• Company/Studio: Drexel University
• Role: Product Manager
• Team Size: 18 people
• Timeframe: 3 Months
• Platform: Unity

The GDAP Studio is a game studio within the school that occasionally partners with a few clients within the college and in this instance of the program, there were two simultaneous projects.

The SCDI project is a training experience requested by the Student Center for Diversity & Inclusion at Drexel. They were looking to create an interactive training course which was focused on the routine and order of opening and closing the building. We were given creative freedom in the "microgames" that we designed to represent the different tasks, as long as they were all featured in the game.

The ELC project is a narrative-based puzzle-platformer requested by the English Language Center. The goal with this project was to provide a virtual tour that would guide an international student from their arrival at the Philadelphia International Airport, through the city transportation, all the way until they reached the check in for their dorm. The project was based off of an existing prototype the studio designed using a click and drag word mechanic where you could drag actions onto objects and characters to make that action happen.

• Led a team of 20 members to produce gameplay content for various clients.
• Coordinated development of two game projects simultaneously for different clients.
• Interfaced regularly with clients to ensure a streamlined and clear vision for products.

Notion - Google Suite - Discord - Outlook - Google Teams 

I joined the GDAP Studio 3 months into their 6 month production cycle and stepped in to assist in the production of two game projects for clients. During this time, I reorganized and managed the studios Notion and Discord for day to day project tracking and communication. I also helped run studio meetings and playtests as we navigated client timelines and deliverables. Additionally, I assisted in the communication with both clients to make sure we were on track to meet their requests and exceed their expectations. By the end of my time with the studio, we delivered two functioning prototypes that brought the vision from the clients to life. During this time, there were some notable challenges:

• For both projects, I stepped in as a Product Manager three months into the lifecycle of the project, which necessitated forming relationships with my team members quickly, and helping them shift their focus from game jam to actual production timelines.
• Much of my work was to organize interfacing with our clients to ensure that the products were on track for their vision. Because there had been issues with this prior to myself joining the team, I had to work quickly to get these meetings to get the team back on track to make sure the gameplay and narrative of the games did not deviate from the intended design.
• Clients often gave us a large amount of creative freedom, which resulted in having to manage scope and working with team members who wanted to balloon the project beyond the bounds of what we had the resources for. I helped ensure that the team remained focused and on track to meet deadlines and be able to turn in functional prototypes.