Team: Crosshair Studios | Duration: 3-Month Project (Currently in Development)
Genre: Horror Puzzle
My Role: Producer
Pitch & Scope Analysis: Working with a two-person team, provided critical scope management advice to prevent over-commitment. Counseled a focus on excellent core combat over the simultaneous development of multiple high-risk systems like procedural generation and a deep loot system.
Agile Process Management: Facilitating a lean, efficient process tailored to a very small team, maximizing their productivity on a tightly defined goal.
Data-Driven Monitoring: Tracking the progress of a minimal set of A-features to ensure the small team can achieve a polished result.
Team Mentorship: Helping a duo of generalists define clear primary responsibilities to avoid parallel system development bottlenecks.
Production & Project Health
This two-person team is in the very early stages of their first sprint. The current data reflects the initial project setup, and my role is to guide them from planning to active execution.
Sprint Burndown:
The sprint burndown chart is currently flat, showing that the team has not yet logged work against their tasks. This is common at the very beginning of a sprint as the team is likely finalizing designs and beginning implementation. My focus is to ensure this line starts trending downward consistently
The sprint burndown chart is currently flat, showing that the team has not yet logged work against their tasks. This is common at the very beginning of a sprint as the team is likely finalizing designs and beginning implementation. My focus is to ensure this line starts trending downward consistently
Team Velocity:
The velocity chart shows a single data point from their previous sprint (v0.0.1). With only one sprint of historical data, the team's velocity is still being established. This underscores the importance of the current sprint for setting a realistic baseline for this small team's capacity.
The velocity chart shows a single data point from their previous sprint (v0.0.1). With only one sprint of historical data, the team's velocity is still being established. This underscores the importance of the current sprint for setting a realistic baseline for this small team's capacity.
Cumulative Flow:
This diagram provides a high-level view of the project's workflow health. The stable, parallel bands indicate a healthy process where tasks are moving consistently from "To Do" to "Done." A widening band would signal a bottleneck (e.g., too many tasks stuck in testing).
This diagram provides a high-level view of the project's workflow health. The stable, parallel bands indicate a healthy process where tasks are moving consistently from "To Do" to "Done." A widening band would signal a bottleneck (e.g., too many tasks stuck in testing).
Producer's Note on Scope:
My feedback for this team was centered on focus and sacrifice:
My feedback for this team was centered on focus and sacrifice:
-> Ruthless Prioritization: Recommended they build a small set of hand-crafted rooms instead of a procedural system, and focus on perfecting either melee or ranged combat, not both.
-> Simplifying Systems: Advised that their loot system for the demo should be drastically simplified (e.g., three weapon tiers that only affect damage) to avoid the balancing and UI complexity of a full Diablo-style system.
-> Achievable Quality: Stressed that with two developers, their success hinges on the feel of the core combat. All other features are secondary until that is perfect.
Supporting Documentation & Process
Jira Board: Active management of user stories, tasks, and bugs.
Jira Board: Active management of user stories, tasks, and bugs.
Confluence Space: Maintains Feature List, meeting notes, changelog, and feature lists, ensuring team alignment and knowledge retention.
