EPOCHRYPHA.

Epochrypha was my senior capstone project at SCAD, and one of my greatest learning experiences as a designer and manager. The project team numbered 21+ students, not including outside experts and contractors from other majors. Our goal was to create a co-op isometric time-based action title, where 3 players had to cooperate in carrying a relic to the end of each stage while fighting off hordes of enemies.

Position:

Project Lead

SCHOOL:

SCAD

Duration:

20 Weeks

Project link:

store.steampowered.com

PROJECT OVERVIEW:

Skills Used:

Systems and Mechanics Design
Concepting and Prototyping
Cross-Department Team Leadership
SCRUM Workflow Coordination
QA Testing and Playtest Analysis
Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Key Achievements:

Directed a 22-member team across programming, art, writing, and design, plus 5 external collaborators.
Coordinated 100+ player playtests at GDC and SCAD showcases, driving iterative gameplay refinements.
Showcased at 12+ conventions and tradeshows, generating 500+ sign-ups and over $9,000 in grants, awards, and merchandise sales.
Implemented Agile workflows with weekly standups and triage sessions, keeping the team aligned and reducing bottlenecks.
Led the design of core combat systems, enemy AI, and unique cooperative character mechanics.
Successfully launched Epochrypha on Steam, achieving strong peer and faculty recognition.
Learned key leadership lessons in team motivation, workload balance, and project sustainability through managing an ambitious production cycle.

Epochrypha was my senior capstone project at SCAD — a 20-week sprint to develop a cooperative isometric action game with a 22-member interdisciplinary team (plus additional collaboration from 5 students from other majors). I served as Project Lead and Lead Designer, overseeing production, design, and team management from concept to Steam launch.

As project lead, I implemented SCRUM methodologies using JIRA and Miro to track progress, paired with weekly standups and open triage sessions that enabled quick issue resolution and improved communication across departments. These workflows kept the team agile and aligned through a highly ambitious production cycle.

Additionaly, I was responsible for outreach and recruitment of outside experts from other majors, these responsibilities included scouting talent at SCAD Project Fairs, auditioning voice actors, and working with sound designers to create the score and SFX.

In my design role, I led the creation of core combat systems, cooperative character mechanics, and enemy AI behaviors, ensuring balanced gameplay through spreadsheet-driven data systems and extensive QA testing. Over the course of development, the team ran 100+ external playtests, including at GDC and SCAD showcases, generating actionable feedback that shaped the final release. I was responsible for concepting and designing the abilities of our three playable characters, as well as our three enemy types. As a co-op focused game, each character was designed to fill a role the team needed to find success in both combat and the completion of objectives. I used foundational shape language as a basis for their abilities and roles, and gave each character strengths and weaknesses that encouraged cooperative play and teamwork. Each character needed to feel unique, and were balanced with spreadsheets and tested against one another by myself and our QA department.

Epochrypha ran for 20-weeks of SCRUM development, and was not without its challenges and difficulties. Upon reflection, my biggest mistake as a lead was a failure to delegate certain major tasks properly. I had come to rely on a handful of team members for work-intensive, key tasks, and lacking proper support, we burnt out near 3/4 of our development time, which had rippling effects throughout the rest of our schedule that led to a 2 week crunch near the end of our development schedule. Epochrypha was an excellent learning experience for me as a manager and designer, and let me cut my teeth as a lead on a larger team.

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