devtrackers.gg
Was he qualified? Or were they just basing it off his YouTube review videos back then. Always wondered how he obtained the position and had so much say in what was to be taken in or out of the game?
External link →Was he qualified? Or were they just basing it off his YouTube review videos back then. Always wondered how he obtained the position and had so much say in what was to be taken in or out of the game?
External link →Wrel joined the team due to his close contact with existing game developers at the time, there was space for someone in tune with the game and the community to help in designing the game, and due to his existing friendships within the studio and his success within the community, he was a natural choice for them to reach out to.
I can't find the clip, but he talked about joking with his friends in the studio about him being able to work on the game, until one day it wasn't a joke.
You can get an idea of what exactly he did in his initial work at the studio in his two videos talking about exactly that;
It is worth re-iterating, as he goes over in these videos, that Wrel's job was not at the time necessary development within the studio. He was not a coding expert.
His work was more in the art and game design space, the latter meaning that his job was more concepting ideas to go into the game, ensuring that concept was conveyed properly to programmers and artists, and then making sure that concept fits into the game once created. He was not a programmer, a developer, his job was not to create new systems or refine existing ones.
Through years of his passion with this specific product and thus not being reassigned elsewhere during the 2019 drought, his skillset improving over the time he had been there and as the number of employees reduced, and simply him having been there so damn long, he was promoted
to Lead Developerin early 2021, when the previousLead DeveloperExecutive Producer Andy Sites left the studio.
Hey there. Everything /u/CMDRCyrious says is accurate, but I'll try to clear the rest up so something is on the record.
I officially joined the team October 2016 (which is when I moved to Cali to work in-studio,) but had done a bit of contracting work on the PC version of the game (mostly data work) after the launch of the PS4 version.
When I joined the team (again, 2016) there were some long-standing PS2 members rolling onto other projects (H1Z1 and an unannounced title,) leaving three of us dedicated to the project (one engineer, one designer, one producer). We still got plenty of support in that first year where from the realm of art, design, UI, QA, and so-on when priorities permitted.
In 2017, we were able to double (!) our team size. Bringing on another designer, engineer, and a full-time UI engineer. It remained this size, give or take some dedicated QA staff, into 2019 through the launch (and subsequent downfall) of PS:A.
I had, indeed, been de facto lead designer throughout that time, but also had great producers (and teammates) to support me.
In 2019-2020, much of PS:A's resources were folded into PS2. The team had loads of industry veterans dedicated to the project now, so we were able to take another swing at the game in a pretty big way (via Escalation and subsequent updates). Even so, this was a pretty tumultuous time, because a lot of folks were leaving the studio for more stability and (if I remember right) another layoff happened around the same time.
When Andy Sites left in 2021, it was pretty rough, when Chris Farrar left later, it became even more so.
From 2021ish (possibly 2022, it's a blur) through my departure in 2023, I was de facto Executive Producer, and Creative Director, and Lead Designer maintaining a team of roughly 20 (which is about where we stabilized until I left.) That meant I was handling the financial roadmap, vetting and training new hires, trying to get everyone paid what they're worth (always a struggle,) coordinating shared services (teams that aren't embedded, like marketing, community, QA, IT, etc.,) leading and managing the team, and trying to develop PlanetSide 2 (alongside exciting stuff you'll never hear about) at the same time.
My team was freaking awesome. Certainly some of the best in the industry, and more than a few of them I still work with today.
That said, I was burning the candle at both ends, and 100% wasn't doing my best work. So when the company made it clear which projects they wanted to focus on in the future, it was a bit of a breaking point for me. I gave Daybreak about a 6-month heads up to help with the transition, making it clear that I would be moving on at the end of it. This gave the company motivation to start figuring out next steps for the studio's resources, and gave us time to finish onboarding Toadman (which wasn't announced until far later than it should have been, imo.)
Huh, really? It was that bad in terms of employees that early on? Construction released in 2016, and it got quite a lot of iteration and new models and the like. I thought it only got dire into late 2018/throughout 2019, as your team got siphoned off for the mentioned PSA.
But I suppose if your "on-board" date was much later in 2016, as opposed to the late 2015/early 2016 of your "contractor" start date (the date I assumed from the release date of your video, which was Jan. 2016), it definitely makes a lot more sense that you started in to a smaller team as per /u/CMDRCyrious' claim/your confirmation.
My assumption was always that the team was solid until at least 2017, and that you were only really a Junior Designer up until the Escalation production period started, around that area. But knowing how small your team was from 2016, it's actually surprising in retrospect how much work you all got done.
but had done a bit of contracting work on the PC version of the game (mostly data work) prior to the release of PS4.
Damn, you were working with them that early... that's prior to May-June 2015, no? In your video announcing it, you gave the impression it was a lot more recent than that!
and gave us time to finish onboarding Toadman (which wasn't announced until far later than it should have been, imo.)
Yeah, we were left in limbo for a long time. Not sure if you were keeping tabs on the community when it happened, but we sorta figured out that something had happened in January 2024, yet didn't get any actual confirmation until late April 2024 of the dev team transfer.
We'd seen the IP get sold, and it did get noted that almost all of the old DBG employees had removed themselves from community spaces, but we didn't really have any idea what was going on. Despite getting roadmaps and active updates.
In fact, the only reason I personally even know that Toadman took over in December 2023 is that a loose-lipped friend of the TMI team was blabbing about it on the subreddit.
that's prior to May-June 2015, no?
Actually, that's my bad. I originally interviewed with them prior to PS4's release, but didn't actually start doing design work as a contractor until they were a ways past launch. I'll update my post.