Degree Objectives 2
- Alexander Villescas
- Feb 17, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 16, 2021
Develop analytical and management skills needed to successfully
complete game projects.
Situational Leadership Simulator (SLS)
This project, a text-based game, was created in my MS624 Managing People in a Technology Environment class taught by Dr. Bolman. I created this educational text-based game in Twine. This game was my second attempt at creating a game of this type, the first one failing due to me outscoping myself. SLS examines situational leadership, a style rooted in the relationship between a leader and those they lead, using a framework to analyze each worker to understand where they are and what they need. Additionally, it takes this style of leadership and combines it with the DISC personality inventory. The DISC types and their subtypes help with understanding the different types of workers and their strengths and weaknesses, as well as how best to communicate with them.
I wrote and researched every part of this game. I created a small GDD for it and a framework in Twine, and successfully executed my original vision with few changes. Additionally, I completed this project within the span of a week and a half. The project was praised by Dr. Bolman in his review of it and shared with the UAT leadership group.
I believe this project fulfills this degree requirement for two major reasons. One, it was successfully completed, executing on a concept and plan I developed in documentation ahead of time. I managed my own time, working on this project and other classwork successfully. This project required careful analysis of the topic and how to best apply it to a game format. it may be a small project, but it displays my skills in this area despite that.
You can find my game on itch.io.
If additional documentation is needed such as a GDD, I can furnish it. Below is my event map from Twine.
Warcraft Conquest: Shadow in the Sands & In Death's Shadow
Warcraft Conquest is a hobbyist project that I am a moderator and event coordinator for. It is a platform for World of Warcraft players to tell collaborative stories of war in a living world. We run large "campaign" events that are akin to a giant game of Dungeons & Dragons, involving hundreds of players and numerous guild organizations for a truly epic experience. Shadow in the Sands ran during February 2020, and In Death's Shadow ran during September 2020.
On these projects, I served in leadership and an administrative capacity. I was the lead writer on one and coordinated with members of numerous disciplines to prepare and execute a large-scale public event. This project was not the same as a traditional video game project, but it did touch on many of the same realities of development. Our team was multidisciplinary, consisting of character and story writers, camp staff, graphics artists, and game designers collaborating across numerous time zones with varying schedules. We dealt with questions of game balance and player agency within a story. It is because of this that I believe these are applicable to this objective- these are transferrable skills to an analog game project.
I believe my work on these two projects fulfills degree objectives because of the skills displayed on both of them and the fact that these projects were both successful. I have grouped these projects together for ease of reading, but each one was a separate undertaking. Analytical thinking was required to create a larger project vision and break it down into smaller pieces that could be tasked to individuals in a SCRUM-like fashion, even incorporating a miniature Sprint cycle. Afterwards, I created feedback surveys for participants and utilized analytical skills to create improvement reports. My management skills were put to the test in live environments as I led a team of 25 and co-led a team of about 50 across both successful projects. We had issues of staffing and scheduling to handle, vetted writers and staff members, interpersonal crises, and more to handle.
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