Cozy Chessu is a 3D chess and deck-building game where players follow the story of Ryo and an Izakaya that he once called home. Seeking help from an old childhood friend, players must learn to master chess and cards to take down a group of greedy yakuza.
My Roles: Lead Producer, 2D Game Artist
Cozy Chessu is available to wishlist on Steam:
Lead Producer
My key role on Cozy Chessu was as a lead producer, overseeing the project's progress and team members. I organized schedules, wrote tasks, documented each phase of production, and maintained clear lines of communication between departments. A few key moments in the position included: establishing organized workflows for cross-departmental features and assets, resolving and clarifying creative direction, and introducing a remote-friendly team stand-up process for check-ins.
Cross-Departmental Workflows
Different parts of Cozy Chessu's features involved heavy cross-department collaboration. When working with multiple team members on a feature, each playing a different role in the pipeline, it can be easy to loose sight of who own's what step and which step we are on. Below, I highlighted the pipeline I set up for our cards, a unique feature to the game where players use cards to play chess.
First, I outlined the steps to designing, illustrating, and creating the cards. Each step outlines the phases the team should expect when developing the cards from start to finish.
I also noted the core members involved, so work and communication could be passed seamlessly.
Next, I created a spreadsheet that contained all the necessary information about each card (Name, Card Art, In-Game Descriptions, Technical Design, VFX, and Audio Directions). This spreadsheet became our core document to access the most up-to-date information about the cards. Any questions could be answered with the spreadsheet.
Finally, I created a Master Forum on Discord to keep communication organized. Any questions, work, and discussion about a card were contained in its own little forum post and chat. This avoids overlapping conversations, which can lead to confusion if not caught. The forum also became a great resource for checking asset progress during the production process.
With the workflow systems I established and collective collaboration of the team, we were able to successfully design and implement all 29 cards into the game.
Direction Clarity
In early development, I noticed that the team struggled to align on the game's creative direction. As a result, this hindered our efficiency and impacted our production processes. To solve this issue, I spoke with leadership and teammates to discuss solutions. Once a solid plan was established, we shared the information with the rest of the team and shifted our priorities to better reflect the game's creative goals. Productivity and team morale were boosted after this discussion.
These were some notes I had written and shared with my team during our discussion.
Remote-Friendly Team Check-ins
Cozy Chessu's team works remotely and functions in an asynchronous and synchronous setting. Since we do not have the luxury of in-person meetings, I established a channel to check in on team members each week. This gave us the opportunity to share what we were working on that week, any issues, and share an overall "wellness" check. The check-ins were kept low-stress and friendly.
2D Game Artist
Beyond working as the lead producer on the team, I also helped in creating concept art and 2D illustrations to support the project's artistic needs. Some key projects included illustrating the Main Menu and Character Portrait Sprites. Occasionally, I assisted in designing character and prop art.
Main Menu
Initial Research and Wireframing of the Main Menu Page
Main Menu Selected and Unselected States Concept
Final Main Menu Illustration
Character Portrait Sprites
I helped illustrate all of the character sprites in Cozy Chessu. Working with the Narrative team and Art Director,
I focused on capturing each character's energy through their expressions. I also help design a Style Guide to establish rules to maintain style consistency.
Character and Prop Design
Below are some character and prop design work I did during early production.
