Embedded Files
Lead Designer / Producer
Dragons & Debt is a 2-4 player party game where friends gather around one screen and battle it out in a fantasy world, collecting coins to give to the Dragon Lord, who has a monopoly on the realm. Navigate a treacherous arena, jumping, dashing and using magic cards, to avoid hazards as you collect coins and try to reach the balcony and deposit them to the Dragon Bank. Do all this whilst competing against your friends, racing to collect more coins than them and avoiding their advances to stop you!
Role
Project Lead
Game Design Lead
Producer
Platform
PC
Engine
Unity 6
Team Size
20+
Project
Length
8 Weeks
The game was a project created for a second year (Level 5) Module at The University of Staffordshire.
Contributions
Project Lead
Stepped into leadership role as a second year, a role reserved for final years, due to a lack of balanced roles in the team.
Maintained a clear vision for the game from concept to delivery.
Facilitated communication across all disciplines to keep the team aligned.
Made critical decisions under pressure, including adapting scope and workflows.
Took initiative to fill gaps where team members became inactive.
Liaised with the lecturers, who acted as shareholders and mentors, to pass on information and keep them updated with the project.
Design Lead
Designed the core game loop.
Created Readable design documentation to communicate vision to all departments.
Reworked the ability card system and UI based on player feedback.
Created concise research presentations into specific party game elements the team were having issues with the inform our decisions.
Maintained consistency in player experience despite shifting team contributions due to an agile workflow
Prioritised accessible, replayable gameplay suited to casual 2-4 player sessions.
Learned the Unity Engine within the timeframe of the project to assist with any technical tasks and to fix final problems that arose from tech team being absent towards the end of production.
Producer
Scheduled meetings, tracked tasks, and managed team workflow across 8 weekly sprints.
Made use of a Kanban workflow to clearly visualise and delegate tasks to the team.
Managed weekly QA testing sessions, creating forms and collating the data into actionable tasks.
Created and maintained clear documentation and timelines to guide development.
Adapted project scope based on team capacity and evolving challenges.
Acted as primary problem solver when team has issues or questions about elements of the project.
Managed multiple weekly work sessions to facilitate communication between the team and to keep a consistent workflow and morale for the project.
Examined when tasks were not completed in time, figuring out why and what needed changing, adapting to solve the problems and meet deadlines.
Game Design Document
DnD GDD.pdfWhat I learned from the experience
The basics of the Unity Engine and how skills can adapt between engines.
Leading a project means constantly adapting, motivating others, and stepping in when things are falling behind.
Planning isn't enough without following through, even well scoped tasks need constant attention and reinforcement to stay on track.
I can't do everything alone, however, being available to pick up on tasks that require extra attention can be vital to staying on track.
Balancing multiple roles requires setting clear priorities, I often had to sacrifice design involvement to focus on managing the wider project, delegating tasks became vital
Ensuring the right tools are being used, as the choice of the Unity Engine despite a large amount of the team preferring Unreal Engine created a significant barrier that affected morale and output.
Reinforced my confidence in how quickly I can adapt to new tools and workflows, learning the Unity Engine, Production tasks, and leadership roles all for the first time, either ever or on a scale of this size.
Team dynamics are as vital as technical skills, the importance of motivation, communication, and accountability are crucial in collaborative success.
A Designers instincts are vital in realising a games vision, where tech team would work on something not fully realised by design, it would need many tweaks from myself to get a higher level of game feel and polish.
Clear documentation is very powerful, having shared access to key documents visible for the whole team helped the whole team stay engaged and understand the state of the project at any give moment.
Frustration is common, but learning to manage that feeling to fuel the work instead of letting it set the project back is key to pushing the work forward.
Gallery
Meet the Team!
Leads
William Spencer – Game Design Lead / Producer
Grace Lee – Concept Art Lead
Oli King – 3D Art Lead
Rowan Simpson – Animation Lead
Aydin Evlat – Tech Lead
Design
Charlie Birchall
Gideon Doe Bokomi
Matthew Hill
Alfie Cordon
Vice Blundell
Concept Art
Rafal Blama
Anna Fellows
Rhoda Plange
Lauren Williams
Yu Hao Qiu
E Mitchell
3D Art
Tomiwa Olukotun
Tommy Doherty
Zenith Winterbottom
Jakub Kluz
Maja Salwa
Animation
Dylan Graham
Tech
Ryan Heneghan
Steven Philips
Oliver Craig
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