Weapons Designer

While at VV, I was heavily involved with the weapons balance team. I dived into the Destiny toolset, adjusted damage numbers, fleshed out lore, and even named some of the weapons! I contributed as a designer alongside the rest of the team. As a production intern, I also took on running our team’s planning meetings, identifying external dependencies with our partners at Bungie, and planning future sprint goals.

Below are just a few of the many awesome weapons I helped create. We held numerous meetings to discuss the lore behind each weapon, how players should acquire them, and how the world of Destiny 2 should influence the weapon’s visuals 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 developers and an additional team of 26 through two milestones on a Destiny 2 DLC pack.
Built and maintained the product backlog and roadmaps, removed blockers, and tracked bugs.
Assisted senior producers with task management, escalated risks and issues, and documented meeting notes.
Coordinated playtests, updated production onboarding documents, and organized project-wide sprint reviews.

My Internship Experience:

Right after graduating from Champlain College, I had the great opportunity to join the production team at Vicarious Visions (VV). At the time, VV was helping develop DLC content for Bungie’s Destiny 2. I began my journey on the team responsible for the weapons in the Destiny 2 Black Armory DLC. This role required significant coordination between our VV team and multiple teams at Bungie.

Some of my key responsibilities on the weapons team included running planning meetings, identifying external dependencies with Bungie partners, removing blockers, taking meeting notes, and planning future sprints.

As I grew more efficient in this role, I took on additional responsibilities such as organizing and running playtests, coordinating project-wide sprint reviews for the entire DLC package, and updating VV’s onboarding documentation.

In the final month of my internship, I also joined the open-world team, gaining experience in a different dynamic while providing similar support through running stand-ups, tracking tasks, and coordinating sprint planning and launches. While the weapons team involved collaborating with prop modelers, concept artists, VFX artists, sound designers, and UX designers, the open-world team consisted of level designers, environment artists, narrative writers, and boss designers. The teams had different personalities, needs, and workflows, which meant my role adapted accordingly.

The open-world team centered its process around frequent playtests, structuring sprints around multiple weekly sessions. These playtests grounded the team’s often intangible results and helped focus discussions that might otherwise have become tangential.

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. :)