Kraven Manor
Unreal Development Kit
Windows PC

My Role as Art Producer

  • Developed art themes, direction and ASG documentation
  • Responsible for prioritizing asset requests, keeping art tasks within scope and schedule, and approving art content
  • Developed game audio, core gameplay, and puzzle content
  • Wrote game story and narrative text ("examines")
  • Developed 2D art content for user interface and decals
  • Ran Kleenex tests, Usability tests, and Playtests
  • Administered team Sprint Retrospectives and Sprint Planning

Reviews for Kraven Manor


Awards

   Intel University Games Showcase 2014
  • Best Gameplay
  • Best Visual Quality


About Kraven Manor

   Kraven Manor is a first-person survival horror game with elements of adventure, puzzle, and action gaming.  The unique mechanics of the game include a persistent bronze statue antagonist with creepy movement behavior and a scale model manor which the player can manipulate to adjust the layout of the environment he is exploring.  

Kraven Manor Trailer
Picture
Mini-Postmortem
on my role on 

Kraven Manor
What Went Well
  • High morale and productivity
A strong team with a remarkable work ethic can reinforce itself, and support each other even when things aren't going perfectly.  After POCG, our level designers were faced with playtest feedback and a redesign that could have derailed the project.  The fact that key team members stayed enthusiastic buoyed the whole team through inevitable speedbumps.
  • Well-balanced responsiveness to feedback
We received a lot of playtesting, which I analyzed and presented to the team.   One of our lasting successes was the team's response.  We were willing to do some significant redesign due to feedback at key points, yet held firm to other aspects of our vision when we felt it was important.    
  • Going public with playtests
Nearing our Beta milestone, we decided to begin testing our project on a wider audience than our immediate classmates and friends.  First, the game designer and I playtested at local gaming businesses.  The next week we put an updated playtest online, and advertised the test through social media. The Powerpoint presentation for our Beta playtest is here:
PictureKM Beta Playtest Report
The unexpected results of these public tests were significant. Beta testers from the "Let's Play" YouTube community blew up the popularity of Kraven Manor online.  To date, there have been more than a thousand Kraven Manor YouTube videos with a total of more than 3 million views.
  • "Art passes" on level design
We frequently asked our art team to give our game levels a visual pass, a practice that helped the style and consistency of the game atmosphere dramatically.
What Went Wrong
  • Misprioritization led to inefficiencies
During early development, several key members spent significant time hammering out agreement on thematic details such as the game story.  We believed it was important to know the plot and script for Kraven Manor so we could plan around those ideas.  We now believe the opposite to be the case.  The more playtesting that was done, we came to better understand the type and degree of narrative that would be possible within our scope.  The majority of that difficult, hard-fought early story work was lost.  I assessed and rewrote the final story and examines for the game.
  • Conflicts regarding asset modularity
Level designers were constantly desperate for art assets to help prove their areas as unique and valuable.  This pressure led us to call for extended modularity - smaller, more generic assets that designers could use in a multitude of ways (as opposed to, for example, a full-size bed).  There was some pushback from within the art team about control over the look and feel of the game (and the level designers' occasionally reckless use of assets).  In the end, some of these concerns were addressed by art passes, and a number of modular pieces were created. 
  • Under-planned, under-documented meetings
Our team was dedicated to trying to keep everyone informed, and giving everyone input in the decision-making process. On Kraven Manor, there were more than a few 'naturally forming' big meetings that went on too long and involved team members disinterested in the topic.  And still, a week after key decisions were made, sometimes there was still confusion as to our direction.  From this we learned the importance of planning, timeboxing and logging agreements. 
What I Learned, as Art Producer
  • Early development time spent beyond gameplay and theme is fragile
Elements of our game that were the most memorable came in the polish, as our groundwork became more solidified.  We had to get a 'feel' for Kraven Manor based on feedback and experience before we knew where our time would be best spent.  In order to be adaptable, our early work before Vertical Slice needed to be vulnerable to the axe.   We learned that a team's earliest efforts should focus on trying to determine the game's core: theme and gameplay.   The story, audio, user interface, and specific mechanics should be developed slowly, iteratively, and later, to reinforce the gameplay and theme, not vice versa.
  • Tap great game design ideas from everyone
When the team has buy-in, good ideas came from everywhere: our key 'model table' idea came from a programmer, our twist ending came from an artist, and our design meetings tended to include everyone who was interested (in other words, everyone). The main struggle was organizing and sifting through an embarrassment of riches. 
  • Playtest analysis is extremely efficient use of time for team focus
Once beta playtest data started coming in on its own, we found that our team direction, visibility and productivity increased.  This was partly due to the later stage of development, but also due to the knowledge that comes from playtests.  When our team had doubts or conflicts about a design decision, we could easily comb our playtests for applicable feedback, or simply add a question to the questionnaire. 
  • Getting new artwork in-game helps morale like nothing else
For the art team, seeing their new asset in-game makes their work seem valued.  For the designer and programmer, new assets help their work feel like more of a reality.  And for the entire team, new art assets help the game seem more 'whole', allowing them to visualize the final game that much more clearly.