Designed and Animated Player Menus, Tool Tips, and level transitions

1. Have a clear Vision to gain Early Buy-in: Unlike class projects where teams are pre-assembled, Encore was a personal project my co-lead and I developed and pitched to my school's video game development. It was imperative that the project had a strong vision and unique style that would attract potential recruits. My co-lead and I spent several meetings developing our pitch along with some promotional art, eventually pitching to an audience of over 30 members. As a result we were able to garner 10 new members at the start from a wide variety of disciplines, creating a well-balanced and committed team.​
    

2. Delegation is Important: Encore is the biggest project I have led with 15 total developers including 5 artists, 5 programmers, 3 audio designers, a level/puzzle designer, and myself as the lead producer. I knew that it would be difficult to keep track of every member's tasks along with completing my own tasks as the UX/UI lead which meant I had to delegate responsibility to sub leads. Having a sub-lead for each discipline that could review deliverables, check-in on their sub team and report to me with updates made it easier to focus on the big-picture and ensure the project as a whole was heading in the right direction.
    

3. Establish Clear Communication Pipelines: During the development period there were some miscommunications regarding level scaling as well as enemy design. Artists were not drawing at a consistent scale in regards to the player and programmers were not aware of an extra enemy type that was pivotal to the level design. To resolve these issues, I worked with the art lead to develop a style guide that the artist would need to follow and I worked with both the programming lead and level designer to clarify the new enemy type. Additionally, I made sure all docs regarding the game design were kept up to date with design changes communicated to the team.
    

4. Prepare for Changing Circumstances: During the year long development period there were major changes to member work capacity due to my school's academic schedule. Members were less available during the spring and fall semester but were more free during the summer period which meant I had to take into account the current dev period into sprint estimates. To help with project estimations I sent out google forms for my team to fill out before each semester change to get a clear understanding of everyone's availability, resulting in accurate task estimation.
    

5. Promote Team Building Activities: I believe team building is an important part of maintaining a team's health, reinvigorating project interest, and minimizing interpersonal conflicts. Throughout the development period I hosted in-person and online game nights as a way to celebrate successful sprints while also increasing team synergy.