Studio Roles and Team Charter
Standards (4)
16.2Roles & Responsibilities
Evaluate roles and responsibilities for each member of a production or project team; work collaboratively and interact professionally to meet directorial goals, realize creative ideas, and execute project needs.8.1Leadership Qualities
Recognize and reflect the traits, responsibilities, and skills of successful employees, leaders, and managers (e.g., emotional intelligence, communication, time management, conflict resolution, and interpersonal skills).8.5Leading with Purpose
Demonstrate the ability to lead inclusively and positively, foster teamwork and morale, and assess how leadership decisions impact team dynamics and outcomes.9.1Collaboration and Shared Responsibility
Work with teams to establish goals, share responsibilities, and contribute to collective decision-making.
The task
This class is one studio building one game. Before any of that starts, you decide together how the studio runs, and you write it down.
Two documents get confused constantly, so be clear which one this is:
- A project charter describes what is being built.
- A team charter describes how the people will build it: who does what, how decisions get made, and what happens when you disagree.
You are writing the second one. The GDD is the first, and it comes next.
The charter is a living document. You will revisit it at every milestone review and change it when it stops matching reality.
Before you start
Steps
Step 1 — Map the work before you pick roles
As a class, list what this game actually needs made: environments, characters, UI, audio, level layout, systems, builds, testing.
Do not skip to job titles. Titles chosen before the work is understood produce a team where three people want to be art director and nobody owns exports.
Step 2 — Assign roles in pairs
Every role gets two people: a primary and a backup.
This is not padding. Somebody will be absent on the day their piece is due, and a studio where one person is the only one who can do a thing stops when that person stops. The backup does not do the work; they know enough to keep it moving and can pick it up if the absence runs long.
| Role | Owns |
|---|---|
| Creative Director | The vision. Final call on whether something fits the game |
| Producer | Schedule, dependencies, the task board, unblocking people |
| Art Lead | Style guide, art reviews, keeping 15 people’s work looking like one game |
| Environment Artists | Props, set pieces, modular kits |
| Character Artist | The hero character |
| Level Designer | Layout, flow, blockout |
| Systems Designer | Core loop, mechanics, balance |
| Technical Artist | Export settings, naming, the Blender-to-Unreal pipeline |
| UI Designer | HUD, menus, readability |
| Audio Lead | Music and sound effects, sourcing and licensing |
| QA Lead | Test passes, bug list, playtest sessions |
Most of you will hold one role and back up another. Everyone builds assets regardless of title.
Step 3 — Write the charter
The team charter is one document, written together. It must contain all seven sections:
- Purpose: What this studio is making, in two or three sentences. Not the full pitch, just enough that a stranger knows what you’re doing.
- Roles and responsibilities: The table above, filled in with names, primary and backup. For each role, one line on what that person actually owns.
- Decision-making: State clearly how decisions get made: consensus, majority vote, or delegated to the person who owns that area. Then name who breaks a tie when you can’t resolve it. Decide this now, while nobody is angry.
- Communication: Where you talk, how fast you’re expected to respond, and how work gets handed off between people. Include what a handoff has to include to count as done.
- Meetings: When standups happen, how long they run, and what each person reports. Name what happens when someone misses one.
- Conflict: The steps you’ll follow when two people disagree about the work. Talk directly first, then escalate to the role owner, then to the director. Write the actual steps.
- Signatures: Every member signs. Signing is what turns this from a document somebody wrote into an agreement everyone made.
Step 4 — Post it
The charter lives somewhere the whole team can reach and edit. Link it from the project’s task board.
Each of you also posts to your own portfolio Coursework page:
- Your role and backup role
- One paragraph on what you own
- One paragraph on what you expect to find hard about it
Submit
Rubric
| Criteria | Approaching | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roles | Roles unassigned, or no backups | Every role has a primary and a backup, each with a stated responsibility | Assignments reflect the work the game actually needs, not just titles people wanted |
| Decision-making | Vague, or missing | States the method and names who breaks ties | Distinguishes which decisions belong to which role rather than routing everything to one person |
| Communication & handoffs | Not addressed | Channels, response expectations, and what a handoff must include | Defines “done” specifically enough that two people would agree on it |
| Conflict process | Missing, or “we’ll talk about it” | Written steps with escalation | Steps are realistic for this class and account for someone being absent |
| Individual reflection | Missing or one line | Role and backup named, responsibility and concern both explained | Concern is specific and names a dependency on someone else’s work |
| Signed | Unsigned | All members signed | Charter is linked from the task board and easy for anyone to find |
Notes
- Expect to change it: At each milestone review, spend five minutes on whether the charter still describes what you’re actually doing. If it doesn’t, either fix your behavior or fix the document. A charter nobody follows is worse than none, because it teaches you that written agreements are decorative.
- Roles are not permanent: If someone discovers in Unit 3 that they’re better at technical art than environment art, trade. Say so at a milestone review and update the charter.
- Your title does not limit you: Everyone models, everyone playtests, everyone gives feedback. The role says what you’re accountable for, not what you’re allowed to touch.