutes of developer down time. During this process, a developer had to spend all this time building and deploying their games. This was downtime where no active development was being done.
After researching multiple solutions regarding automated building and deployment, I settled on Unity’s own building solution, and through a formal presentation I was able to convince management to allow the implementation and integration of this solution.
After completing the integration of this new process, I measured the developer downtime. This time I measured this to be about 5 minutes. Nearly a 95% decrease in developer active downtime! These results were met with great joy, and I was able to continue with the 2nd goal of this internship: automated testing.
It was observed and measured that each stakeholder would have to thoroughly test each game before fully deploying it. During these observations, I noticed that certain tests regarding bug-hunting or level completion, could sometimes be automated.
For this goal, I created a tool within the Unity editor that, after a few configurations, could automatically play Ziango’s games. By simulating a user’s touch, it would perform each game’s main input method (tapping, dragging, or swiping). These actions would allow the tester to complete most of the game’s levels at a faster pace than a human tester. These testing sessions would also produce useful feedback to the programmer or game designer – whether it’s code exceptions, or unbeatable levels – through screenshots, screen recordings, and bot and game logs.
In the end, I can conclude that this internship was the hardest project as of yet. From unraveling a vague assignment to delivering working solutions, I do admit that I am extremely proud of the work I have done. This project has reinvigorated my passion for developing solutions that directly impact the end-user.