Production
Game development is always a game of compromises and prioritization where we look to make educated choices to find the best outcome either through Production or Design. Processes are meant to serve a vision of product and design outcomes which makes them closely intertwined. This is why it has always been tough for me to disassociate the two.
In my production carreer I am always to looking to find best processes for the right product. The true agile mindset is learning to always be able to adapt when needed. I have worked from SCRUM to WATERFALL processes and all are valid processes in the right situations.
Having this mindset of always looking to understand the game and the product has helped me thrive in my production roles throughout my career
Riot Games | WILD RIFT | Oct 2019 – current
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Identify product gaps and opportunity spaces for core gameplay by looking at player data and sentiment, playing the game, and comparing against competitors
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Propose and implement ways to adapt the creative vision and team processes to improve the product without causing friction for developers and players.
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Improving work/life balance culture through setting more precise development standards, stating clear commitments and accountabilities, and establishing working agreements for developers
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Rebuilt our initiative by setting new structures, rituals and teams with a focus on product needs and prioritization including 20 new members that we needed to absorb
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Present Bi-weekly updates of team’s progress to stakeholders across multiple studios, using data to showcase the current standings of the team towards release readiness and overview risks and mitigations.
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Proposed and got approval from leadership for new milestones, backlog grooming and rituals processes to stabilize burnout and missed deadlines
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Publishing asked our team to double our scope for one release cycle. To meet their requirements I provided proposals through new release dates, lower scope on future cycles or adding new resourcing from other teams.
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Coordinate across riot and partner company teams to validate our backlog and timelines to hit Alpha and Beta release
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Pioneering a new process that builds features synchronously across all platforms rather than porting from one platform to another
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Established and built relationships between Riot and multiple external partner studios to ensure clear product objects are hit and align on delivery goals.
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Work with UX and UI designers to create definitions of done for Meta Game features, and ensure their designs accomplish product objects and are within scope for engineering implementation.
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Improved designer workflows and review processes to increase benefits of agile iteration loops and create shorter lead times to getting the feature in engine.
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After joining project, utilized data compilation of past deliveries to uncover that team was widely off track for hitting upcoming releases. Built a new dev process optimized for co-development to be able to hit our milestones with confidence
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Built trust between Riot and our co-development partner studios by having more personalized interaction and learning about their perspective and approach to game development and adjusting systems to fit both our studio’s need
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Lead four teams in the around game space, prioritizing work, directing, and organizing craft polish and feedback, running team rituals, facilitating design proposal, and directing decisions based on the vision of the product.
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Identified a missing process around pitching new gameplay features. Crafted this new process to allow all members from both studios to participate and have input on the value of the pitched features.
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Riot Games | LORE IP | Feb2019 – Oct 2019
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Managed content pipelines and inter-team dependencies for stories, comics, and champion bio on a weekly release cadence. Coordinated with localization and regional teams to launch content across 21 different languages.
Quantum Giant| Unannounced Project | May 2018 – Dec 2018
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Developed and pitched two successfully funded game prototypes, one mobile and one AAA.
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Coordinated programmers work to develop new features through implementation of adjusted Scrum methodologies.
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Delivered an approved prototype for external publisher as the sole producer and designer by solidifying a clear vision to help prioritize feature development then set delivery process, roadmap and day to day rituals.
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Collaborated with Executive Producer of studio to solidified product vision then utilized the vision to prioritize feature development.
EA Games | NBA LIVE Mobile | Dec 2017 – May 2018
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Owned and implemented new live content daily which includes creating and balancing events, collectibles, and rewards based on game economics.
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Pitched and developed mission campaigns mechanics and narrative tie ins which were themed after real world events including the Road to Playoffs and All-Star.
Iron Galaxy | Extinction | Aug 2017 – Dec 2017
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Organized, planned, and executed a 35 person playtest then analyzed the
data and created presentation to demonstrated critical points for iteration
to leads.
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Revised procedure and executed multiple playtests to get more accurate and reliable information from the target audience about gameplay mechanics and level design. Used data to inform iteration.
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Reorganized skills to follow an unlocking tree system then scheduled and
scoped and scheduled the execution of the new system with programmers and artists.
Project Polish | Hollowed | Dec 2016 – Oct 2017
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Aided in the creation and execution of bi-monthly status update presentation, fielded feedback and questions from professors.
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Cooperated with artists to revise art pieces in order to better fit the needs of gameplay and visual acuity of the levels.
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Created a design process during pre-production that developed coherent gameplay elements using input from all designers.
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Established inter- and intra- communication pipelines to lessen in-house work hours and expedite feedback based iteration
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Monitored task assignment and completion rates to inform task assignments based upon optimal work flow and individuals interest.
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Reviewed weekly bug data with programming team in order to reduce iteration time for new mechanics, levels, and features.
