Shrapnel
Senior Test Engineer
Working QA with Lionbridge
What can I say about Akiah? Singularly impressive doesn't even begin to cover it. Akiah started as a tester on my team, but it didn't take long for them to prove that... show moreWhat can I say about Akiah? Singularly impressive doesn't even begin to cover it. Akiah started as a tester on my team, but it didn't take long for them to prove that their skills and leadership extended far beyond that role.
Their ability to analyze systems, collaborate cross-discipline, and drive meaningful improvements quickly led to a well-earned promotion as an embedded Senior Tester in the studio. Once embedded, Akiah didn't just meet expectations, they redefined them. They took on additional responsibilities, demonstrated solid coding skills, and created a QA tool that became invaluable to Game Design. This tool leveraged backend playtest data to generate an overlay onto the current game level visualizing every player death: where it occurred, where the fatal shot originated, and the method of death. By providing clear insights into engagement zones, chokepoints, and level flow, Akiah's work gave designers insightful data to help them refine maps and optimize gameplay.
Beyond technical expertise, Akiah has the ability to bridge gaps between teams, QA, Engineering, UI, and Game Design; ensuring that testing isn't just about finding bugs but about elevating the entire game. Any team would be lucky to have them.
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In 2023, I had just finished my part of coding for a stealth B2B app startup and decided that, with Covid-19 no longer the dominant concern, it was time for me to get a real job. I had been an advocate for games since I was a little kid, and got a degree in Game Development not long earlier, so I decided that it was a good time to try for it. Unfortunately, Games is something of a insider industry—so I figured my best shot was to get a basic Games Tester position and work my way up.
So, that's what I did.
Fast forward a year, and an opportunity opened up for a tester to be embedded in an STE role at NeonMachine: the creators of the high-profile crypto game Shrapnel. I had worked hard the year prior to make sure that I was well-positioned for a promotion: I had lept into action previously in learning the ropes so that I could onboard and support new testers, and took point on special projects whenever they were available (or whenever I noticed that it would be helpful to start one). I was given the chance to move to Seattle and take on the role. After a lot of anxiety and considerations, I flew across state lines with just a backpack and a dream.
QA Leadership & CI/CD
While working as an STE, my focus continued to be on team support roles, including writing lots of tests and documentation, mentoring, and speaking directly to the designers and developers to determine the current state and requirements of the game. Additionally, I took over a lot of the CI/CD requirements of my team, including launching servers, tracking server-side logs and crashes, verifying VCS commits, and staying on top of the State-of-the-Project from a QA perspective.
Death Heatmap Visualizer Tool
I was also given some opportunities to get back into coding, and built a visualizer tool for the designers. I of course scrubbed out all the company-specific info, but I was given permission to show the anonymized version of the app below ☺️
More Sub-Projects
Additional sub-projects coming soon — check back for details on automation work, test frameworks, and more.
Unfortunately, Games is also a turbulent industry. After supporting three live releases of the Shrapnel Game, enjoyed by many live players (specific numbers would likely breach my NDA 😉), I, and the rest of my team, were reassigned or let go. I was given the choice to move back to Idaho, but decided that I liked Seattle too much to do that.
Overall, I'm proud of the work that I did, happy with the people I met, and glad for the experience 😁
More About Shrapnel
Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/KNTVpHT-Xgk
Shrapnel Website: https://www.shrapnel.com
