Year 2 block C-D Project at BUas. Released on 19/06/2023
Talisman Artisan -
Available on itch.io
Project Brief Summary:
Genre: Tower defence game; Art Style: 2D pixel art; Game Engine: GameMaker 2; Team size: 6 devs
My Contribution:
As a producer, I was responsible for these things:
Project Aftermath:
We released on itch.io and got 170 downloads
On social media, we had over 20000 impressions. Our game and team were present on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, where I was actively posting every day.
I believe that working as a producer helped me grow professionally and I am now able to be better part of a team and I can understand better practices other producers use making it easier for them.
Team Management
Managing 6 people team was nice, because members most of the time know exactly what others are working on at all times which makes the communication much smoother and easier. This really helped with vision alignment. I made sure that everyone was on the same page by making regular check-ups and 1on1s with my team members to make sure noone gets disconnected
My goal was to create a safe environment for my team to work without any unnecessary pressure and distractions. I also tried minimizing the production overhead to a minimum, but we were required to use Jira, so it was sometimes difficult.
Jira Tasks Planned in the Backlog at the Start of Block D
Documentation
For our team, I prepared and updated these documents:
- High Level Planning (Excel)
- Risk Log (Excel)
- QA Test Plan (Miro Board)
- Game Scope Put in a Mind Map (Miro Board)
- Bug Template (Jira)
- Backlog (Jira)
I also had my internal documentation containing:
- Notes from 1on1 with my teammembers
- Personal Plan
All these documents are meant to help the team with productivity and progress. They are minimalistic because that’s what worked very well for our tiny team.
The Game’s Scope put into a Mind Map
The Risk Log Excel Sheet
SCRUM
Part of my responsibilities as a producer was to lead the SCRUM activities
- Stand up-s (Daily)
- Sprint Plannings (Beginning of the sprint)
- Sprint Retrospectives (End of the Sprints – A teacher would always guide the discussion)
- Build Reviews (Twice a week)
These SCRUM rituals were a time for the team to come together and first hand see what is happening. I would always try to make them as short as possible as most of my teammates did not want to spend a lot of times with these. Therefore I took the initiative and prepared for both Sprint Plannings and Build Reviews. That way those activities were faster and my team happier.
One of the Sprint Retrospectives After Picture
On Build Reviews we played the game and noted down bugs and issues
Marketing
Aside from production, I was doing marketing. As part of the marketing duties, I did:
- Create Posts on
- Twitter (Weekly)
- Instagram (Daily)
- TikTok (Daily)
- Analyze
- Reply to comments and chats
This role helped me grow in a different direction and understand how difficult it is to do marketing well. On every post that I would create, I gathered feedback from the team. And after releasing it, I would watch how it grew and analyzed it – however even with thorough analysis I would not be able to make posts that I could predict how well they will be received.
Talisman Artisan TikTok Account
Talisman Artisan Instagram Account
Presenting & Communicating
As a producer, I delivered biweekly presentations to the teachers, presenting our team’s progress. I would be part of producers’ meetings where we talked with other producers about our struggles and ideas regarding production.
The presentations answered following questions:
- How is the progress?
- What’s next?
- How have risks changed?
- Showcase of the build