I've been working in development studios (Eversim, Magic Pockets) and publishers (Ubisoft, Focus Home Interactive), on consoles (DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, X1, PS4, Switch, PS5, XS...), mobiles (iOS, Android, Tizen) and PC, for casual and hardcore players.
I'm also giving game design and project management courses in a public higher education apprenticeship school.
Sports (table tennis, cycling...), history and music of video games, and philosophy (author of the book “ Les pensées d’un gamin ”, published by Le Manuscrit, 2005)
Focus / Sumo Digital
Focus / Saber
Ubisoft
Spin Master / Magic Pockets
Ubisoft / Magic Pockets
Activision / Magic Pockets
Activision / Magic Pockets
Sega / Magic Pockets
Square Enix / Magic Pockets
Activision / Magic Pockets
Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Eversim
Supinfogame / Team NoCulture
Team management: setting up of management methods specific to the project (iterative process, waterfall, Agile methods...), implication of the team members, regular meeting organization, setting up of a report system, information flux circulation optimization...
Planning / scheduling: gathering information provided by the production line units, projections (Delphi method...), setting up of the schedule and the critical path, milestones...
Project monitoring: regular report with the leaders, information circulation, day-to-day write-up about the project status, complete review of the project if any difficulties are encountered, to adapt the methods if necessary, risk estimation...
Use of Gantt, Pert: building of the task hierarchy and the links between them in the production line, estimations to elaborate the critical path...
Creation: proposals, key concepts composition, brainstorming organization, work with constraints (editorial, technical)...
Game concept: composition of a one or two page document, which gathers the game's key elements, explanation of the intentions and unique selling points, how the game is structured...
Game design document: concept, gameplay, game's mechanics, structure, progression, ergonomics, interface...
Audit: critical review of a project that is currently being developed, proposals for modifications, additions or deletions, setting a new frame...
Benchmark: specific study of a genre or a particular game's mechanic, theorization and application to the current project...
As a programmer-analyst, I can study a business problem and design a programmatic solution for it (and eventually code this solution).
I try to create tools that
- improve the information system efficiency
- automate repetitive tasks
- make people's life easier
So far, in addition to Magic Projects, I created tools to handle Project Portfolio (PPM), localization process, game build creation, text checking...
Why creating such tools instead of using existing ones? It's a way have something that
- really matches your need
-is adapated to your company
- can easily evolve through time
- you keep control on it
I had the complete pleasure of working with Xavier and Magic Project for a time. The program is fantastic at understanding what game developers need in terms of collecting information and understanding dependencies. It really helps put requests and changes into perspective and forecast how a project might change down the line. It was also really helpful in collecting information and allowing users to create more accurate time estimates for tasks.
Xavier was incredibly patient with helping me learn the program and also with listening to feature requests myself or the team had.
This guy really gets it.
GoodFirms researchers have endorsed Magic Projects as one of the best project management software for its free download & use, multi-industry functionality, and unique features with so much to offer.
To know more about the offerings of Magic Projects, one can also go through the detailed interview published at GoodFirms.
Xavier Marot has released its own project management tools for free! It's one of the best tool I ever work with, fluid, clear, simple and solid. You should take a look and say "yay !"
Xavier was a reliable project manager very attentive to the team members needs. I learned a lot from him and it was a real pleasure to work with him.
Magic Projects' ambition is to allow you to remove as many frictions as possible during project management. Tasks will naturally go from one member to another. It's easy to navigate through the task flow to iterate, add comments, ask questions...
In Magic Projects, each member states the task he/she is working on. Combined to task estimations, this allows Magic Projects to provide you ways to synthetize the data and extract global information: project completion, planning built on the fly, up-to-date budget...
Using data you provide (team distribution, jobs, task assignment...), Magic Projects can help you to check if you can meet deadlines. You can also see your team workload which can be helpful during task allocation. There is a tag system to get interesting stats about similar tasks: average completion time, overview...
There is a notification system keeping you posted about project's life: someone started working on a task you created, or completed it... These notifications are displayed on Magic Projects but they can be sent via emails as well. Also, budgets, plannings, faisability studies... are automatically updated according to team members' activity.
