In September of 2010, six computer science game design majors united around the central idea of creating a team based puzzle adventure game. The six banned together and Team Placeholder was formed. As development gained speed so did the team size, expanding from a reasonable six to an unconventional twenty three all resolute in the creation of their first game: Journey to the Sun.
Journey to the Sun is a unique team based puzzle solving experience set in a whimsical luminescent world. The game tells the story of three friends who set out to save their village by finding a path to the planet's surface. Players must coordinate and cooperate with their teammates in order to solve each puzzle and advance forward on the trail. Levels are bit-sized allowing for a quick, pick up and play, gaming experience providing an on the couch experience like no other game.
Taking a dual role as producer and programmer, I recruited our amazing sound and art teams, established the framework for managing the team expansion, led the art team in creation of assets from concept to sprite, conducted and reported on biweekly user tests, helped lead the development team using the agile scrum methodology, and maintained an overall vision of the project used to guide the game through milestone completions. But most importantly, I upheld cross team communication and solved problems.
As a programmer: I coded the enemy AI and pathfinding, created all particle effects, aided in the implementation of in game metrics, I was in charge of loading in art assets, and created various levels in our WYSIWYG map editor.
Roles:
- Producer
- Programmer
- User Testing Manager
Specifications:
- 23 Team members
- C# using XNA Framework
- 500,000+ Lines of code
Skills Learned:
- Multiple Team Coordination
- Agile Scrum Design Methodology
- Enemy AI and Pathfinding
- Developing art tools to expedite production
- In Game Metrics Tracking
- WYSIWYG Editor
- Prototyping (both physical and computational)
- Particle Effects
- Art Production and Managment