EverQuest

Associate Programmer -> Programmer I

• Code for end-to-end game play systems including client and server development
• Work collaboratively with engineers, designers, and artist teams to ensure systems meet all requirements
• Coordinate with Game Tech team to ensure smooth integration of related systems
• Anticipate and resolve development roadblocks in new product development
• Collaborate with design/art for small tweaks to try out different possible functionalities in order to create a system that is both functional and fun
• Major game system changes
  • Merchant window revamp
    • Unified the many types of merchant windows down to a single, easy to understand window
    • Learned how to communicate and work with another programmer effectively without stomping each other’s changes
  • Attached reward sets to items
    • Discovered that while a system may theoretically be simple, the actual implementation can be very complicated
    • Mapped out the entire system visually to ensure all potential paths through the system would be accounted for and handled properly
    • Worked with design to verify the data necessary would both work for the code and be accessible and easy to maintain for design
  • Implemented the luck stat
    • Unique stat that gives a player bonuses to 20+ existing systems
    • Also introduced the first stat that can be changed on an item which required special handling to ensure the value saved/loaded properly consistently
    • Mapped out the systems involved, data necessary, UI changes, and the actual system for the stat itself to keep the implementation clean and simple
    • Learned that no matter how amusing a function name can be, it does not mean it should be, and made an effort to ensure all functions, variables, and comments conformed to existing code standards
  • Server related accomplishments
    • Wrote, tested, and refined SQL needed for performing server merges (Vulak -> Fippy)
    • Put in hardware requests, set up necessary configurations, and was on-site for launching new server (Agnarr)
  • Large build/team tasks
    • Handled the actual launch (did builds, verified those builds, and was on-site to troubleshoot any issues) of our 25^th expansion
    • Migrated the entire team (design and code) from one task tracking system to JIRA