Overview
Mayday Racers is a combat racing game in Unity, built by a 23-person team across three departments. I was Project Lead, which mostly meant keeping everyone pointed at the same game rather than quietly building three different ones. Harder than I expected.
- Get 23 people, across three departments, building the same game
- Establish documentation everyone actually reads and uses
- Ship a playable vertical slice, then a final build
- Help handle the UI side when I had a chance so I had skin in the game
- Documentation only works if it stays alive. A Notion that goes unupdated is worse than no Notion.
- Decisions need to land in the build, not die in a meeting
- Leading means knowing when your best move is to stop doing and start unblocking
Systems & Contributions
Set up the Discord server with role-based channels so departments weren't constantly in each other's way. Built the Notion wiki from scratch, with a shared GDD, task boards, sprint timelines,accessible to everyone but lead-moderated so it didn't turn into a dumping ground.
Handled the main menu, character select, and in-race HUD. Agreed on a visual language with art and programming first, then iterated on layout based on what read at speed.
Created the Git repo and branching convention. Handed day-to-day control to the tech lead once it was running, programming was doing the heavy lifting. Branching kept experimental features off main.
Screens
We shipped a playable build with a full track, car controller, combat pickups. Cross-department communication broke down in the middle and we cut a chunk of content to make the deadline. Tutor feedback called that out directly, which wasn't a surprise. We worked with what we had and got something playable, but it was a struggle.
The main thing I took from it: communication is key. Without it, plans fall apart and the team fragments. I tried to keep everyone in the loop but I could have done more to make sure information was landing and being used.
