Dorian ALEXANDRE Junior Game Producer
PRODUCER - 2024
3 Weeks | Team of 9
GAME INFORMATIONS
GENRE Rogue Lite
​
PLAYER Solo
​
CAMERA Third Person | Side Scroller
​
PLATFORMS PC
​
TARGET Saint Seiya Fan | Rogue Players
​
BUSINESS MODEL Premium
KEY FEATURES
BECOME A ZODIAC KNIGHT
Progress through the game by earning armor and divine favor, becoming a Gold Knight to protect Athena.
​
EXPLORE THE SANCTUARY
Navigate the 12 Zodiac Temples, uncover rare items, and interact with quirky shopkeepers while switching characters.
​
FIGHT AS TWO
Master combat by defeating enemies and bosses, using supers, and perfecting your attacks and defense. Switch between your two characters to make it easier.
GAMEPLAY VIDEO
MY PROJECT'S ROLE
-
Led the team through every phases of production.​
​​
-
Created and managed detailed project planning.
​
-
Implemented an agile workflow using Jira.
​
-
Assisted with design tasks to support team needs.
MACRO PLANNING
This Project as during 3 weeks in total, the production phases are splited by considering this short time​
MAIN CHALLENGES
During this project, we faced two main challenges.
​
The first challenge came from the art team's specialization: half of the team specialized in 2D arts. However, one of our main constraints was that the game had to be a 3D game.​​
The second challenge was the complexity of the combat system. We initially analyzed it incorrectly, particularly from the perspective of the technical designer.
TEAM LED PROJECT
As I mention above in the main challenges we encounter. Our artistic team was composed of two 2D artists and the subject mention that the game must be in 3D.
How did we adjust our scope to respect initial constraints and them due to the team composition ?
Due to our team's domain affinities, we had to shift the balance of the "golden triangle" to adapt the process and project to the people involved. While this wasn’t a major change during production, it made us realize what we could and couldn’t accomplish.
Initially, our idea was to use animated sprites in a 3D scene for the characters. However, one of the biggest expectations from our customer (our teacher) was the creation of fully 3D characters.
​
Unfortunately, no one on the team enjoyed doing this kind of work.
We found a controversial solution: leveraging the Saint Seiya universe to contextualize simple characters who could wear armor.
​
Even though the character design was simplified, the team member tasked with it took away two things from the experience:
​
-
Being unproductive due to the steep learning curve.
-
Having a negative experience doing something they didn’t enjoy.
​​
I learned that people are influenced by the project and process more than I initially thought. Even though we adapted the task to make it as simple as possible to achieve a great result, I sacrificed one of my teammates' morale and productivity in the process.
In hindsight, this was a poor decision, as the process impacted him much more than expected.
PRODUCTION DETAILS
This project was one of the shortest I’ve worked on, producing a vertical slice in just 3 weeks required us to be highly efficient and organized.
​
We began by brainstorming and cataloging all ideas in Jira Product Discovery . This allowed us to assess their impact on specific objectives and discuss the effort required to achieve them.
Objective Why we have this idea ?
Value What this idea bring to the user ?
Impact How much the idea enhance the objective ?
Effort How much resources we need to produce it ?
Confident How much are we confident to produce this idea in time ?
IMAPCT
EFFORT
After assigning values to each idea, the next step was to evaluate whether an idea was worth pursuing by comparing its impact and effort.
For example, an idea with high impact and low effort is very appealing, while one with low impact and high effort is best avoided.
Once the ideas were validated by the team, I consulted with the assigned "Creative Director" to align on the project's vision.
Some of these stories had constraints, such as texture size or general quality standards, which we incorporated during discussions or other meetings.
IDEAS TO PLANNING
Each idea was then converted into a story, consisting of several tasks. It’s great to have ideas, but they’re only valuable during the Concept and potentially Pre-Production phases; they need to be translated into actionable tasks & stories.
After laying out the overall concept of the project, it was crucial to plan all Epics, Stories and Tasks according to our tight deadline.
​
We divided our time into 3 sprints:
SPRINT VISION
In a real production, sprints are typically based on an iterative process. However, due to the short duration of this project, the iteration process was less effective. We adjusted our vision for each sprint based on the outcomes of the previous ones, though the data remained somewhat unstable.
Each sprint started with a general meeting, where I prepared the tasks required to complete production on time.
During these meetings, team members would estimate their stories using "sprint points."
This allowed me to calculate the team's velocity, measuring how much was accomplished by the end of each sprint.
During the retrospective meetings, everyone showcased their work from the week, allowing team members to freely share their opinions and advice.
​
Jira automatically generated a velocity report based on the team's estimations and actual work completed.
To conclude, here is the cumulative flow diagram showing how the team progressed throughout the project.
​
Some tasks remained open due to the final push as we approached the deadline. Typically, 2 or 3 days before the final jury presentation, team members stopped updating their work in the system.
​
In this final phase, I had less work to do, so I used my time to help my peers with their tasks or conduct quick reviews.
GAME ARTISTS
Anna DUBREUIL Artstation
Envrionment Artist | Level Art
Juliette HENRY Artstation
VFX Artist | Environment Art | Level Art
Alexandre TORKMANI Artstation
Character Art | Concept Art
Camille DURAFFOURG Artstation
Concept Art | UI Art