Abhorrent Abyss

My Work:

Scrum Master
Project Manager
Level blockout and layout
Dialogue writing
VO (intro/outro voice, Boss 1, and Boss 3)
Record and edit trailers

Team:

Jay Godfrey, Hailee Robertson, Walter Street, Kylin Snowden, Charles Behrend, Michael Metoyer, Brandon Molea, Everett Stephens

Role: Project Lead

My role was to keep the team focused, and make sure that tasks were completed in a timely manner, even when I was not the Scrum Master during our sprints. I also attended every meeting with external talent, and I would present our game.

When we started a new sprint, I and the acting Scrum Master would list out what we needed to accomplish with the help of our team. One person at a time, the Scrum Master would get individual scopes from each person for what they think they could accomplish in the sprint, and they would also give us an estimate of hours that the task would take. I would facilitate the first meeting of each sprint, making sure that we scoped everything out properly so that we were not overburdened while also not making things too easy on ourselves. All of us had at least one other class, so I wanted to make sure everyone was able to get work done for all classes they were in.

During scrum meetings, once everyone had reported on their tasks and updated on their progress, I would check if anyone had any issues or development blocks that needed to be address. If bugs were found, I met with our programmer outside of the scrum meeting. If any meshes had issues in Unreal, or texturing issues, I would meet with our artists. If there were any snags that needed more time to fix, we would shift priorities until issues were fixed. Whether it was personal life matters or health emergencies, I would work with the Scrum Master to ensure that people were able to have their own personal lives outside of the class while also getting their work done for the project.

While working, part of my job for the class was to keep up with a daily blog. The blog is on the project's website, linked below. Some of our burndown charts are also below the trailer for our game.

Website:

https://jayhgodfrey.wixsite.com/teamhivemind

Burndown Charts

Sprint 1

Sprint 2

Sprint 3

Sprint 4

Sprint 5

Sprint 6

When our hours worked spread too far from the golden line in the middle, I would work with the scrum master to reallocate tasks so that we could continue working at a smooth and optimized pace. If people were waiting on one person to finish a task, I would work with them to assign them to other tasks so that they could continue to get work done, and other tasks could be completely while members finished crucial work. If we strayed below the line, I would not add tasks during the sprint, but I would ask that people take a look at existing assets that could be fine-tuned or improved. For example, if we needed some environment assets to be optimized of edited to better fit the aesthetic, I would assign that to someone who was running out of work to do. On a few occasions, I would jump into Autodesk Maya myself and work on the asset.

While my main goal for the class was to deliver a finished game that would earn us all an A and a solid portfolio piece, my goal as a product owner was to make sure my teammates were never forced to dedicate their entire lives to the project. I wanted the people I worked with to have a healthy work-life balance, and while that can be hard to achieve in college, we were able to all still have lives outside and separate from the project.