rhysjcshaw
Don't Shoot the Messenger
Prototype Video Game
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Director/ Lead Developer
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October - December 2023
ABOUT
Don't Shoot the Messenger is a project which was conceived and developed over the course of three months in a simulated-studio environment.
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I pitched my game idea to the simulated-studio and became the lead developer for the project, directing the other members of my team to ensure a shared vision of the final vertical slice.
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It is an amateur small-scale RPG which focuses on dialogue to deal with encounters, using a DnD stat system and western-style dialogue system.
DEVELOPMENT
This project followed an agile SCRUM method where each week me and the rest of my team would present our progress in stand up discussions, decide on appropriate tasks for the week and then commit to weeklong development sprints with several remote meetings to check up on progress.
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Development was rocky for the duration of the project, with many mechanics and principles of the original idea being iterated on or scrapped. Frequent critical feedback from peers and tutors helped bring the project to a point where it resembled the majority of my original idea.
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The project was developed over 11 weeks.
Alongside project management and direction I developed small scripts, worked with animations and conducted QA for the project whilst also dealing with any left over tasks
SOFTWARE & SKILLS
This was the first project where I took on a leader role in a development context. Throughout the course of the project I managed time resource, allocated jobs and roles and provided direction.
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I found being a project lead to be the most challenging responsibility I took on whilst at University. I found it difficult to deal with weekly criticism and was prone to allowing louder voices in the team to disrupt my vision for the project. Fortunately this has made me aware of some of my own shortcomings, which I aim to improve upon during future opportunities.
I decided to use Unity to fit the team composition which consisted of a lot of strong programmers.
Jira was used as our primary management tool.
