Gameplay Trailers
Recommendations
James Fielding
President, Game Director
"I have worked with Michael for a little over 4 years. During this time, Michael served as both a
Producer and Systems Architect in our studio.
As a Systems Architect, Michael was instrumental in helping us take big ideas and turn them
into solvable, smaller problems. His insights often saved us months of work as he would predict
the needs of the design team and build flexibility into our systems and tools, to allow us to make
the needed pivots quickly and efficiently. He is diligent in his research for how best to handle
complex technical problems, yet speedy and practical for quickly identifying the best path
forward.
As a Producer, Michael helped with sprint planning and the coordination of tasks between
design and technical teams. His unique blend of skills allowed him to understand what sort of
details would be needed from the design team, and when the technical teams would need them
-- which helped us to avoid impediments to production..." See more
Tim Williams
Director Of Operations
"It’s my pleasure to recommend Michael Budram as a Producer, Technical Writer, and Game
Development Professional.
I have been Michael’s manager during his time at Plarium for about 5 years. I was the
Development Manager and Lead Project Manager and Michael was a critical member of the
development team, specifically in a Production and Technical Writing capacity..." See more
Thomas Whitener
Systems And Balance Designer
"Michael is, hands down, one of the smartest and most focused people I have ever worked with. Michael has the ability to read and very quickly grasp not only the intended workings of a system, but to also see the implications of that system as it relates across an entire project. His communication skills are second to none, and he works constantly to improve the systems of communication in a project, as well as his own personal capabilities.
I would work with Michael on any project. He is an asset to every team he is a part of, and when he speaks, I listen."
Ryan Shackelford
Senior Technical Designer
"I worked with Michael on an ambitious project that required lots of creative problem solving. As a producer, Michael provided the structure for engineers and designers to work together effectively, but was also adept at helping provide solutions himself. He was always flexible and never complained about managing any aspect of the project, from complex engineering problems to the more mundane management tasks. He always thinks before he speaks, and is always kind in his feedback to others."
Timothy Hamel
Senior Game Designer
"Michael is a great producer and skilled coworker. He did an excellent job coordinating and communicating with our international offices and keeping our project running smoothly. His technical background also helped us resolve bugs and issues quickly. He helped me on multiple occasions to identify and resolve an issue with our development tools. He is calm, level-headed, and a great asset to a team."
About The Project
4.5 Year Duration
Skybreaker was an ambitious and mechanically rich Action Roleplaying Game (ARPG) with Platforming elements made specifically for mobile devices. Its risk profile was high from the beginning: Plarium wanted to develop a large scope mobile project that would appeal to Core Gamers in North America...in 2015. Needless to say, I was among the second wave of hires a year later when the reality of this undertaking had become clear.
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Over the next 4 years, Plarium Michigan and Plarium Krasnodar remotely collaborated successfully on Skybreaker, hitting our milestones and eventually soft launching in October of 2019. Unfortunately, the project was indefinitely frozen as of April 2020.
My Role
As a Producer on this project, I was responsible for assessing, validating, and communicating business and design goals to a remote development team of Engineers, Artists, PMs, and QA professionals.
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For any given major feature of Skybreaker, I was part of the conversation from designer napkin doodle to delivery to iteration. This includes but is not limited to gathering and defining requirements, risk-value assessment, validating technical feasibility, giving design input, systems design, dependency tracking, defining and tracking KPIs, and roadmap planning.
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Initially, the development team we collaborated with had a very rigid Waterfall style of development that did not fit this project well. Over the course of the project, I worked with the Director Of Operations to evangelize an Agile mindset to the developers. Accordingly, my Project Management responsibilities were initially very Waterfall oriented, but toward the middle and end of the project I was able to transition into a Scrum Master role.