03-Nov-05 Technical Manager’s Column 2 - Skills and Trade in Adellion
Hello all!
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year. Change of seasons, cold crisp autumn air, children finally trying to be good in anticipation of Santa's coming. It marks an end to the endless rounds of gardening, and lawn mowing. There is still a bit of last minute raking and cleaning up to get ready for winter, but leaves are generally light and if you miss a few the world doesn’t get to notice because soon they will be under snow.
Once every few years, Thanksgiving also happens to fall on my birthday, and when that occurs I like to reverse the usual trend and give a few things away. This year is one of those years, and since the majority of my time has been spent in laboring on Adellion it seems only fair to give away a few tidbits about the game to the fans.
First, the team has grown again! We have added another new programmer, Sanjit. In addition, we have another programmer and two artists who have expressed an interest in joining the team.
Second, our internal hardware is being revamped. Caf got himself a pretty new machine for the holidays, and Mephi is in the middle of a server upgrade. He also got a bit more bandwidth to help make our internal testing a bit easier.
Third, Jason and the Art Guys have been working on a new generation of models for the game. They feature improved graphics, better mobility, new character clothing layering effects, and additional animations. We are adding lots of new 3D models for content and rounding out the graphics on the GUI to make it more consistent and intuitive.
Fourth, we have two new members. Aron (Sinister) Riktor and Connie Woodruff have joined the Lore ranks from our active fan base! They have already begun making suggestions and generally shaking things up. Connie has been on board for a while, but because of issues with the server system at the time she joined, she has not received the recognition she was due. However, her work has not gone unnoticed. Our recent arrival, Aron, is already stirring things up in our internal forums with his questions and ideas.
Finally, I would like to announce a major promotion from the fan ranks. Bob Cruse, aka Dolnor, has been a fan of Adellion from day one. He was early in line to get into the beta testing and had a number of interesting systems on which he found numerous challenges for us to overcome (i.e. bugs.) His systematic approach of evaluating our software and his overall work style has made him a very valuable member of the community, and his understanding of what the fans seem to want from our game has made us decide to take an unusual step.
One of the things I have wanted from the beginning of development was a way to assure our fans that we are trying to make a game that is designed with their interests in mind not just our own. We take your feedback seriously and we spend a LOT of time working out the ramifications of your suggestions and our own solutions.
So, today I am announcing that we are promoting Bob Cruse to Q/A Team Lead for Adellion. Bob will work with the beta testers, organizing them into an effective group, working on a daily basis to make sure that the product we finally hand you will be set to a superior quality level, and acting as a safety net to make sure that your words are genuinely heard at all points in the development process - right up to the day we ship.
Congratulations Bob! I am looking forward to working with you.
I hope the rest us you will join with me in wishing Bob the best of luck. Adellion continues to look for intelligent motivated people to join our team. We now have more than two dozen active members on the team. We are growing and looking for more volunteer artists, modelers, and programmers. We understand that you cannot devote endless hours to a non-paying job, but there are other rewards that come from hard work on a job you love. One of them is the recognition of your peers. And today, on my birthday, I would like to give a bit of that to our newest members.
Cheers!
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