Andrea Swihart-DeCoster

Game Producer proficient in driving delivery, improving workflows, and enhancing cross-team communication.

Certification, Skills, and Tools
Received January 2025
Three day course focused on the core Scrum and Agile principles in relation to team optimization and delivering on client needs.
Production Toolset
➢ Jira
➢ Confluence
➢ Trello
➢ Miro
➢ Microsoft Excel
➢ Microsoft Office
➢ Google Workspace
➢ Adobe Suite
➢ Scrum and Agile Methodologies
➢ Sprint Planning and Retrospectives
➢ Risk Identification and Mitigation
➢ Cross-Functional Communication

Technical Toolset
➢ Unreal Engine 5
➢ Unity
➢ C++
➢ C#
➢ GitHub
➢ Visual Studio
➢ Rider
➢ Perforce
➢ Swarm
➢ CI/CD
Experience
Team Size: 29 - 32
Duration: August 2024 – Present
Roles & Contributions:

Production Lead (May 2025 - Present)
➢ Transitioned the project and communication structures from In-Person to Remote.
➢ Planned our post-production commitment goals within the scope of a smaller team size.
➢ Facilitated remote communication channels by organizing weekly discipline meetings the All-Hands.
➢ Organized game nights to build stronger relationships.
➢ Researched the Steam Publishing process and drove our delivery to the platform.
➢ Onboarded a new assistant producer and delegated several teams to them.

Development Producer (January 2025 - May 2025)
➢ Game Development Producer for 29 people across multiple disciplines.
➢ Organized bug triaging and the feedback processes for the team.
➢ Facilitated the creation and execution of the writing strike team as we pivoted into a narrative focused experience.
➢ Improved Jira usage for IC’s by utilizing JQL for custom filtering, removing view space clutter, and building a dashboard to display high priority information.
➢ Guided meetings to discuss and decide game direction and ensured team alignment.
➢ Standardized working-hour practices and task creation processes for cross-functional teams, improving sprint planning efficiency and reducing crunch.
➢ Simplified communication chains to improve transparency and strengthen team collaboration and alignment.
➢ Assisted and ran multiple sprint retrospectives and the final post-mortem.

Programming Lead (August 2024 - January 2025)
➢ Streamlined development workflows for the entire team using the GitHub integration within Jira automations.
➢ Setup the version control system and workflow with robust branch protections and Discord integrations.
➢ Assisted the production team in planning the scope for the project and initial roadmapping.
➢ Created programming guidelines to ensure expandability as the project grew and the team changed.
➢ Managed the tasks and cross-discipline communication for the programming team of 9-12 programmers.
➢ Programmed and implemented the initial audio system and general bug fixes.

Team Size: 19-21
Duration: May 2024 - August 2024
Role: Producer, Lead Programmer
Contributions:
➢ Managed the task board, ensuring task cards were moving through the swim-lanes and communicated progress to the leadership and development team.
➢ Authored and maintained the tech roadmap to align with the project pillars and sprint or milestone goals. 
➢ Worked to ensure each developer was working within their desired time frames to avoid burnout and enhance project contribution.
➢ Triaged bugs and task priorities to align with game pillars and ensure we hit milestone goals.
➢ Broke down features into manageable sprint tasks, focusing on transparency between developers and leadership.
Team Size: 17
Project Duration: January 2024 – May 2024
Game Overview: Gallery of Guilt is a murder mystery game where players search for clues around the Peoria Riverfront Museum to solve a murder. Players step into the shoes of a detective tasked with unraveling the baffling mystery that has rocked this Peoria Museum.
Role: Producer
Contributions:
➢ Setup and maintained each discipline teams’ Trello board, automating task transitions between swim lanes and customizing notifications based on target completion dates.
➢ Hosted 1 on 1 meetings to provide opportunities for the developers to voice any concerns, ask any questions, and to check in on how they are enjoying their role and assigned tasks.
➢ Facilitated the project postmortem, documenting everything discussed and provided a safe space for the team to voice issues they had and brainstorm possible ways to avoid them on future projects.

Team Size: 18
Duration: January 2024 – May 2024
Game Overview: Ferryman Fishing offers the chance to explore the depths of the River Styx with trusty pole in hand. Utilizing a genuine fishing rod combined with haptic feedback and a T.V. screen, players will be able to feel every moment of reeling in a plethora of bizarre fish to feed their buddy Cerberus.
Role: Lead Programmer
Contributions:
➢ Mentored freshman programmers, helping them gain comfort using Unity, Visual Studio, and GitHub.
➢ Provided code guidance, lectures, basic version control theory, and GitHub mentorship to the freshman programmers.
➢ Maintained the team GitHub guidelines and the project repository resulting in minimal file conflicts.
➢ Managed programming tasks and communicated progress to the rest of the team.
➢ Identified and mitigated risks.
➢ Cleared roadblocks and assistance in cross-functional communication between the programmers and other disciplines.

Team Size: 9
Project Duration: August 2023 – December 2023
Game Overview: Blackout is a two-player asymmetric horror game. The game features a young vampire trapped in a house seeking for the cure to her vampirism. As she searches, the Behemoth uses his enhanced abilities to hunt her down.
Role: Team Lead, Producer
Contributions:
➢ Provided creative direction and managed the team Jira and Google Drive.
➢ Managed the Jira boards and created custom JQL filtering.
➢ Lead milestone planning meetings, focusing on transparency and helping the team make informed decisions.
➢ Guided biweekly sprint retrospectives, constantly iterating and improving our team dynamic and processes.
➢ Mediated interpersonal and project conflicts.
➢ Facilitated team building exercises such as gaming events and pizza parties, building our team culture.
➢ Guided team meetings 3 times per week and semiweekly standups, working to clear blockers and align the team.​​​​​​​

About Me
When I entered college, I immediately began to specialize in Game Programming. Throughout this time, I often found myself naturally taking on production and leadership responsibilities, until I took on my first production role in Junior year as the Producer for my class project: Blackout! I immediately fell in love and began to take on roles as a Game Producer. I strive to use my technical experience from programming to assist my teams as a producer! 
I focus on driving my team’s success by finding and removing inefficiencies, enhancing communication channels, improving alignment, and building strong interpersonal relationships.
When not organizing my own life on spreadsheets, I enjoy gaming, reading, and playing with my cat Midas! 
Recent games I have been playing are Cyberpunk 2077, Life is Strange: Double Exposure, Diablo 4, Infinity Nikki, and the game I can’t seem to escape – League of Legends! 
I enjoy reading fantasy or crime books, with recent completions being Lore by Alexandra Bracken, Red Flags by Lisa Black, and the Blood and Ash Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
Reading List
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