Feels: Ups and Downs
Producer
6 Months
Scrum Master - Game Designer
11 person team
Summary
Feels: Ups & Downs is a city-building game inspired by emotional management, centered around the four emotions from Robert Plutchik’s wheel: Joy, Fear, Sadness, and Anger.
This ambitious project combined an innovative emotional theme with city-building mechanics, posing challenges in terms of cohesion and vision. As Producer, I coordinated production across multiple departments and oversaw overall project management.
Despite challenges such as constant vision shifts and team tensions, we achieved our goal of delivering a playable prototype.
Key Responsabilities
Production and Milestone Management
Established a detailed roadmap with clear milestones to track feature progression and team objectives.
Transition to Agile Methods
Shifted from Waterfall to Agile and Scrum, organizing weekly sprints, daily stand-ups, and regular reviews.
Crisis and Risk Management
Facilitated an environment where team members could contribute their ideas freely, balancing the vision of the project with creative input from all sides. I promoted collaboration and innovation to strengthen the game’s design and narrative elements.
Team Cohesion Enhancement
Implemented regular 1-on-1 meetings to monitor team morale and address individual challenges.
Resource Allocation and Task Management
Reassigned tasks to compensate for absenteeism, ensuring the project continued progressing.
Playtesting and Feedback Integration
Established a structured QA process to gather and integrate feedback, enhancing accessibility and gameplay quality.
Approach and process
As Producer, I structured the project around a roadmap with milestones approved by all stakeholders. Initially, we adopted a Waterfall methodology, but due to the rapidly evolving vision, we transitioned to Agile and Scrum for greater flexibility. I implemented weekly sprints and daily stand-ups to keep the team aligned amidst frequent changes.
The introduction of Hackn’Plan as our main tool allowed for advanced task tracking and clear documentation of ongoing adjustments. Each week, we integrated testing feedback through structured iterations that I documented and organized to guide our continuous improvements.
Mindset & values
Throughout the challenges faced, I focused on fostering a strong group energy and resilient mindset within the team.
With the game’s vision frequently shifting, it was essential to listen to each team member to maintain a sense of belonging and motivation. Regular 1-on-1 meetings allowed me to detect and address conflicts early on, reassigning tasks to support those most engaged.
One of the most important aspects was developing a culture of adaptability and transparency.
The team learned to move forward by uniting strengths to overcome obstacles, recognizing the value of a collaborative approach in achieving a shared goal.
Outcome
While Feels: Ups & Downs did not fully meet its initial goals, this experience served as an invaluable learning lab for managing complex, creative projects. I learned the importance of adaptability and communication as a Producer and strengthened my ability to support teams facing crises and evolving visions. The lessons learned from this experience solidified my resilience and prepared me to navigate ambitious projects with consistent team support and flexible goal management.
ROADMAP
Definition of vision and milestones, roadmap creation.
Initial Concept and Structuring
1
Resource reallocation, feedback integration, and morale management.
Crisis Management and Adjustments
3
Transition to Agile Methods
Shift to Scrum for more iterative development cycles.
2
Prototype Delivery and Final Presentation
Completion of playable prototype and preparation for presentation.
4
