SNAPSHOT ISLE
A 3D casual adventure simulator with photography
Collaborators: 8 people
Tools Used : Confluence, Google Workspace, Trello, Miro, Figma
Role : Project Manager/Producer
Time : 8 Months | September 2020 - April 2021
Challenge
A capstone project for the final year of Sheridan College's Honours Bachelor of Game Design program created in the span of 8 months.
Design Goals
Photography: while designing a game where art is typically evaluated subjectively, how may we gamify photography
Exploration: a sense of discovery is one of our key pillars but it is also important for each of our member's to expand on their creative boundaries
Satisfaction: the ability for players to take picture perfect moments and feel satisfied all around but also making a game the team is proud of
8 people, 8 months, and 1 whole project
My responsibilities within the project were specifically management based. I was the project manger/producer and managed a team of 8 people for 8 months. Similar to one of my other projects (rePair), it was a challenge to collaborate in such a large team size. Unfortunately, it was an even bigger challenge to work remotely. All forms of communication were through text or online meetings. Taking note of everyone's schedule was extremely important to coordinate meeting times and get tasks done.
Current state of my workstation at home and all my sticky notes
Physically planning tasks within a semester
We had a general schedule where we had check ins and discussions. But one of the first steps in arranging meetings and delegating tasks was to remember everyone's schedule. In order to do this, we used google calendar to look at an overall picture of what everyone's week looks like.
Example of what every team member's week looks like
Coordinating 8 people to attend a meeting was extremely difficult especially since a good majority of the team already had full time jobs. Since this was the case, not everyone could always attend which is why I took notes and recorded key points and then post them on Confluence for referral after concluding each meeting. The meeting notes were helpful reminders of tasks and referrals to review old discussion topics. Meetings that required more brainstorming and ideation were conducted on Miro so that everyone could share their thoughts, especially with our team size.
Example of Meeting Notes
Example of a meeting where it requires Brainstorming
After we have our meetings, tasks were then delegated to each member and recorded on Trello to see the status of each task. We also used Confluence to record our progress. The progress was in the form of Development Log posts as a way to demonstrate everyone's thought process and workflow.
Trello Board that demonstrates all the tasks that need to be done and completed
Example of Development Logs
One of the most important tasks I had as the project manager/producer was keeping everything within scope and making sure tasks were getting done. I made it a habit to check in on everyone and created work pipelines and roadmaps to see all the dependencies and made sure we hit our deadlines and milestones. As shown earlier, in my workstation I tend to use a lot of sticky notes, they help me keep track of these things. By using sticky notes I can arrange tasks in certain weeks which I then translate in a roadmap.
Example of a roadmap with all the tasks and their dependencies
Takeaways
Most of my tasks were quite repetitive and involved communicating with everyone which I thoroughly enjoyed. Even under the ongoing circumstances of COVID-19, it was fun to hear from everyone and see their progress throughout the entirety of production. Personally, one of my favourite tasks was organizing our presentations and showcasing everyone's work! Fortunately, we had the opportunity to showcase our project in many events such as XP Summit, Ubisoft Toronto's Level Up Showcase, The Handeye Society's ComicsxGames and this year's Intel University Games Showcase. As my final student project I was extremely proud of the final product and learned a lot when it came to managing a team and taking into account for everyone's individual capabilities.
