20,000 Leagues
Under the C-
Six-Person Team
Aug 2019 - Sep 2019
Made With: Dreams on Playstation 4
You have a quiz in two minutes and you didn't study! Speed read this classic novel to find the test answers before it's too late. Flip pages to knock away an onslaught of pesky doodles. Just watch out for whirlpools ...
Game Designer & Producer
Designed mechanics and tuned difficulty to balance panic with hilarity
Iterated ending setpiece to punch up the comedy factor
Managed a six-person team across international time zones
What Worked?
Task Management Between Time Zones - I organized tasks such that people in the UK finished their work right in time to hand it off to teammates in the United States. This ensured an effective continuous development cycle across time zones.
Uniting a Team - By using an evocative game treatment and various soft skills, I found it easy to network and recruit team members from online forums.
Early Iteration - I started with paper prototyping to make initial decisions, so that our limited development time could be spent in other areas.
Polish Phase - The additional week of development time post-release led to our game being featured on the Media Molecule stream.
Panicked but Laughing - By using time pressure and sensory overload, I was successful in evoking the experience of cramming for a test. I balanced this with a light-hearted visual style, and whimsical music and effects, to show how ridiculous our reactions to everyday stressors can be.
What Didn't?
Early Communication - For the first few days, everyone felt scattered and had different interpretations of the game. It was only after I organized everyone across time zones into a team voice call that we really got unified on the specifics, and picked up steam.
Document Organization - Documentation was posted and updated regularly. However, the system used for organization was clunky so no one ever used it.
Too Many Hats - Between only having six days for the initial release, and my workload from running all aspects of design as well as production, the game's design did not get sufficient iteration. As a result, players' first impressions with the game were not as good as they could have been. Many of the necessary tutorial and difficulty iterations were added post-release.
Role Flexing - My physical health made it impossible to use a controller, which meant I had to rely on teammates to do design tweaks in-engine. This often forced them to solve problems outside of their own discipline, which many teammates described as being stressful.