Tristan Brown

Overview

Dragon Kisser is a large-scale student team project aimed at producing a high quality vertical slice. Working alongside 30 collaborators across design, art, and engineering, the project pushed the team to operate with professional production standards.

My Role

I worked as a Lead Gameplay Programmer and Producer on the project. I contributed to everything from the core systems design and implementation to refining boss attack animations. I also met at least weekly with each discipline individually to go over their goals and discuss what they needed to consistently meet their deadlines.

What I Learned

I learned just how important it is to design and implement systems that can scale, how important it is to find the fun quickly, and the power of consistent playtesting. We conducted playtests every Friday for the second portion of development and I learned very quickly how useful it is to see how players are interacting with your systems. I also learned the importance of transparency and following up when working with a large team. A lot can be accomplished with a small team if they are given regular stretch goals, feedback, and praise when those stretch goals are met.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges we faced on the project is balancing the schedules of so many busy college students. At first the inconsistency was frustrating, but as time went on I have realized that this is actually a great opportunity for disciplines to blend and collaboration to strengthen even further. Programmers that have to spend a little time creating rough animations are able to communicate what they need more clearly and artists that have to spend time implementing their assets are much better at making assets that fit perfectly into the game's systems.