Manta Mayhem was the first multidisciplinary group project I worked on during my studies at Breda University of Applied Science. In this 8-week project, I took on the roles of both Producer and Level Designer, sharing responsibilities with a teammate.

I led the team from concept to release, navigating the challenges of creating a racing simulator inspired by drone racing, but set underwater. As a beginner in both design and production, this was an exciting and valuable learning experience. The levels needed to be spacious to create the feeling of flying like a drone, while also accommodating underwater mechanics, which placed significant demands on the project scope.

My primary responsibility was ensuring the project was deliverable with the available skills, resources, and timeline. This was a critical role, as it required balancing ambition with the practical limitations of the team and schedule. Early in the process, I realized how important it was to partner with a producer to ensure that both our tasks and the milestones were clearly defined and adaptable throughout the project.

Using an Agile project management approach, we broke the project into phases that allowed us to regularly reassess and refine the scope. This framework fostered open and frequent communication between the team members across various disciplines, all of whom were collaborating for the first time, including designers, programmers, and artists.