02
MMO Greater Powers
Engineering leadership
PC and PlayStation were intended targets. The project stopped after playable development and testing; it was not shipped or tested on PlayStation.
01Context
An MMORPG targeting PC and PlayStation, led through architecture, networking and the scaling of the team building it.
My role was engineering leadership rather than a single feature area: architecture and networking direction, Unity Multiplay integration, and the hiring, partnerships and provider decisions that determine whether an MMORPG is buildable at all.
02My Ownership
Architecture
Networking
Multiplayer
Unity Multiplay
Hiring
Partnerships
Provider Coordination
Technical Leadership
Product Leadership
03Engineering Scope
Technical direction
- Development and architecture direction
- Networking
- Unity Multiplay integration
Team and partners
- Hiring and team scaling
- Partnerships
- External provider coordination
Decision making
- Technical decisions
- Production decisions
04Leading the Engineering
The scale of an MMORPG makes the early decisions the expensive ones. Architecture and networking direction had to be settled before feature work could be distributed, and the multiplayer backing (Unity Multiplay) was integrated as part of that direction rather than chosen later.
The other half of the role was organisational. Scaling a team to build this meant hiring, coordinating external providers and evaluating partnerships, then making the technical and production calls that follow from who is actually available to build what.
05Outcome
The project reached playable development and testing, then stopped.
It was discontinued rather than released. PC and PlayStation were the intended targets.
06Visual Evidence
MMO Greater Powers case study: Affaf Imran