Gathering Gold

Role: Game Designer, Artist, Project Manager
1 Week
Team of 6

In this project I coordinated a large multidisciplinary team remotely on a tight schedule as well as facilitate online meetings for creative problem solving.

Project Summary

Gathering Gold is a multiplayer couch co-op game inspired by the prompt “Greed as spoken of in the Bible.”Players take on the role of goblins living beneath a dragon’s cave, working together to steal as much treasure as possible before escaping via minecart.

Each player controls a character of a different height, creating asymmetric gameplay where both players are essential to solving puzzles. This design choice emphasizes cooperation and ensures that each player has a distinct role and experience.

Design Constraints

Strong emphasis on level design over mechanics
Strict time limitations
Development challenges due to half the team being sick

This project highlights my ability to:

Manage a large team remotely under difficult circumstances
Coordinate across multiple disciplines (design, art, programming)
Design cooperative mechanics that emphasize player interdependence
Adapt scope and production plans when unexpected challenges arise

Kanban Workflow for Rapid Production

Given the tight schedule and the team’s ability to fill multiple roles, we used a Kanban workflow to maximize flexibility and efficiency. Tasks were organized visually, allowing team members to immediately pull new work as soon as they completed their previous tasks.

Kanban was especially effective because it:

Minimized downtime during development
Allowed parallel progress across disciplines
Adapted well to unexpected team availability challenges
Supported rapid iteration without rigid sprint constraints

This workflow enabled the team to remain productive and responsive despite time pressure and limited development days.