Hook, Line, and Axe Steam Page
Pre-Production
- Team Assembly & Formation Document (see below)
- Game Design Document (GDD) - classified content but the document outlined components of the game in depth
- Team Contract - established that everyone was on the same page and held accountable
- Project Timeline (see below)
The Team Formation Document outlined the team's goals, composition, and plans for the game. Of course, as with most large-scale projects, we had to adapt to accommodate for hurdles, ambitions, and the team and game's needs. For example, we overlooked having a designated producer which became massively important, so I stepped up to become a co-producer and entrusted my colleagues with handling the game's animations.
Everything in the minimum viable product was met or exceeded in certain instances, with the only exceptions being that there was one polished boss fight instead of two and that there were no upgradable abilities. That said, this was perfectly acceptable as these adjustments did not diminish the quality of the product. We developed five enemy types (instead of three) and had four levels (instead of two), which allowed for more content and variety to the player's gameplay experience.
The production timeline was a great concept and kept the team on track to reach milestones within the first couple of months. Upon making the timeline, I had made the mistake of creating rigid deadlines based on estimates from my colleagues that could not account for any delays or adjustment periods. Looking back now, there are a number of things that I would have done differently and that is okay because I learned so much and grew personally as a producer from the experience.
Production
- Weekly meetings utilizing AGILE methodology
-What each member planned to do next/for the following week
-Open discussion with the team about ways to collaborate, assist, or be assisted
-Questions
-Closing Summary
- I was responsible for leading discussion, delegating additional tasks based on priority, and ensuring that each member had the resources to succeed.
- Establishing and maintaining a positive work culture where everyone was safe, productive, and felt fulfilled through personal contributions.
- Kept version and quality control of our team's work using GitHub, which enabled revisions and collaborative additions.
Tasks were assigned and tracked in Jira for phase one and Trello (shown above) for phase two.
Labels were created to categorize what each task involved and to determine who should take on the responsibility.
Post-Production
- Marketing and Quality Assurance made up almost the entirety of the post-production phase, which spanned several months.
- Feedback was gathered from players and some improvements and adjustments were made to perfect the game/product.
- Announcement and Gameplay Trailer were made and released across Steam, YouTube, and social media (see below).
- Miro Board was used to methodically plan the gameplay trailer, tell a captivating story, and ensure the time was well utilized.
-Names of team members delegated to gather content were placed in the red tiles, which were made green upon completion.
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With the responsibility to create trailers that promoted the game, I inadvertently got increasingly proficient with capturing gameplay/cinematic footage in Unreal Engine and video editing in DaVinci Resolve.