Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

On Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, my final role was Quality Assurance Engineer.

What is Destiny 2: Shadowkeep?

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is a major content expansion released in 2019 for Destiny 2, a first-person shooter game developed by Bungie. Destiny 2: Shadowkeep focused on the return of Eris Morn, a recurring character within the Destiny universe that had been absent since the events of Destiny 2's original campaign. Eris returns seeking the aid of the player-aligned Vanguard in defeating a scourge of "Nightmares" that she has released into the Solar System, taking the player’s in-game Gaurdian back to the Moon for the first time since the original Destiny campaign.

Key features of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep include:

  • New ‘Destiny 2: Shadowkeep‘ Story Mode Campaign

  • New World: ‘The Moon’

  • New Enemy Type: ‘Nightmares’

  • New Raid: ‘Garden of Salvation‘

  • New Dungeon: ‘Pit of Heresy‘

  • 2 New Multiplayer Strike Missions

  • 1 New & 2 Returning Crucible Maps

My work as Quality Assurance Engineer on Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

  • Co-owned the testing and validation deliverables required for shipping exceptional and intuitive UI/UX elements to Destiny 2: Shadowkeep.

  • Co-owned testing and validation of essential Systems-focused game mechanics and back-end functionality pointed at enriching gameplay and encouraging consistent active user satisfaction and engagement with Destiny 2: Shadowkeep.

  • Created a multitude of complex test passes and validation plans and processes for various supported feature teams, along with heavy contributions to bug and work item filing, triaging, and tracking.

  • Coordinated both feature team and cross-team playtesting to investigate and research various different in-progress product iterations and small team focuses.

  • Collaborated with 3rd-party digital store ownership teams to attain signoff for product distribution (I.e., Xbox & PlayStation).

  • Regularly contributed to daily stand-ups, feature team sprint planning, milestone post-mortems, and other various development rituals and meetings.

Challenges & Learnings: Working on Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

In parallel to ongoing development of the Destiny 2: Forsaken Annual Pass and the re-factored Destiny 2: New Light experience, development was also commencing on Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, the next major expansion for Destiny 2 that was slated for release in late 2019. The primary challenges at this point in my time working at Bungie was keeping expectations and aligned and deliverables on track for the various projects that were all in motion at the same time. Due to the scope and market impact that major expansions had over their smaller Annual Pass counterparts, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep progressively took on more and more resources and attention from my team as it continued to move closer to its release window. As Destiny 2: Shadowkeep progressively took more attention from the team, it made assuring a high quality bar on other releases more demanding than it normally would be. AS a learning experience, I was much more involved with the development on Destiny 2: Shadowkeep than I had been on Destiny 2: Forsaken, which afforded me an amazing opportunity to see how a high-end live service experience like Destiny 2: Shadowkeep gets built from end-to-end.

Where to get Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep was originally released to all major digital video game retailers in October 2019 (current availability may vary).

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep - Links & Media