Andrew Fray

Dodging Bullets: Lightweight Automated Testing in Rollerdrome

Develop Brighton, 2023

A deep dive into the pragmatic approaches to test automation that Andrew pioneered on Rollerdrome, Roll7's award-winning rollerskating third-person shooter. QA were able to forgo repetitive tasks, artists had confidence their work would load on every platform, and engineers were able to continue deep optimisations very close to console sub.

Automated Testing In Games Roundtables

GDC, annual, 2015 onwards

Andrew has hosted and moderated the Automated Testing in Games roundtable at GDC every year since 2015, bringing together experts from across the industry to discuss the challenges and solutions around test automation in game development.

The roundtables have since become a community of aspiring and experienced automation users that chat, share knowledge and push the discipline forward.

ATiG Community

Productive and Pragmatic Prototype Programming

GDC 2025, Develop Brighton 2025

There's more to effective prototype code than public statics! In this talk, Andrew lays out a framework for implementing and maintaining prototype code that lets designers answer important questions as effectively as possible, without coders getting bogged down in spaghetti code.

GDC Vault (paid), Develop Brighton (paid)

Practical Unit Tests

GDC, 2014

Andrew's first-ever test automation talk, on how he used unit testing to develop new AI for F1 2011, all the ways he messed it up, and what you can learn from that.

The Next Vector: Improvements in AI Steering Behaviors

GDC 2013

Andrew developed Context Steering for F1 2011, which went on to become something of a standard in the racing genre. It's extremely useful when you want composable behaviours but with global constraints.

GDC Vault (free)

Twists and Turns: How the Speed Cubing Community Turned Rubik's Cube into a Competitive Genre

GDC, 2019

How did a dead toy turn into a vibrant competitive community-run sport? How is speedcubing different to the video game industry, and in what ways is it the same?

Remote Working at Spry Fox

GDC, 2015

Although a bit dated now, Andrew discusses the benefits and drawbacks that being a remote company brought Spry Fox and its employees, and how the team maintained a friendly and informal atmosphere when developers are on different continents.