Morning, and welcome to Development & IT! I'm Kai, the lead developer at Respawn Games.
Pixel Quest 2 launches in six weeks, and our ticket board is much too full. I need someone with a clear head who helps me plan this week and looks at a tool I want to try.
Let's start: download your workbook, then go to Step 1. Everything you write goes into your workbook, in the part for Day 1.
Open your workbook for Development & IT and go to Day 1. Keep this page open next to it.
Download your workbook for Development & ITThis file is for your internship in Development & IT, with one part for Day 1 and one part for Day 2. Download it once and use it on both days. The file lands in your Downloads folder.
Two emails in the inbox
Read the two emails in the team inbox in M1. Kai wants to try a new tool, and Emre, the youngest developer, answers him. Find out what problem Kai wants to solve and what Emre is worried about.
Monday, 8:30 a.m.
Two emails in the team inbox- From
- Kai (lead developer)
- To
- Development & IT team; Jan (Management)
- Subject
- Six weeks to launch: let's try AutoDev
- Sent
- Monday, 08:12
Hi team,
we have six weeks until Pixel Quest 2 goes live, and our ticket board is full. This week alone, the open tickets need 51 h of work, and we have 40 h.
I have a trial offer for AutoDev, an AI assistant that writes code for us. It costs €39 per developer per month. The company behind it says that routine tickets get done 30% faster. I would like to start on Wednesday with all three developers. Any objections?
Kai
- From
- Emre (developer)
- To
- Development & IT team
- Subject
- Re: Six weeks to launch: let's try AutoDev
- Sent
- Monday, 08:27
Hi Kai,
I have two worries. First, I started here in April, and I learned most of what I know by fixing small bugs. If AutoDev does all the small tickets, which tickets are left for me to learn on? Second, who checks the code that AutoDev writes? Lena, our tester, already works until late at night.
Emre
- Write two sentences. Sentence 1: What problem does Kai want to solve with AutoDev? Use a number from Kai's email. Sentence 2: What are Emre's two worries? Name both.Help: “Kai wants to use AutoDev because the tickets need ... hours, but ... Emre worries that ... and that ...”
A strong answer: Kai wants AutoDev because the open tickets need 51 h of work this week, but the team only has 40 h, and the company says AutoDev makes routine tickets 30% faster. Emre worries that AutoDev takes away the small tickets he learns on, and that nobody has time to check the code AutoDev writes, because Lena, the tester, already works until late at night.
Check your answer: Did you use a number from Kai's email, and did you name both of Emre's worries?
Plan the week
Kai needs a plan for this week. Read the team's rule in M2 and the ticket board in M3. First read all parts of this step. Then plan the week with the rule from M2 and your decision about T-106 in b). The tickets you choose must fit into 40 h.
- ticket
- Aufgabenkarte: one job for the team, written down with all details
- bug
- Programmfehler: something in the game works in the wrong way
- feature
- Funktion: something new the game can do
- priority
- Priorität: what the team does first
- estimate
- Schätzung: how many hours a ticket will probably take
- routine task
- Routineaufgabe: a task that many people have solved before in a similar way
- code review
- Code-Prüfung: a developer reads and tests code before it goes into the game
- data protection
- Datenschutz: rules that protect the personal data of people
How Development & IT plans its week
The rule of the teamDevelopment & IT builds the game and runs the servers. The team writes every job into a ticket: a bug to fix, a feature to build. There are always more tickets than hours, so the team sets a priority (Priorität). The rule at Respawn: crashes first, then bugs that many players see, then new features. Each ticket has an estimate in hours.
The ticket board
Open tickets this week| Ticket | What happens | Type | Players affected | Estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T-101 | The game crashes in level 12 when a player opens the shop. | Crash | about 40,000 | 12 h |
| T-102 | The shop shows the wrong price for the “Gold Pack”: €0.99 instead of €1.99. | Bug | every player who opens the shop | 3 h |
| T-103 | New feature: a dark mode for all menus. | Feature | none yet | 10 h |
| T-104 | The achievement “Speedrunner” does not unlock. | Bug | about 10,000 | 4 h |
| T-105 | Players with very old phones cannot start the game at all. | Crash | about 5,000 | 16 h |
| T-106 | A log file (Protokolldatei: a list of what happens in the game) that goes to an advertising partner contains the email addresses of players. | Bug | none see it | 6 h |
This week, the three developers have 40 h for tickets together. The rest of their time goes to meetings, tests and the servers.
- Read a), b) and c) below first. Then decide for each ticket: does the team work on it this week, or later? Your tickets for this week must fit into 40 h. Tick one box for each ticket.
- T-101 · CrashTick one box: This week · Later
- T-102 · BugTick one box: This week · Later
- T-103 · FeatureTick one box: This week · Later
- T-104 · BugTick one box: This week · Later
- T-105 · CrashTick one box: This week · Later
- T-106 · BugTick one box: This week · Later
- a) Write down your tickets for this week in the order the team should work on them, and add up their hours. Example of the form: T-100, T-200 = 10 h
- b) T-106 is a difficult case: no player sees this bug. Explain in three sentences where T-106 belongs in your plan and why. Say what the rule from M2 does not cover. If T-106 is in this week, name the ticket that moves to “Later”.Help for b): “The rule only talks about ... T-106 is dangerous because ... So I put it ...”
- c) Add one sentence to the team's rule so that the next case like T-106 is clear.
With the rule: first the crashes T-101 (12 h) and T-105 (16 h) = 28 h, then bugs that many players see: T-102 (3 h, every player who opens the shop) = 31 h, T-104 (4 h) = 35 h. T-103 is a feature and does not fit any more (45 h). If you put T-106 in this week (a strong choice): 28 + 3 + 6 = 37 h, and then T-104 moves to “Later” (41 h would be too much). Both plans are right if you explain T-106.
b) The rule only counts what players see. T-106 sends personal data (email addresses) to an advertising partner. That breaks data protection rules and puts trust and money at risk. Strong answers put T-106 right after the crashes, or even before them.
c) For example: “Data protection problems come right after crashes, even when no player sees them.”
How AutoDev works
Kai wants AutoDev to write code for the team. Before the team decides, find out how tools like this work. Read M4 and the real study in M5.
How an AI coding assistant works
What AutoDev doesAn AI coding assistant learned from millions of lines of public code. A developer describes a task, and the assistant suggests code. For routine tasks that many people have solved before, this code often works at once. It knows nothing about Respawn's game, and wrong code can look just as good as right code. So a developer checks every line in a code review.
A real study: faster or slower?
What happened when experienced developers used AIIn 2025, the research group METR tested AI tools with 16 experienced developers. They worked on 246 real tasks in large projects they knew well. Before the test, they expected to be 24% faster with AI. In fact, they were 19% slower. After the test, they still believed that AI had made them 20% faster. Other studies measured big time savings on small, simple tasks.
Source: METR, study published in July 2025
- a) Use M4. Explain in two sentences why an AI coding assistant is often good at routine tasks. Use the term “routine task”.
- b) Use M5. The developers believed they were faster, but they were slower. Give one possible reason for this. Use what M4 says about wrong code. Two sentences.
- Kai writes to Jan: “The company says 30% faster. So we save 30% of all our hours. Easy.”
- c) Use M1 (what the company promises), M3, M4 and M5. Give two reasons why Kai's calculation may be wrong. One or two sentences for each reason.Help for c): “First, the company promises 30% only for ... tickets, but tickets like the crashes T-101 and T-105 are ... Second, the study in M5 shows ...”
a) The tool learned from millions of lines of public code. A routine task has been solved many times before in a similar way, so the code it suggests often works at once.
b) For example: the code comes at once and feels fast, but checking and fixing wrong code that looks just as good as right code takes time, and you do not notice it (M4).
c) First, the company only promises 30% for routine tickets, and in M3 only 17 of 51 h are routine tickets. Second, in M5 experienced developers working on large projects they knew well were even 19% slower. Also right: the number comes from the company that sells the tool, and code review costs extra time.
What I learned today
Write three sentences, one for each important thing you learned today, in your own words. For example: how the team decides what comes first, and what the study in M5 found.
Check your workbook
- Save your workbook.
- Choose the file here.
- Does the page name a step? Then an answer is still missing or very short. Fill in that box, save the file and choose it here again.
- When all answers are there, Kai answers you and the solutions appear under every step.
- Compare the solutions with your answers. Is a number or a fact in your answer wrong? Write “Correction:” and the right answer in the same box, under your answer.
- Is the answer your own opinion or your own rule? Then more than one answer can be good. Write “Also:” and one idea from the solution that you did not have.
- Save your workbook again.
Thanks, that plan helps a lot! T-106 was the ticket that worried me most, too.
See you next time in Development & IT!