Trolley Problem Inc

Trolley Problem Inc is a satirical, black comedy game based on real world philosophical debates and ethical problems. It was designed and developed by Sam Read-Graves and published by The Yogscast.

At its peak, it hosted 90,000 concurrent Twitch viewers when streamer XQC played through the game. It was also played by content creators such as QTCinderella, DarkviperAU, and Hasanabi.

During the development of Trolley Problem, I was studying games design and development at West Suffolk College in Bury St. Edmunds, where Sam was lecturing. One day in class, he approached me about a technical problem he had and asked if I could solve it and, after spending a few days trying to find a solution, it became apparent that I didn't really have the experience or knowledge to find a good solution to the problem.

It's at times like this that people reveal who they truly are. I had two options:
- Option 1. Return to Sam and explain that I had bitten off more than I could chew, and quietly skulk back to my classwork
- Option 2. Say nothing about this problem, grit my teeth, learn as much as I could about the given systems as possible and deliver a working version in a couple of weeks time

I voted for option 2.

As it turns out, writing a module library for a game engine in a language you're fairly unfamiliar with in order to use an API you've never used before at the same time as you're trying to finish a class project is quite hard. However I got it done, and by the end of my time as a contractor on the project I had built two systems for the game:

The first was the stat tracking system. If you've ever played any of the episodic Telltale adventure games, you may remember that at the end of each chapter you get a set of graphs telling you how your decisions skewed in the context of the total playerbase. I wrote a version of that system which is used in Trolley Problem.

The other system I built was the Twitch integration, where players could let their chats vote on which option to take in a given encounter. This is one of the main systems attributed to the game's success. Of course it was Sam's system, I just implemented it. But I feel it's worth being proud of.