This project, being developed by Pipeworks Studio and to be published by THQ on the Wii U, was never formally announced. It was going to be a casual family drawing/guessing game using the branded license synonymous with that type of game, before it was cancelled mid-development. I was promoted to Lead Engineer for this project, creating schedules and technical documents, managing engineers below me and updating the drawing systems from uDraw for the new design.

This was a fantastic project, while it lasted. This was our third drawing game in a row as a studio, so the tech was well tested and understood. This lead to confidence in the budget and schedule that was uncommon in any of my projects. As lead, I collaborated with production, design and art on our shared vision for the end product. I endeavored to communicate this vision, and the immediate tasks to achieve it, to the junior engineer under me and keep him focused on what was needed. The pre-production and prototype phase went very smoothly and just as we were getting ready to start full production, the project was cancelled.

The fate of this game was seal by two larger failures: the weak launch of the Wii U and THQ’s  turbulent fall. When THQ axed their casual and family division follonw the failure of the uDraw, our family board/party game was left in limbo. The game was so tailored to the Wii U’s strengths that would likely would have found a different publisher, had the Wii U not failed to met even the most pessimistic sales projections for its launch year. With a publisher disintegrating, a platform struggling and a license holder eager to jump to the tablet market, we had no chance. We delivered a fully playable build of the core game with our last pre-production milestone, archived our work and moved on to other projects. This remains my only professional project to not see release.