PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

iD Tech UW Bothell

~~Camp Director~~

May 2018 - Agust 2018

Staff Size: 5

Camp Capacity: 35

Daytime Camp

Over the summer of 2018, I was the director for iD Tech at UW Bothell. I managed 4 counselors and oversaw the weekly education of up to 35 campers at a time.

Each week the camp held 4 classes that ranged from 3 - 10 students per class. The camp ran on a daily schedule that helped facilitate an equal balance of learning and fun. At the beginning of the week, I would post a schedule that informed what positions my staff would take throughout the week along with their classes. This included leading activities for different age groups during our breaks and walking the campers to and from the drop-off/pick up zone in the morning and evening.

We had check-ins daily where each counselor would give a status report about their class and campers. This was the time for them to express any concerns they had about the lesson material or campers so that either I or another counselor could give feedback or assistance. This check-in ensured that everyone always had up to date information about each of the classes running during the week.

One of my other duties throughout camp was managing the medical needs of the campers. Tree nut allergies were very prevalent throughout the summer, so I organized accommodations for those students affected both in the lunchroom and in the labs. Our top priority was the safety and comfort of our campers, so the lab was a nut-free zone and any campers who brought nuts from home for lunch were sat away from campers with allergies as well as instructed to wash their hands thoroughly right after eating. There were also daily medications to administer at different times of the day, which I utilized a digital schedule to keep up with.

Towards the end of the week, I always started looking to the next week. As our classes and campers always changed, I was to figure out the best layout for the lab to fit all the classes, as well as make sure all the needed software or hardware was ready to go at that station. By the time Friday rolled around and all the campers left, it was time to transition the lab to be ready for Monday. My pre-planning during the week was designed to make this as smooth as possible.

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ACADEMIC TEAM PROJECTS

Takowana County

~~Role: Producer & Narrative Designer~~

May 2017 - April 2018

Unreal Engine 4

Team Size: 13

Source Control: Perforce

Task Tracking: Excel, Scrum Board

Takowana County is a 3D horror mystery game where the player takes on the role of a journalist who is trapped on a remote island off the coast of Virginia with a strange creature pursuing them.

Takowana County was a multi-disciplinary team of 13 students including:

5 artists
4 programmers
3 designers
1 musician

Communication between the teams was key, as well as the individual status of each member of the team. Each week I held a full team meeting, a content meeting (consisting of the artists, musician, and content designers), a tech meeting (consisting of the programmers, technical artists, and systems designers), and one-on-one meetings with each member of the team.

The larger meetings were helpful for the team to keep aligned with other disciplines as we worked towards the next milestone. The presence of at least one artist in the technical meeting ensured that art had a connection outside of myself to know how tech was progressing. In the same vein, having designers in both meetings meant that they had an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of the game. Our designers and programmers worked very closely throughout the project, so tech always had a good handle on where the artists were at.

For the one-on-one meetings, each week I would sit down with every member of the team for at least 5 minutes. I always had a small agenda, like how they were doing on their tasks, their classes, if they were blocked by anything at the moment, but once those were addressed, we were free to discuss anything that the team member needed. Often that would be the end of it, but many times this was the perfect time for my team to voice their concerns or complaints about the game, other team members, or school in general. This formed a great bond of trust between myself and the team and allowed me to keep stock of the moral and status of each person, which in turn helped in the delegation of tasks.

I also handled the team's task tracking. Most of the team worked best with a physical tracker, so we used a scrum board with color-coded sticky notes that showed the status of our tasks. I also kept a digital version of all our tasks up to date on an Excel form. We kept all the completed tasks from the scrum board in a small box that we would go back through at the end of a milestone. The visual representation, outside of the game itself, was a great morale boost for the team.

One of our goals as a team was being comfortable around each other and becoming genuine friends, so I organized a few events outside of working on the game to help foster this environment. When we realized almost all team members either had a Switch or 3DS, we hosted a Nintendo night to hand out and play games together. During the winter holidays, I organized a Secret Santa within the team. This included a reference sheet where team members included a small list of their interests to help people who might struggle with what to get their Secret Santa pick. After our milestone presentations, we always went out to a restaurant to eat a meal together. These events helped relieve the stress of the constant grind of school as well as form bonds between the team members.

Website

Bolt Blitz

~~Role: Producer & UI Designer~~

September 2016 - April 2017

Unity 3D

Team Size: 4

Source Control: GitHub

Task Tracking: Trello, Scrum Board

Bolt Blitz is a 2D timed brawler where two players go head to head pitting teams of three tiny robots called Bolts against each other in a fast-paced fight to the last man standing.

Bolt Blitz was a small team of 4 designers. The game was a passion project for the lead designer and went through many iterations before we finally found the fun for our game. Going into the project we all agreed that this would not be a big project. I was the only junior on the team, with the other three designers working towards finishing their degree. In the face of their senior year, we decided to make Bolt Blitz a small and reasonably scoped project.

Each week we did 1 full team meeting, then we also met up at least twice outside of designated class time to work on the game as a team. These structured work times ensured that we stayed on the same page while moving forward with the game as well as giving the team a time to voice their concerns with the project or their other classes. This constant stream of communication kept our small team working in sync and able to step in and assist any other member if their other classes were getting too intrusive.

For task tracking, we used a physical scrum board as well as Trello. I managed both tracking methods to ensure they each accurately reflected the status of the project and made it easier for the team to use. Having both the physical and digital representation of our tasks was useful for keeping a log of all the work we did on the project while still being able to physically see what we had to do each week on the board.

HUM

~~Role: Producer & Visual Lead~~

January 2016 - April 2016

Unity 3D

Team Size: 5

Source Control: SourceTree

Task Tracking: Trello, Scrum Board

HUM is a 2D exploration and audio sensation game where the player plays as a lonely hum, the last sound in a cold universe who is trying to revitalize the world by bringing the elemental musical titans back to life. Along the way the hum is joined by three companions, one for each dormant titan, to help bring life back to the world.

HUM was our first taste of a real development cycle, so there was a lot of learning while doing. Each week I held 1 team meeting, 1 visual meeting, and 1 tech meeting. Alongside the meetings, we had multiple team work sessions per week for the 5 of us to sit together and work side-by-side. These work sessions were useful in many ways, but one of the biggest benefits was that it allowed the team to all learn Unity together as this was the first time most of us had worked in the engine.

We used Trello and a physical scrum board to track our tasks through development. I monitored each form to make sure they both presented the most up to date status for each task and team member. On the team, half of the members only thought the physical board was useful and never looked at the digital format and vice versa, so keeping both up to date was necessary to ensure the team had all the information they needed on their own tasks as well as the status of the rest of the team,

We also employed the use of personal whiteboards/corkboards. Each member had a small portable board that was a whiteboard on one side and a corkboard on the other. These were used to display the status of tasks as they were being worked on, as well as a way to leave notes or tasks with other team members if they were not at their desk. They were a great way to personalize workflows that also provided space for an easy whiteboard design brainstorm when needed.

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