Prey: Typhon Hunter
Platforms: PC, PS4, XB1 · Engine: Unreal · Team size: 10 · Timetable: 5 Months
Nerve worked with Arkane Studios to bring Prey into the Unreal Engine to create a multiplayer prop hunt and VR escape room DLC. In the multiplayer mode, players played as either a mimic, hiding as objects in the level, or Morgan, tasked with finding and killing all of the mimics. Additionally, there were three VR escape rooms to expound on backstory and give players a deeper look into the world of Prey.
I joined the project about halfway through as an associate producer and junior programmer. As a producer, I was able to contribute immediately by helping the team better understand the magnitude of feature asks from the client. I worked through estimates with the team and got an understanding of how long we thought the work was going to take. Additionally, I introduced some basic scrum elements to the team like daily stand-ups and working in sprints that helped us be more productive as the project moved on. As a programmer, I owned a large part of the mimic’s leap attack, working on generating a spline to show the player where they were going to leap and if it would be successful or not. I also worked closely with an animator on the death sequence between the mimic and Morgan. Lastly, I collaborated with artists to reuse the theater scene to show the credits in both VR and non-VR.
Contributions and Tools
Role: Associate Producer, Junior Programmer
My Contributions:
Negotiated with clients to work in sprints
Started daily stand-up meetings
Created a feature backlog
Collected estimates from team on backlog items
Used estimates to predict delivery dates
Implemented trophies/achievements
Owned and drove the mimic’s leap ability and kill sequence
Collaborated with artists to level-up effects
Worked with artists on implementing animations and credits
Tools I Used Daily:
Documentation and Downloads
Images
Risk Assessment/Management
Assessment: Leads and team need status of project
Management: improve team communication on status
Method: Start doing a daily stand-up to inform leads and team members of project status
At the beginning of the project, the production team got their status information by stopping by each developer and checking in with them. This method left some holes in understanding for the status of the project. In addition, the team wasn’t familiar with what other team members were working on. We started stand-ups as a way to make sure everyone knew the status of the game every day. They became fundamental for the team, and problems stemming from lack of knowledge of status were reduced significantly.
Assessment: work is too much for time ALLOTTED
Management: Quantify this and discuss solutions
Method: Estimate remaining features, compare against time remaining, manage expectations with client
Towards the end of the project, it became obvious that the work remaining was not going to fit into the time allotted. To mitigate this, I created a backlog of remaining work with the team and collected estimates from them. Assigning resources to the work, and seeing how long the work would take, validated my assessment, and we took this information to the client to discuss potential solutions and manage expectations with the client. This wasn’t resolved in the way I would have chosen, but we continued to work hard and ultimately finished our work on the game.
Assessment: Mimics need a way to interact with Morgan
Management: own interaction implementation
Method: Brainstorm ideas with the team about interaction and implement collaboratively with artists
Morgan was always able to interact with mimics through shooting and attacking with his wrench. The client identified that the mimics needed a more consistent way to interact with Morgan. We brainstormed ideas and decided that a deterministic leap attack would be the best option and that there would be a death sequence with both players after the attack. I worked on making the attack always leap towards Morgan’s head and communicating to the player whether or not it would actually hit before pressing the button. I added conveyance to the attack in the form of iconography and a colored spline mesh with the help of our artists.
Assessment: Amount of work is overwhelming
Management: Reduce focus on Feature list & milestones
Method: break work up into sprints, tackle smaller Chunks of work at a time, better understand status
In later milestones, the team was focused on the mountain of work in front of them and was overwhelmed and distracted by it. In order to divert focus to more achievable chunks of work, I pushed for us to communicate with the client about potentially working in sprints. We had created a backlog and putting that into sprints with our current velocity would better inform us about what was possible in the time remaining. In our discussions, the clients agreed with our suggestion, and we moved to sprints going forward. This solved the issue of having the overwhelming amount of work distracting the team, but caused other issues with how much work should be included in each sprint.
Quotes
“Justin was hired mid-project when we were really in need. He was able to provide an immediate impact coordinating new key feature requests and assisting with stakeholder communication. He was also capable with hands-on development when our team was stretched thin. Justin would be a valuable asset on any project.”
“When Justin joined the Typhon Hunter project, we didn’t really have much intrateam communication. He pushed us to start doing daily stand-ups which kept everyone much more informed about what the rest of the team was doing.”