Client Developer on Transformers: Earth Wars [Space Ape Games]
Introduction
For almost 3 years I worked on Transformers: Earth Wars, a build and battle strategy mobile game led by Ioannis Lefkaditis, as a Client Developer. Our team was very small, oscillating between 6 and 12 people, the majority of my time being spent with one other Client Developer, Bill Robinson. The two of us handled most of the game new features and improvements over the years, supporting our Game Designers, Live-Ops Designers and Community Managers along the way.
I worked on all aspects on game feature development and release, including defining model/data templates, writing design documentation, wireframing UX flows, implementing UI screens, coding core game loops, bug fixing in editor and with ELK tools, debugging the game on device and writing tickets on Jira.
It was an all encompassing job, on which I have learned tons about code refactoring, game optimisation and teamwork as a developer. Our codebase was about 10 years old and in that time, the Unity engine and best coding practices evolved a lot. We put in a lot of efforts into modernising not only the game itself, but its code and tools, to make improvements easier to achieve and the players and team happier.
Some of the most prominent work I took an active part in was:
- transitioning the entire UI technology of the game to a more modern one, as well as its art style.
- reviving the Alliance Projects feature, which was designed years ago, to reinforce social mechanics in the game and give players a new 3D scene to explore and upgrade.
- developing a whole new VIP Loyalty Program and redesigning the Shop to improve monetisation.
- adding a new battle mode for live-ops events, known as Mayhem Mode, editing the core battle engine.
- making tech art improvements, for the new UI and for the Transformers One movie release, for which I upgraded the power cores system to allow live prefab switch of bots during equipment.
- writing an algorithm for smart bots selection to complete Dispatch Missions, making this meta game feature faster to use, improving the players' quality of life.
Coming soon!
In the meantime, please have a look at the game on the app stores: Android and iOS (please note the app stores screenshots are somewhat outdated). You can also watch this video showcasing our most recent UI and gameplay work.
Summary:
In charge of developing, designing and shipping new features and fixing bugs on the highly successful multiplayer mobile game Transformers: Earth Wars, using Unity and proprietary tools. Transformers: Earth Wars, released on both Android and iOS in 2016, has accumulated over 150mil in revenue and millions of players with 300k+ MAU and 11 languages translated in-game.
🎨 Converting the entire UI of the game from NGUI to UGUI:
- Updating all UI facing C# scripts to work with UGUI.
- Crafting conversion tools and asset tracker to assist the UI designer in the making of the UGUI prefabs.
- Helping to define the new UI Design direction and implementing it in the game, being hands-on with the creation of complex prefabs with dynamically populated lists and grid.
👩🏻💻 Developing and releasing new features on the live game:
- Owning features by writing game design documents with other stakeholders, designing UX flows in Figma, coding the client and model side, ensuring the features are easily editable by designers, and testing the result on device to fix any remaining bugs or UX flaws.
- Example of features developed: VIP Loyalty Program and Shop redesign; Alliance Projects (social mechanics and new scene); Mayhem Mode (new battle mode); shader technology for the Transformers One movie release.
🍏🤖 Helping with frictionless releases on the App Store and Google Play Store, scheduling content, server and client releases in a timely manner to avoid maintenance time.
🐛 Fixing live bugs using Elasticsearch/Logstash/Kibana and by collaborating with the dev-ops and server team.
📈 Maintaining and improving the existing C# code base on 2021+ Unity versions, optimising legacy code and ensuring scalability for future development cycles.
🤝 Reviewed tests, interviewed and successfully hired new Client Developers and team members.
🎙️ Giving DEI talks at work and at conventions, coordinating fundraising for Special Effect charity and organising Pride celebrations.
