A Cog in the Cosmic Machine
A narrative based resource management game for Bradley University's FUSE Showcase
When: August 2020 - Present
Roles: Producer
Team Size: 22 people
Tasks:
• Implemented JIRA & SCRUM into the production pipeline.
--organized and scheduled tasks for team members for 6 milestones, across 12 sprints, over the course of a year and a half.
--Utilized burndown charts after each sprint.
--Held standups, sprint retrospective/planning meetings.
• Ran team and discipline leads meetings 4x a week.
• Clarified communication, messaging, and organizational issues from team members and solved them. Removed any and all bottlenecks.
Visual Examples of Production:
Sprint / Schedule Planning
(1) Deadlines
(2) Alpha Sprint Schedule
(3) Roadmap (Hansoft)
(4) Sprint Example (JIRA)
Explanation:
(1st image)
⚫ Original milestone timeline given to me by my professors.
(2nd image)
⚫ One example of a milestone sprint schedule I created for my team.
⚫ End dates for each sprint were on days right before playtesting/milestone turn in days to maximize time.
(3rd image)
⚫ 2021 Q1 sprints created in Hansoft.
-I learned Hansoft for this project as many AAA companies such as Volition and EA use it.
(4th image)
⚫ An example sprint with a Kanban board containing detailed tickets.
Reflection:
⚫ Having a detailed sprint schedule made scope control much easier to determine.
⚫ Utilizing sprints in JIRA and roadmaps in Hansoft made communication clearer.
Burndown Charts:
Sprint 6
Sprint 3
Sprint 5
Sprint 1
Explanation:
⚫ Created burndown charts in JIRA for 8+ sprints.
⚫ Assigned storypoints in tickets to track how much work can be done in a sprint based on previous charts.
⚫ The Fibonacci sequence was used (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13) to determine storypoint values.
-Ex: 1 = 1 hour | 5 = 1 day | 13 = the whole sprint
⚫ Each sprint was named after a bird as our team is named after one.
-Ex: Sprint 1 = Albatros | Sprint 2 = Blue Footed Bobby | Sprint 4 = Doodoo
Reflection:
⚫Problems: Tickets were either not moved or not completed in a steady pace. This resulted in crunch.
⚫ Solution: Make moving tickets in JIRA part of stand-ups and break down tickets further.
Meetings:
All Team Meetings
An Example Slide from our Lead Meetings
All Lead Meetings
An Example Slide from our Lead Meetings
Explanation:
(Top images)
⚫ Team Meetings (Tue / Thu):
-Quick stand-ups by leads.
- Made announcements.
-Communicated information from professors to teammates.
(Bottom images)
⚫Lead Meetings (Wed / Sat):
- Detailed stand-ups with leads.
- Made high level decisions with leads.
Reflection:
⚫ Power-Points helped create a detailed archive of work for each week
⚫ Each meeting made decision making and dissemination of information very quick and efficient.
Role Sheets:
Role Sheet for Art
Role Sheet for Audio
Explanation:
⚫Created role sheets with each lead.
⚫Clarified roles and responsibilities for each lead and discipline.
⚫ Each lead had to sign off on every role sheet to show they agreed on each disciplines roles and responsibilities
Reflection:
⚫ Role sheets acted as an unbiased source to help settle disputes about responsibilities.
Asset Lists:
Asset List for Art
Asset List for Programming
Asset List for UX
Explanation:
⚫ I created the framework for each sheet in Google Sheets.
⚫ Each sheet contained basic asset information (name/description/status).
⚫ Each asset had to be approved by relevant leads.
Reflection:
⚫ Asset lists greatly increased communication and clarity on goals and priorities.
⚫ Lead approval increased accountability.
Recap Video:
Explanation:
⚫ A video that showcased the progress made throughout the year.
⚫ I created this video and all the images in it were taken from a database I created.
Reflection:
⚫ Lots of claps, cheers, and tears after my teammates watched it.
⚫ Lots of people mentioned that this video inspired them to continue working hard and helped reduce their burnout.