Gamification bugfixes How we turned bug fixes into an exciting multiplayer online game
Posted by: maxim_korobtsev , WorkAndPlay.Ru
Most recently, an interesting and unusual event took place at Odnoklassniki. For five days, developers and testers participated in Bagatlon, an eSports competition for bug fixes and leveling skills.
Fix bugs boring if you do not turn it into a game. Especially if we are talking about low-priority bugs that were not fixed at the time due to insignificance. But first things first!
')
It all started a few months before Bagatlon, when we, Work & Play , together with OK, invented game mechanics and the competition itself. A fairly good idea was born: pack up all the many accumulated low-priority bugs into groups (boxes with bugs). For each bug, specify in advance the skills that it pumps over from the person who fixes or checks it. Then every few months to arrange a competition. Moreover, the winner will not be the one who fixes the most, but the one who has downloaded the most bugfixes yet. I also wanted the whole game to go on the job (on weekdays), by ticket from the bug tracker and access to it was directly from Jira.
The initial idea looked interesting and everyone set about implementing it. While we were developing a plugin for Jira, the guys from OK selected the bugs for the first box, put down the importance of skills for them, and in general prepared the content for the game. Here I would like to separately note the professionalism of Odnoklassniki, they have helped quite a lot when working on the first version and, like us, approached work with the soul.
As a result, after several months of work on the plugin, we got this:
In the center is the playing field, it shows the selected bugs for the game. For them, OK came up with stories and put photos of users. The idea was that bugs should acquire a human face and not be ordinary soulless aids ticks. According to the original idea, I even wanted to artificially add significance and drama to the ticket. For this, the guys made up stories for tickets, like this: “On the day of the update, the girl uploaded the wrong picture into profile, there is no way to delete (the cross disappeared from the window), 10 minutes are left until her boyfriend went online. Relations are on the verge. ”However, in the end, such an idea was abandoned, because It was very time consuming to come up with for all selected bugs in such a heartbreaking history, and it is not always realistic.
All competitions, both in individual and in team competition, were built around skill leveling, therefore, OK indicated in advance which skill and how much it will be pumped. Masters of the game, responsible for filling the box, did it together with timlidov, which allowed us to make an objective assessment. There were the usual bugs with a little pumping, there were bugs "bosses". These are difficult problems, having corrected which it was possible to pump cool. Here it should be noted that testers had their own set of skills that they pumped when checking bugs.
In advance for the game was invented and configured a system of virtual rewards, which played the players and received automatically for their achievements. Along with the awards, participants received bonus points, which were also counted in the standings.
Awards were different in type, frequency of issue and purpose. For example, the reward for upgrading skills had several levels and was issued separately for each of them.
Every night, awards were given for daytime achievements. This was done to shake up the standings and to ensure that the dynamics in the game did not fall. For example, this is the reward for the maximum daily pumping:
For particularly difficult bugs, rewards were also added. These bugs could be found on the playing field, and participants instead of a dozen small bugs could build their tactics on fixing complex ones.
In addition, awards that were not directly related to skills or bugs were created in the game. For example, these are:
The beginning of Bagatlon was scheduled for day X. A training video was prepared for the participants, which made it possible to quickly understand what was happening, what rules, what to do. In the morning on the first day we sent letters inviting us to play.
The beginning for us, as for the gamers, to be honest, was disappointing. The first reaction to the game, like everything new, was different. Someone thought the proposal to play immediately interesting, someone said: "what a kindergarten," someone just could not take part because of the urgent work.
The first few hours the game was sluggish, there were a lot of questions on the rules, on the interface, but the bugs were already fixed and began to earn the first pumping points.
But by the evening of the first day, as soon as the people figured out the rules and really got involved, the real struggle began!
The game began to tighten and a real sports passion appeared.
The developers began to call each other into teams, some wanted to play alone, which was also possible.
Every day, OK singled out the winners of the day in the individual competition among developers and testers and did awarding memorable gifts. After they did it for the first time and sent out all the photos, a second wave of excitement surged.
Participants actively took bugs from various projects, and not just from those on which they specialized. The motive was in the recruitment of more pumping points and in victory. Several teams themselves volunteered in the evenings and on weekends.
To sum up, the level of excitement all days of the game was crazy. We were happy to form teams, not only for food, but also for our interests. They collaborated very closely with each other, more closely than usually worked. For people turned out mini-teambuilding.
Many have tried themselves in something new, and both developers and testers. For the game they repaired several difficult bugs, which they had not decided to undertake before.
Since Bagatlon was a voluntary event, from the first time not all of them got involved in the game. However, when the first box was being prepared, the number of bugs was placed there on the basis of all. As a result, for five days of carrying out Bagatlon 1/3 from the planned participants closed half of the prepared bugs, which is, in general, a good result.
The game was over, the cybersport passions went down, but the achievements and awards received by the players remained for the story in their game profiles. And the player is nice, and can be used for the following Bagatlon.
And further in the product Bagatlon will appear new game modes, for example, there is an idea to fasten "Duels on skills" with the ability to challenge a colleague, "capture the flag" and other PvP and PvE modes found in computer games. And of course, to play Bagatlon in different IT companies. After all, “Work and Play” is much more interesting than just working!
Most recently, an interesting and unusual event took place at Odnoklassniki. For five days, developers and testers participated in Bagatlon, an eSports competition for bug fixes and leveling skills.
Fix bugs boring if you do not turn it into a game. Especially if we are talking about low-priority bugs that were not fixed at the time due to insignificance. But first things first!
')
How it all began?
It all started a few months before Bagatlon, when we, Work & Play , together with OK, invented game mechanics and the competition itself. A fairly good idea was born: pack up all the many accumulated low-priority bugs into groups (boxes with bugs). For each bug, specify in advance the skills that it pumps over from the person who fixes or checks it. Then every few months to arrange a competition. Moreover, the winner will not be the one who fixes the most, but the one who has downloaded the most bugfixes yet. I also wanted the whole game to go on the job (on weekdays), by ticket from the bug tracker and access to it was directly from Jira.
The initial idea looked interesting and everyone set about implementing it. While we were developing a plugin for Jira, the guys from OK selected the bugs for the first box, put down the importance of skills for them, and in general prepared the content for the game. Here I would like to separately note the professionalism of Odnoklassniki, they have helped quite a lot when working on the first version and, like us, approached work with the soul.
What we got in the end?
As a result, after several months of work on the plugin, we got this:
In the center is the playing field, it shows the selected bugs for the game. For them, OK came up with stories and put photos of users. The idea was that bugs should acquire a human face and not be ordinary soulless aids ticks. According to the original idea, I even wanted to artificially add significance and drama to the ticket. For this, the guys made up stories for tickets, like this: “On the day of the update, the girl uploaded the wrong picture into profile, there is no way to delete (the cross disappeared from the window), 10 minutes are left until her boyfriend went online. Relations are on the verge. ”However, in the end, such an idea was abandoned, because It was very time consuming to come up with for all selected bugs in such a heartbreaking history, and it is not always realistic.
How was the game built?
All competitions, both in individual and in team competition, were built around skill leveling, therefore, OK indicated in advance which skill and how much it will be pumped. Masters of the game, responsible for filling the box, did it together with timlidov, which allowed us to make an objective assessment. There were the usual bugs with a little pumping, there were bugs "bosses". These are difficult problems, having corrected which it was possible to pump cool. Here it should be noted that testers had their own set of skills that they pumped when checking bugs.
What were the awards?
In advance for the game was invented and configured a system of virtual rewards, which played the players and received automatically for their achievements. Along with the awards, participants received bonus points, which were also counted in the standings.
Awards were different in type, frequency of issue and purpose. For example, the reward for upgrading skills had several levels and was issued separately for each of them.
Every night, awards were given for daytime achievements. This was done to shake up the standings and to ensure that the dynamics in the game did not fall. For example, this is the reward for the maximum daily pumping:
For particularly difficult bugs, rewards were also added. These bugs could be found on the playing field, and participants instead of a dozen small bugs could build their tactics on fixing complex ones.
In addition, awards that were not directly related to skills or bugs were created in the game. For example, these are:
How was it going?
The beginning of Bagatlon was scheduled for day X. A training video was prepared for the participants, which made it possible to quickly understand what was happening, what rules, what to do. In the morning on the first day we sent letters inviting us to play.
The beginning for us, as for the gamers, to be honest, was disappointing. The first reaction to the game, like everything new, was different. Someone thought the proposal to play immediately interesting, someone said: "what a kindergarten," someone just could not take part because of the urgent work.
The first few hours the game was sluggish, there were a lot of questions on the rules, on the interface, but the bugs were already fixed and began to earn the first pumping points.
But by the evening of the first day, as soon as the people figured out the rules and really got involved, the real struggle began!
The game began to tighten and a real sports passion appeared.
The developers began to call each other into teams, some wanted to play alone, which was also possible.
Every day, OK singled out the winners of the day in the individual competition among developers and testers and did awarding memorable gifts. After they did it for the first time and sent out all the photos, a second wave of excitement surged.
Participants actively took bugs from various projects, and not just from those on which they specialized. The motive was in the recruitment of more pumping points and in victory. Several teams themselves volunteered in the evenings and on weekends.
To sum up, the level of excitement all days of the game was crazy. We were happy to form teams, not only for food, but also for our interests. They collaborated very closely with each other, more closely than usually worked. For people turned out mini-teambuilding.
Many have tried themselves in something new, and both developers and testers. For the game they repaired several difficult bugs, which they had not decided to undertake before.
Results of our Bagatlon
Since Bagatlon was a voluntary event, from the first time not all of them got involved in the game. However, when the first box was being prepared, the number of bugs was placed there on the basis of all. As a result, for five days of carrying out Bagatlon 1/3 from the planned participants closed half of the prepared bugs, which is, in general, a good result.
The game was over, the cybersport passions went down, but the achievements and awards received by the players remained for the story in their game profiles. And the player is nice, and can be used for the following Bagatlon.
What will happen next?
And further in the product Bagatlon will appear new game modes, for example, there is an idea to fasten "Duels on skills" with the ability to challenge a colleague, "capture the flag" and other PvP and PvE modes found in computer games. And of course, to play Bagatlon in different IT companies. After all, “Work and Play” is much more interesting than just working!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/220329/
All Articles