Intro
Howard and Wispy is an action-adventure game following the endeavors of a young boy and his unlikely ghost companion. The game spans four levels with unique environments and incorporates story, puzzle, and combat elements. This project was my capstone project; I served as the project manager and lead programmer. Together with a team of around 15 people, we produced a vertical slice of a game.
Managing the team
We had a core group of six comprised of our team lead/head artist, two environment artists, a programmer/technical artist, a musician, and myself. Additionally, we relied on the assistance of voice actors, concept artists, a mentor, and an additional programmer. Working with such a large number of people was difficult. Ensuring the needs of each team member were met, everyone was proceeding at pace, and handling conflicts as they arose were just some of the challenges I faced while managing this team. I learned Just how vital communication is when achieving a vision, how to scale your planning to meet your needs, and how important organization is for the smooth operation of a large team.
Developing
This game challenged my skills as a developer and technical artist. However, as the lead, most of my work came in the form of fixing, modifying, and integrating existing code from myself and the other developers. I got very good at analyzing and working with an existing codebase during this period. Additionally, I was responsible for the version control for this project. Rectifying merge conflicts, accessing old versions to fix errors, and talking artists through pushing their project files were weekly responsibilities.