Weapons Designer

While at VV I got heavily involved with the weapons balance team. Diving into the Destiny tools set, adjusting damage numbers, fleshing out the lore, and even naming some of the weapons! I got to be a designer just as much as the rest of the team. Since I was also a production intern I additionally took on running our team's various planning meetings, identifying external dependencies with our partners at Bungie, and planning out future sprints goals.

Below are just a few of the many awesome weapons I had a hand in creating. We had many meetings going over the lore behind each weapon, how the players should be acquiring them, and how the world of Destiny 2 should tie into the visuals of the weapon and the player’s experience using them.

Video showcasing the Black Armory DLC with the weapons being the major goal players can work towards.

Production Intern

Managed a team of 15 game devs and a team of 26 through 2 milestones on a DLC pack for Destiny 2.

Built and updated the product backlog and roadmaps, removed blockers for teams, and bug tracking.
Assisted senior producers with task management, escalated risks/issues, and took meeting notes.
Coordinated playtests updated production onboarding docs and organized project-wide sprint reviews.

My Internship Experience:

Right after I graduated from Champlain College I had the great opportunity of working on the production team at Vicarious Visions (VV). At the time, VV was helping to develop the DLC content for Bungie’s Destiny 2. I started my VV journey on the team responsible for developing the weapons in the Destiny 2 Black Armory DLC. A lot of coordination needed to happen between our team at VV and the various teams at Bungie that we needed to work with. Some of my major responsibilities on the weapons team included: running the team's various planning meetings, identifying external dependencies with our partners at Bungie, removing blockers, taking meeting notes, and planning out future sprints.

As I got more efficient at my role on the weapons team I took on more responsibilities such as setting up and running playtests, organizing project-wide sprint reviews for the whole DLC package and updating VV’s onboarding documentation.

Additionally, during the last month of my internship, I also got to join the open-world team and experience a totally different dynamic while still providing similar support via running stand-ups, tracking tasks, and coordinating sprint planning and launches. Where on the weapons team I found myself working with prop modelers, concept artists, VFX artists, sound designers, and UX designers– the open-world team was comprised of level designers, environment artists, narrative writers, and boss designers. The personalities were different, their needs were different, and my work on the team ended up being different too. I found the open world team revolved around playtests so we ended up structuring all of our sprints around the multiple playtests we would do each week. These playtest helped to ground the team's intangible results and helped focus our often tangential discussions.

On a final note, I want to touch on my experience of being an intern and my first AAA game development job. VV interviewed me on this very topic– which you can read here on their DeVV Diaries page. Below too are the questions they asked me and my responses.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF.
I’m a recent graduate from Champlain College with my degree being in Game Production Management. Most of my game development experience has been through my education and my own indie projects, but I also have a background in video production where I made music videos and tech demos in the Austin, TX area. I’m a lifelong learner and I fall in love with my work, but when I am not working I like playing fighting games and MMOs, camping, swimming, writing, and eating burrito bowls. I’m always working towards self-improvement, a happy heart, and a calm mind.
HOW DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT VV’S INTERNSHIP PROGRAM?
Vicarious Visions has been visiting Champlain College for years now and when my career advisor told me VV would be running production internships for the first time ever I jumped on the opportunity and made sure my resume found its way into the pool of candidates. A week later I had an interview and a week after that I got an offer!
WHAT HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE AT VV BEEN LIKE SO FAR?
Working at VV has been exciting and educating! It is quite the production feat developing for such an expansive game as Destiny 2; it has been illuminating to see how my previous production experience has been able to be applied to this AAA environment. During my time here I’ve been able to work with the weapons, bosses, and world teams. I’ve helped build out backlogs, set up playtests, run rituals/meetings, and even organized a project wide sprint review!
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE ASPECT OF WORKING AT VV?
There is a fun and family-like culture here that got me invested early on. When problems arise people jump on the issue, band together, work through the problems, and figure them out. There is very much a can-do attitude that helps drives collaboration and doing the job right. It’s a rare to find determination, focus, and care all in one place especially when faced with unideal situations– I am glad I have gotten to experience it for a time. Also, free donuts and bagels every Friday definitely doesn’t hurt!
DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR A YOUNGER STUDENT LOOKING TO ATTAIN AN INTERNSHIP?
Among having a polished resume and practicing for interviews, a lot of getting your foot in the door involves grit. This is the fourth internship I’ve had and certainly not my first job, but it is the first time I’ve gotten to work in the game industry. In the past, I’ve iron bed sheets, made who knows how many paper copies, been sent out for coffee runs, etc., Gradually, I have built up the experience and taken on bigger responsibilities to prove to people that I am reliable and that I have the skills to get things done: so never give up!
Additionally, don’t be afraid to make your own experience! It’s important to practice your skills in school and to treat your education like work experience, but even more important is showing that you can use those skills outside of a school environment. In my free time throughout college I released 3 indie games which beefed up my resume, allowed me to further practice my skills, and gave me more context for different types of development environments.
HAS THERE BEEN ANYONE AT VV WHO HAS BEEN A MENTOR?
My manager, Kara Massie, has guided, coached, and advised me immensely during my time here at VV. Seeing her care and strong will has inspired me. She has pushed me to grow both professionally and personally, has been a friend, and has cool kooky hair!
WHAT’S YOUR DREAM JOB?
One day after I accumulate a bunch of experience that I can later call upon– I want to start my own studio, lead the vision of the company, help foster the culture, and make fantastic games that push this industry to grow.

–Elijah Dixson 10/02/2018

Overall I’d say my experience at VV was a great first step for me into the AAA Game industry and an awesome way to finish up my college experience. In many ways living in the intern apartments and making friends along the way felt like college 2.0. I am grateful for the experience I had and the connections I made along the way. Below are pictures of our VV 2018 summer intern class– I am the one on the far right sporting the Guild Wars 2 Living World T-shirt. :)