Team: Crosshair Studios | Duration: 3-Month Project (Currently in Development)
Genre: Horror Puzzle
My Role: Producer
Pitch & Scope Analysis: Provided critical feedback on the initial pitch, guiding the team away from high-risk procedural generation towards a more achievable hand-crafted level design. Specifically advised on scoping the complex 'heatmap' AI to a core search-chase-attack loop for the initial demo, ensuring a solid foundation. This resulted in a stronger, more feasible project vision.
Agile Process Management: Facilitate sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives using Jira. Configured and maintain the team's project board, workflows, and reporting.
Data-Driven Monitoring: Utilize Jira's reporting suite to track team velocity, identify bottlenecks, and forecast sprint completion, enabling proactive problem-solving.
Team Mentorship: Act as a bridge between the student team and faculty, removing impediments and ensuring a clear path forward for development.
Production & Project Health
The following metrics provide a snapshot of the project's health and the team's workflow during active development
Sprint Burndown:
This chart tracks the completion of work within a sprint. The team started strongly but encountered a mid-sprint impediment (visible as the plateau), which was identified and addressed. The subsequent downward trend shows a successful recovery and a return to a sustainable pace, forecasting an on-time completion.
This chart tracks the completion of work within a sprint. The team started strongly but encountered a mid-sprint impediment (visible as the plateau), which was identified and addressed. The subsequent downward trend shows a successful recovery and a return to a sustainable pace, forecasting an on-time completion.
Team Velocity:
Tracking the amount of work completed each sprint is crucial for forecasting. This chart shows the team's historical velocity, which is used to make accurate commitments in future sprint planning sessions, ensuring sustainable pacing and reducing crunch.
Tracking the amount of work completed each sprint is crucial for forecasting. This chart shows the team's historical velocity, which is used to make accurate commitments in future sprint planning sessions, ensuring sustainable pacing and reducing crunch.
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:
A key production challenge involved managing the scope of the enemy AI. The initial design included a complex 'heatmap' learning system. Through ongoing review, the focus for the demo was successfully directed towards perfecting the core behaviors of searching, chasing, and attacking to ensure a polished and terrifying player experience first.
A key production challenge involved managing the scope of the enemy AI. The initial design included a complex 'heatmap' learning system. Through ongoing review, the focus for the demo was successfully directed towards perfecting the core behaviors of searching, chasing, and attacking to ensure a polished and terrifying player experience first.
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.
