Catnip Kingpins
June 2023 – August 2023
- Jeremiah “Jed” Sink – Producer
- Hayden McManus – Environment Art
- Megan LaForce – Character Art/Weapon Art
- Bea Godeaux – Additional Environment Art
- Annie Granger – Concept Art/UI Art
- Brayden Riddell – Systems Design
- Brody Wenzel – Level Design/Product Owner
- Nate Spielman – Additional Design
- Josh Sobiech – Additional Design
- Aidyn Short – Programming
- Hannah Fasco – Programming
- Caleb Craig – Sound Designer
Catnip Kingpins is a prototype first-person shooter using 2D characters and weapons in a 3D space. The game is themed around cats in a brightened mafia/noir setting, making use of the theming in its visual and combat design. The player must traverse various “rooms”, pick up new weapons and stat boosts along the way, and fight new enemies as they progress.
Catnip Kingpins was developed in 8 weeks and is a prototype proof of concept in which the whole team ventured into new territory for its creation. The whole team had yet to build a 3D game, use Unreal Engine to develop a game, and use Jira for project management. The development was a thorough learning experience.
As a producer, I set up the Jira project, managed the product backlog, sprint backlogs, taskboards, project epics, the running of meetings, Scrum rituals, and team priorities. Through weekly retrospectives and an 8-week postmortem session, I resolved many communication issues, pivoted project values, and engaged in open dialogues about team success and project fulfillment.