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Darian Vorlick

Production Coordinator

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Is Darian the new community manager?asked by Stu Baca

Darian VorlickProduction Coordinator

No, I'm not. I'm still part of the production team under senior producer Eric Davis, while we are still looking for a marketing and community coordinator or manager.

Ben LesnickDirector of Community Engagement, Online Strategy and Spaceships

We may be very close to a community manager, but Darian is a producer.

Darian VorlickProduction Coordinator

I'm just more here giving some support and helping them out, taking some of the load on stuff that's been piling up a bit.

Reverse the Verse›March 11th, 2016·
Published on this date.11 Mar 2016

When can we get more info on the Gamescom timetable?asked by Secret Templar

TL;DRNo Gamescom schedule yet, but it is hoped soon; instead of one big presentation there will be several events spread over the whole show.

Ben LesnickDirector of Community Engagement, Online Strategy and Spaceships

They're working out venues and travel schedules and whatever else goes into that, booth setups. We hope soon. I know they've been signing contracts seemingly every couple days. As soon as we have the schedule, we'll give it to you. But we're spacing things out over the whole event, so there will be something for you no matter when you choose to attend. And it should be good. I know people were confused because we're not doing the same giant event; that is more to do with where we want the game to be then than anything else. Normally we get to six weeks out and we focus on some particular feature set that we want to show off because it's exemplary of everything we're doing. This time we're just doing ordinary production all the way up to it, and we're going to show you where the game is on the floor and at some private events with our backers.

Jared HuckabyCommunity Manager

So instead of one big party, we're going to have several smaller parties.

Ben LesnickDirector of Community Engagement, Online Strategy and Spaceships

We say smaller, but probably just as big as the other party.

Jared HuckabyCommunity Manager

It just won't be a big presentation.

Ben LesnickDirector of Community Engagement, Online Strategy and Spaceships

The only difference is we're not the ones setting up the stage and putting Chris Roberts on it. He'll be doing stuff at Gamescom, but he will be at all these parties talking. We're all going to be there. Are you going to be at Gamescom? I don't know if production sends people or not.

Darian VorlickProduction Coordinator

I don't know. I haven't heard anything. If production is going to be out there, it's probably going to be Eric, or someone from the UK office probably. Many of us will be there.

Reverse the Verse›March 11th, 2016·
Published on this date.11 Mar 2016
EpisodeCommunity & events

Dear producers, We have seen the process of fixing bugs on bug smahers. "Awesome programer sits down, thinks, and magic code fixes fly out of his fingers".Is the process of implementing a new feature similar? A lot of people seem to think so. Could you walk us through beginning to end, the process of taking a feature, from an idea out of Chris Roberts' head (or someone elses) all the way to being played on our computers, including some obstacles you run into and how you overcome them?asked by Weyoun "six" of Imperium

TL;DRNew features aren't magic: producers plan roadmapped patch contents with realistic expectations, and designers, programmers and artists work to a plan, with the director having final say and much hidden effort behind the scenes.

That's actually... it's kind of a sequel to this question here on a lot of times we do have to limit those ideas. A good example of that would be... the Vanguard that Calix... It was a variant that Calix was working on. And he had this idea of a certain role that he wanted the variant to have. It was a great idea but once the ship team and the designers and the production sat down and looked at how does that variant fit with the rest of the functionality of that ship realized it wasn't one that fit with its role. So we had to kind of cut that variant out and then just start building the rest of the variants from there. Or at least I'd design and document the design briefs on how we wanted the rest of the variants to go. So to kind of echo what Eric was saying last question, we do have some blue sky ideas. So we sit down, we look at what we want to have in each fixed version that we're releasing, each patch. So for example right now we're getting ready to work on 1.1.5 and then after that we've got the next version after that, next version after that, next version after that. We have what features we want listed for those versions and that pretty much helps us plan out what tech we need to have ready by when. What ships do we have to have ready and flyable by a certain date. And that dictates what tasks we give to our designs, our programmers, our artists. So by having those ideas roadmapped out, roadmapping those actually is a skillset in itself. Because we can't just say you know, "This month we want one ship that does this. Next month we want a hundred people to be able to fly all these ships around the planet at the same time." That's not very realistic. So we have to have at least realistic expectations when we put these plans together. But this is where a lot of communication for production comes from, talking with designers, talking with artists. And you kind of come to a consensus on what's possible, can we do this, is this a good idea and the direction we want to take the game. And ultimately Chris is the ultimate authority on whether something.. on whether we want to take the game a certain direction or not.EKD: Yeah. And I think to part of the question about the feature as well. There's the planning and the ideas and then there's the work time. And that's kind of the magic, that's the magic fingers part. We get these really talented people together, they construct a plan for how to get this done, we help track it, we help keep them on pace to make sure we hit those deadlines. We work together, things fluidly move around as quickly as humanly possible to get it done. And then magically it's done. We test it with QA, we make sure it works, and then we get it out to you guys. So without going into taking a feature and then saying this artist did this, and this developer did that, and this programer did that, it is kind of magic. It's just you get a bunch of very good people who know exactly what they're doing with their job and they take pieces and they are really proactive with it and get it done. Cause we're all super passionate about what we're doing.DV: And a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that you don't see is someone staying here till one o'clock in the morning just waiting for someone in the UK office to get in just because they have to ask them a question regarding something that needs to be fixed right away.EKD: That's right.DV: So there's a lot of challenging things that go on behind the scenes. It's not as easy as you know Mark having magic fingers. As much as we wish him to have magic fingers to be able to just fix things on a whim, he just waves his keyboard wand and everything just gets fixed.EKD: [laughing] Yeah that's right.DV: There's a lot of difficulty that goes into that.EKD: That's right.

10 for the Producers›Episode 09 (2015.07.13)·
Published on this date.13 Jul 2015

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