Raccoopack Media

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Program Coordinator at the Invasive Species Council of BC

For what projects/services did your company hire Raccoopack Media?

For the development of an online youth game for kids aged 8 - 10

What were your goals for this project?

To get youth educated on invasive species including how to prevent them from spreading.

How did you select this vendor?

From a referral from another staff member.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The services provided included web development, graphic design, and some consulting regarding web services.

What was the team composition?

About 5-6 staff members were on the team included graphic designers, web developers and team leaders. There was one team change over time (team leader).

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

This game not only represents the values of our brand, but also serves to educated a demographic that we don't always have the opportunity to impact.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was arranged by the following:

• Setting up of a shared excel file in order to manage project items (such as content, images, game flow, etc.)
• Organizing of bi-weekly virtual meetings (sometimes set up by us, other times set up by Raccoopack) to preview demo’s and discuss next steps
• Setting up of a shared feedback form which was used to communicate any requested changes to demos

Project management was sometimes ineffective for the following reasons:

• Lack of communication on deadlines
• lack of set deadlines for providing feedback for inclusion in the next demo sometimes led to delayed progress and tight timelines.
• Too many points of contact
• Providing details to only one Raccoopack team member sometimes resulted in confusion, most likely because it had not being shared amongst others on the team.
• Inefficient feedback form = the feedback form (excel doc) that was provided had potential for lots of human error. There was an inability to smoothly include screenshots and had an unclear way of notifying either parties on when feedback had been added.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

A few highlights about working with this company included:

1. Design skills: Raccoopack Media excels at artwork and animation.
2. Team Flexibility: The Raccoopack team is very flexible regarding the scheduling of meetings and jumping on quick calls last minute here and there.

Are there any areas for improvement?

• Attention to detail on content (i.e. catching mistakes such as grammar and other consistencies throughout the game)
• Attending to project management inefficiencies (see previous comments):
• Lack of communication on deadlines - there was no set deadline for providing feedback by a certain date in order to have it included in the next demo. This led to delayed progress and tighter timelines.
• Multiple points of contact - by providing details to a single staff member on the Raccoopack team sometimes resulted in confusion, most likely because it had not being shared amongst others on the team.
• Inefficient feedback form - the feedback form (Excel doc) provided had potential for lots of human error, had inability to smoothly include screenshots and had an unclear way of notifying either parties on when feedback had been included.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a game development studio. I'm one of the lead directors.

What challenge were you trying to address with Raccoopack Media?

We needed support developing the Android version of our app, a children's e-learning tool.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Raccoopack Media’s team was brought on specifically to develop our product for Android, based on what we’d already built for iOS. 

The game is designed and developed within Unity3d in C#. We provide Raccoopack Media with access to our repository and guidelines, and one of their team members works on the project directly as if he were a member of our own team. 

One of the key challenges was building a membership capability on Android and integrating it with the existing one on iOS. The task involved building out a server of our own to capture subscription information, parse it, and be able to connect it to the user account.

When the app was in beta testing, there was one particular, long-running task that required monitoring of a backend feature. Raccoopack Media was able to deliver us long-term support for that, despite the bulk of the project having already been completed. The team remains available for open-ended support. 

What is the team composition?

There was one developer assigned to our project.

How did you come to work with Raccoopack Media?

We were working in a shared office space with about 50 other companies, which is where we met them. When we realized our need for support, we reached out to Raccoopack Media, who was interested in joining the project. 

Also, we were appreciative of the fact that they were in the same building as us, so we could easily communicate throughout the engagement.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $5,000-$10,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first started working with Raccoopack Media in November 2019, and they provide ongoing support.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We’ve been extremely happy with the quality of work they’ve provided. Our developer instantly understood all of the requirements and modifications to build out the Android platform. He was extremely adaptable to any of the changes we made throughout the process. 

How did Raccoopack Media perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly kept in touch via instant messaging, but we also had the added benefit of sharing an office space with them to communicate in person. 

We had weekly reports, meeting with the developer and going over the log of tasks he’d kept. I was also able to monitor in person, which was helpful. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were most impressed by our developer’s ability to integrate the subscription service. The process was extremely complex, but he figured out a plan and built the entire system within a very reasonable amount of time. We were blown away.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish they could’ve provided more time to our project, but that’s because we were pleased with their services, not disappointed. Everything went really well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We really benefitted from being in close proximity to Raccoopack Media, as we didn’t have any communication issues throughout the project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

SafeCare BC is an industry-funded, non-profit association working to ensure injury-free, safe working conditions for continuing care workers in BC. We strive to be the industry leader in advancing injury prevention and safety training for long-term care and home support workers. We are committed to improving health and safety within the workplace and responding to the needs and priorities of our members. As the Learning & Development Advisor, I am responsible for building, evaluating, and continuously improving Safe Care BC’s educational programming.

For what projects/services did your company hire Raccoopack Media?

SafeCare BC wanted to develop a mobile game as a way to deliver educational content in a new and innovative format that would engage our audience.

What were your goals for this project?

Psychological health, resiliency, and stress management is an important topic in the continuing care sector. SafeCare BC's goal was to develop a mobile game that would allow the player to explore common work and home scenarios using different stress management techniques.

How did you select this vendor?

We chose to work with RaccooPack because of their experience developing a healthcare-themed game with Vancouver Coastal Health.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Raccoopack handled the entire mobile game development including: research and design, focus group meetings, animation and graphics, UI and UX design, leaderboard development, and testing/bug fixes.

What was the team composition?

Our two main contacts were George Padua (Pack Leader/President) and Jay Friso (Director of Games), and they worked with us throughout the project. They were very responsive, consistent, and helpful. There were several other RaccooPack specialists that contributed at various stages of the project.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We haven’t launched the product to our audience yet, so we can’t speak about its impact. But we’re excited to provide our members—many of whom, for various reasons, cannot access our in-person training—with a mobile game that’s both engaging and educational.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

George and Jay were consistently on top of deadlines and were exceptional at managing and meeting expectations throughout the project. We communicated via email, shared documents via dropbox, and collaborated on content via Google Docs and LucidCharts - all of which were very effective for our project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Although the product created was exceptional, their real strength lies in their client relations. George and Jay were very responsive, flexible, professional, approachable, and were always very clear about what was in and out of scope and what could be done in a given amount of time. This skill is vital to ensuring that a project is completed as expected and on time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only area that we would recommend some improvements is on text editing. The beta version delivered to us had many spelling and grammar issues that distracted from evaluating the gameplay experience.