Towns in Emerald Kingdom will have info kiosks and terminals. So will certain types of stores, to aid in finding things.

One of our new interns, whom you will know as Keeran started with us yesterday. She is amazing. Out of the gate, she put her best effort forward. One of the first things you have to do with any new intern, is evaluate where they are now. We ran a battery of jam tests on her. From concepting, to painting…providing initial feedback, showing her some new things, critiquing as she worked. On her first day, she has produced work which will more than likely be seen in Emerald Kingdom, as you can see.

One of the trends we have seen as of late is the use of interns as nothing more than slave labor, or coffee gophers. It does not work like that here at Double Cluepon. Our interns are expected to act, work, and behave as though they are one of us. Because when they intern for us, they are one of us. No ifs, ands or buts.

That’s one of the reasons we have a pretty big filter in place for Intern applicants. We don’t take anyone. We spend a lot of time with our interns, and we help them improve their craft. We try to guide them, because we want them to continue imagining and creating. They can’t do that if they are fetching coffee and danishes.

Because we spend a lot of time with our interns, we look for some key traits in people who apply. Anyone who applies here for internship has a shot, but not everyone. Some of the things we look for in a good intern:

• Communication skills: did they send us cover letter that amounts to a “form response”? Or did they try to engage us?
• Follow up skills: When contacted, did they follow up? Do they follow up consistently?
• Portfolio: Whether they are a programmer, an artist, animator…a portfolio is not just about the best work, but a progression of work. A lot of the portfolios I see are stuff from school examples, or final projects. Almost always these are rejected. Why? A good creative person has a portfolio that has a demonstrable history of their efforts. Why? To show growth, to show context, and most importantly to show progression in style, technique, etc.
• Personality: if you make it past the initial vetting stage, and you sit with us for an interview we challenge you, and we push you a bit. We poke you a few times to see how you act, how you react. We’re a strange bunch of people here, and we are very careful with our company culture.
• Passion: We will be able to tell, very quickly, if you drank the kool-aid a school fed you on a mid-day commercial, or if you genuinely have a serious passion for the work you do.
• Creativity, with a side of Curiosity: Do you have interesting, dangerous ideas? If you’re one of these types we will pick up on it immediately, and you will almost certainly be welcomed into the fold.
• Critique: do they understand that art of any kind, be it code, sketching, animating or painting… is an evolving process? Do they take critique well? Or are they convinced they are the next Michelangelo?
• Do they follow directions? Always a key thing, but you would be surprised how many folks don’t read submission rules…

All told: we try to make sure have interesting people, who are an asset to what we’re doing. Yes, we could take any warm body, but this would actually harm us more than help us. If you’re not up to speed, and put together…it typically means we have to teach you basic stuff. Sorry, but that just wont work here. We take the raw material of your basic skills, and help mold them. We can’t mold what is not there.

I hate rejecting initial applications. I really do. If I had limitless funds, and resources…there are many I’d love to take on that show a glimmer of promise. But, sadly…we don’t have the time and resources for such folks. That said, if you know of someone who you think would be a good candidate, send them our way. We don’t bite…

….unless specifically asked to do so. =)

• I used the release date of Diablo 3 to pre-order Torchlight II. Runic does not treat their customers like crap.
• Error 37: it’s not forgivable. Blizzard knew how many units they shipped. They knew this was a highly anticipated game. They botched the launch. Plain and simple.
• On the topic of “always on” internet requirements for solo play: anyone who has paid Blizzard (and Ubi, as well as other idiotic DRM laden pubs/devs) anything is responsible for this. You keep paying for them to screw you over. Don’t think for a moment that Blizzard is not watching what happens with other houses either. The market has said: we find this behavior acceptable. So, Blizzard thinks it’s perfectly okay to give you an error when you try to play a solo game of one of their titles. The “online required is the future” is a load of utter hogwash. Why? Because ease of use, and playability for a single player game should be the #1 feature, not one to be plopped at the bottom of the list.
• Laughter brought up and interesting point here. (Good old Jewel, she’s a pretty awesome person, you should follow her) It got me to thinking, once again, about vocal minorities in game communities. The vocal minorities are the ones who tend to ask for a pony. They tend to speak in absolutes, and they tend to complain no matter what you do. It led me to think about whether or not the active marginalization of these types of players is a good thing to do officially, (publicly, in a forum, on the home page of the game) when it can be shown they are in the minority, and when they rear their head. I wonder if the real (and often silent) majority of happy players would feel more comfortable in an environment where their comments were not drown out by people who think increasing the volume of their voice enhances their argument. It’s something I think game devs, especially underground/indies need to think about long term. Vocal minorities have the power to ruin good games. I can’t help but wonder if identifying these people, and calling them out as a minority with volume as a part of a wider and balanced policy…would be a positive thing. I’ve been wondering this for the better part of a year…I really want to engage players with Emerald Kingdom, but I refuse to let a conversation get dominated by a small group who manage to make themselves look like a majority when they clearly are not.

Feel free to discuss. I am keen to hear thoughts on these things.

Here on the blog, we talk about what we’re doing. One of the things we really don’t talk about, or deal with is the business side of things. We have, in the past, talked about how we’re a real company with a corporate charter. We’re a real corporation, with stock and taxes and all those fun things. But we have never really spoken about our actual business side of things.

Recently, I have been in off and on talks and discussion with Mary Kurek, who does professional networking in the game industry. She’s got a lot of awesome advice, and she’s full of energy. I have yet to see a day when she is not go go go for the industry. Double Cluepon’s future includes her services at some point. Along with Keith Fuller. Another talented guy who works in networking and consulting in the game dev field.

Mary recently posted an article about “Game Company Profiles that Work”. It’s good stuff. Some of it, she has told me during our conversations, some of it I have seen elsewhere. Some of it, I have used in the re-tooling of our company page. Some of it I flat out argue against, not because it’s wrong, but because it does not fit us here at Double Cluepon.

I think this is a point that people wholly concerned with the business side of things miss entirely, Mary included. That’s not to say Mary is wrong, or dumb. The reverse is actually true: Mary is as sharp as they come. She knows how to offer different perspectives. She knows how to hone in on issues pertaining to the industry. She knows how to drill to the core of something to get to the matter at hand. It’s this skill that, I think makes her good at what she does. It also works to her advantage another way: it garners respect from the people she interacts with…people who have little time for the slap and tickle games some people in this industry play. To be blunt: she does not peddle in smoke and bullshit.

But, the problem with applying any kind of standard is, you have to ignore the one off cases where it does not apply, and more importantly should not apply. I believe a few people have told me, on occasion, that I can have noble philosophies in policy, and how the company acts, but putting a face to a name is important. In the strongest possible voice I can give: I call bullshit. Where Double Cluepon is concerned…it’s worked in our favor, not against it.

We here maintain ourselves with pseudonyms. It’s actually company policy. You won’t find pictures of us, or anyone in the company here, or on our company page. You won’t find them anywhere. We do not put them up. We do this for a reason, and the reason is this: we own this company, we do what we love. We value our privacy, and we maintain at least a waist high wall between the general public and the company on a personal life level. Mary was actually the most polite person in regard to this subject. She understands the honey/vinegar method pretty well. Keith, whom I mentioned above? This did not even rank on his radar. The few others we have encountered in our past? Meh. It’s all I can say. We will maintain our right to privacy at all costs, no matter what. For a number of reasons. Let me go into them as briefly as I can:

1. Anyone who looks at us, in order to do business with us, will find out who we are. Their desire to pursue leads that turn into positive contact, and business dealings will do so, regardless of whether or not someone knows what Sandalphon, or Caelum look like. How do I know this? Nearly every company I have ever worked with, has had a sales department that spent time networking with people. I’ve seen how this works. If there’s something positive a consultant, a salesperson, or even a creative type can offer someone else, they will ferret out the contact. This is an observed fact, based on some 25 plus years of working in I.T., mainly in places with salesmen and creative types. Keith found me. How? Twitter. Mary found me, and even who I really was. How? Google, the web, Linked In. Why did they find me? I was a contact they wanted to cultivate. I was someone who, to them was worth taking the step. People willing to take the extra step automatically show themselves to be serious, and to the point. In short, I don’t spend a lot of time vetting superfluous email from people.
2. I do not have time to play games with every crap contracting firm who wants to write AS3 for me for pennies on the dollar in India. I do not have time for sound engineers from the UK to constantly send me 10 MB Demo Reels. I don’t have time for every college in northern Illinois to send me resumes and prospects for recent grads, or interns. I definitely do not have time for boiler-room staffing firms, who call me out of the blue and have NO information about what we do, or even what industry we’re in. By keeping the wall, I create an easily scalable barrier for those who are serious, and honestly want to forge some contact. By the way, I still get those first four occasionally. Random cold opens from inappropriate sources trying to contact us. 99.9% of them have not even looked at what we do, or how we do it. The ones who email me, with some clarity, and show they have actually looked at us….they get a response. People like…Mary and Keith. If you want us to spend money, effort or resources on you…then it’s on YOU to show me why I should do so. That’s what’s called “The cost of doing business” The exception being I seek YOU out, to perform something for me..but that’s a different scenario. That’s not to say the door is not open to people wanting to do business with us. It just means, we want you to actually show us that we’re important somehow….like any other customer being pursued. We’ll talk to just about anyone, if they show a real and valid interest. Part of that is: actually digging a bit to learn about who we are, and why we are. If you do that, we will notice.
3. In light of this article, why would I do anything to make it easier for someone to identify me, or the people I love and work with? The people at Double Cluepon are some of my closest friends. As the leader of our band, I feel a responsibility to them all. I also have a duty to them all. Why then, would I want to remove a protection measure that could conceivably put them in harms way? I realize, a game developer or studio head has never been harmed or killed. But you know what? I understand full well there’s always a first time. The law of averages says so.
4. One of the most important reasons: our work is….about our work. It’s not about us. It’s about what we create. It’s about our conversation with the players. It’s about putting out a product, and saying we did this. None of us are in it for the hookers and blow. We’re not in it to stroke our own egos. We’re not in it for the booth babes, or the same celebrity other folks in this industry get. We’re in it to make a living at a trade we love. It’s a business yes. We want to make money, yes. But whether or not we choose to openly identify ourselves with pictures and names that can be looked up on pipl has absolutely no bearing on that. People don’t pay for a product because the CEO or CFO have a bankers hair cut. They buy it because it’s meaningful to them, or they want it, or they need it. Similarly, a business chooses to forge a business relationship with another business because it makes business sense to do so. They don’t make those determinations based on whether or not someone has a goatee or wears socks with Birkenstocks.

But the point I want to get back to is, Mary’s profile points are very very valid. Probably for 95% of all game companies out there. She’s not the only one who has told us these things. I think the important thing here is common sense, really. Adapt what works for your company. There is no such thing as a peel and stick method for anyone. Pictures and Detailed bios may work for many people, but it does not work for Double Cluepon. This is where I think the dialog stops for many. It shouldn’t. We need less cookie cutter and more guerrilla. We need less of the standardized, and more of the experimental. We need more of the controversial, and less of the “this is the way you should do things”.

To re-iterate: do what works for your company, and don’t be cowed. I think more of the business side folks need to be more open to working with companies sticking to unconventional methods. They’re the innovators. In the final analysis, your main goal should be the product mantra: make a great thing, then make it easy to buy/get. If you do that, nobody…and I mean nobody is going to care whether you have a company photo on your website.

Much thanks to Mary, for the impetus for this article, Keith for listening, and both of them for the advice and introductions they have given Double Cluepon.

whatis.emeraldkingdom.com

You can hit the above link to find out more about Emerald Kingdom, planned features, and sign up for VShift, the new Emerald Kingdom community. More than that, we encourage you to spread this URL around. Tell your friends about it. Shout it from rooftops. Wave around loaded revolvers in crowded shopping malls while yelling it out. Okay…let’s scratch that last one.

If you were at ACen, and did not catch the blog updates, we have also released the latest story teaser: Incident Report, available now. Of course none of our teaser material would be complete without a fun background puzzle to solve. Check it out:

You can also discuss the story bit, see a surprising response from me, and ask about it on VShift here.

While we are on the subject of teaser material, let’s not also forget the last one, Avatea’s Fall. You can still catch that here:

Of course, as per usual….the puzzles lead to other exciting things related to Emerald Kingdom. You never know what you’ll find. Could be anything. The best way to do them is in order, of course. I have no doubt in my mind there will be a third at some point. Until then though, the best place to get information on Emerald Kingdom, plans, story…and even maybe a revelation or three is /VShift/. Sign up today. Join the world of Magna, it’s citizens!

Click here to register for /VShift/

]]> http://blog.doublecluepon.com/2012/04/30/stories-and-things-and-stuff-and-recaps-and-stuffs/feed/ 0 http://blog.doublecluepon.com/2012/04/28/anime-central-full-court-press-a-recap-on-some-stuff/ http://blog.doublecluepon.com/2012/04/28/anime-central-full-court-press-a-recap-on-some-stuff/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:46:55 +0000 Azrael http://blog.doublecluepon.com/?p=1394 Today, Saturday if you’re out and about at Anime Central, you should be on the lookout! We have various people on the floor, roaming to and fro. They have marvelous items such as…

• Button Flyers.
• T-Shirts.
• Zipper Pulls.
• A burning need and desire to tell you all about Emerald Kingdom.

We have also put up a new destination for those looking to find out more:

whatis.emeraldkingdom.com

You can hit the above link to find out more about Emerald Kingdom, planned features, and sign up for VShift, the new Emerald Kingdom community.

In case some our regular followers may have missed it, we have also released the latest story teaser: Incident Report, available now. Of course none of our teaser material would be complete without a fun background puzzle to solve. Check it out:

You can also discuss the story bit, see a surprising response from me, and ask about it on VShift here.

While we are on the subject of teaser material, let’s not also forget the last one, Avatea’s Fall. You can still catch that here:

That’s about it for now. Be sure to keep an eye on twitter for updates from Anime Central. Azrael and the main Double Cluepon account will be reporting updates as the day progresses.

Click here to register for /VShift/

Next up? Your next story tease. Yep, it’s been a bit of a wait! But without further ado….

Our next bit of story teaser. I will have something special for the first three people who come to me and fill in the blanks:

“___________ or __________”….It should be noted there are THREE hidden targets, with UNRELEASED and FUN stuffs. Can you find them all?

 UPDATE: 4:30 PM CST.

We have people at ACen starting today! You can get some awesome buttons, not to mention ZIPPER SWAG! We also have shirts and flyers and buttons oh my! Be sure to look for the folks in Emerald Kingdom or Bitsy’s Bullets shirts!

Congrats so far to: @SunGryphon and @AmazinAdrielle. They found, and sent me a quote about: a key, a door, and a mother. They each get some Double Cluepon swag, (shirt/mug). I am still giving away 3 more. If you can solve the puzzle, that is.

Of course, there are clues spread around. If you’re clever, you’ll find em.

Second: While we won’t be doing a table or booth at C2E2, there will be Double Cluepon folks there. Look for the Emerald Kingdom shirt. Find it, you might just get some awesome swag. A shirt, maybe even a mug.

Second update!

We have two additional winners: The Artist Formerly known as Mia and blackjackconcpiracy have both solved the puzzle in addition to the other two winners.

This means, there is only one set left to win! Time is running out!

Castiel:

No emoticon could properly describe my excitement about this sneak peek for the story. Oh. My. AZRAEL.

I don’t want to sound like I know everything there is to know about stories – because trust me, I’m not the Kurt Vonnegut of video games. But when I approached writing for Double Cluepon, I tackled it head on with excitement and vigor. Hey! I thought. This is totally what I want to do for the rest of my life! So the thought of showing you all my first draft is kind of nerve-wracking and exhilarating.

This is the first ever section of the revised story that I did and the product of one image that sprouted in my mind which just wouldn’t go away. That was my first idea for Avatea. It was just so powerful to me and really visual that I scrambled to write it down in my school note book and made sure to flesh it out when I got home. I’m more used to the screenwriting format in that I keep everything as minimal as possible and show character emotion through physical action, but it was nice to stretch my legs and get back into writing a more prose-centric specificity and inner dialogue. What novelty! I could go on and on about the differences between screenwriting and fiction writing, but I don’t want to bore you.

Beatrice is the “Luke Skywalker” of this story in that she is the most normal character for people to latch onto and understand what is going on in this world because we are seeing these changes through her eyes. She’s the one asking the questions, she is the one we should be able to relate to the most.

So, the first question I had to ask myself was: how was I going to set up this world? It’s not easy writing a story that has a completely immersive world without some character to pose as the audience in order to answer all of their questions as the character learns about it himself (i.e. Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson). Some fantasy and sci-fi worlds can be successfully understood through masters like Tolkien or Martin. Yet, it is a useful writing device to help the audience seamlessly transition into this strange world. However, we don’t have something like that. All of our characters are fully involved in this world, so I had to provide a window of opportunity for you as the reader to dive head first into the narrative.

Azrael:

I too am pretty happy with this opener. It’s a story tease, and introduces a major character in the Emerald Kingdom universe. Avatea is one of the first Sprites designed. Both in design documents, and visually. Avatea in her earliest form was just noted as “Moon”, and gave the mark of Moon. My original notes date back as far as 2005/2006. Well before Double Cluepon existed. I’m pretty sure Avatea was the first, but I could be wrong. It was a long time ago, even before it had the name “Emerald Kingdom”.

I always envisioned her as a gentle, attractive woman but not a vain one. I wanted her appearance to give one impression, but her actions and demeanor to convey another. This was quite deliberate on my part for a lot of reasons. I think when Emerald Kingdom is played, and you meet and interact with Avatea some of those reasons will come out. That said, Castiel captures this very thing quite well, especially here in this opening bit of the back story. I think more than anything…one of the things the back story does is convey urgency, and what people do in tumultuous times. Sometimes those tumultuous times can be years, months or even minutes or seconds.

Keep in mind, the world of Emerald Kingdom…the one people will be playing in, takes place a long time after the events of the back story. But, because of how we’re doing story in Emerald Kingdom…we had to write a complete and well edited back story. We’ve done this so that the game events, and story do not in any way become contrived. But, with that said, it’s important to know that what happens these dark days in the past, will have direct impacts on the world of the player. Seeing how that impacts players, and finding out why it does is going to play a significant, (yet optional) part of the game.

If you’re quick on the draw, you may even find a secret bits of story. Something another of our writers wrote from the first draft, that’s still very relevant. Amesha is a solid writer, and his first draft established a great deal for Emerald Kingdom.

Castiel has taken that draft, and has been plugging away at it. It’s come a long long way, and it’s still evolving. The world, and the story of these wonderful characters is incredibly vibrant and full of life, and more importantly, will comprise an interactive mythos.

Castiel:

Avatea is a gentle, attractive yet not a vain woman, as Azrael mentioned; however, I wanted to make sure that she was someone the audience could easily like. And yes, sometimes loving the villains is way more fun than loving the good guys, I aimed to give every character some kind of personality flaw that completed the trifecta of three-dimensional characters (i.e. expertise, history, and flaw). You will get to see Avatea grow and change over the course of the game and come to see that she’ll make mistakes and do things that are very – in a sense – human.

Recently, I’ve noticed that a lot of readers (particularly of the women sort) peg many female characters for being “Mary Sues” or overly-perfect and annoying heroines. However, whenever someone calls a character a Mary Sue, it’s most likely because the reader doesn’t like the character and just wants to hate her for no other reason that I can decipher. But since I’m aware of the problem, I made an extra effort to go out of my way to do what I must. I didn’t focus on making these female characters perfect – I made them characters. If I put any of the character traits on a man that I had previously put on a female – he would be a fan favorite. But if I give those traits to a girl, immediately she’s too unbelievable. It shouldn’t be about gender that makes a character likable or not. It should be about what they do that defines who they are.

There are some plot points for Avatea that were already established before I came on board but ohh~ boy am I super excited to actually write it. Let me just say this right now: Even though Avatea can be considered a more “princess-like” character, she can let her badass streak show. And if there’s one thing you need to know about me and this company, we’re all about strong female characters.

That about says it all we think.

Without further delay, go check out your first small taste of Emerald Kingdom…

After you do, we’re sure you’ll have Questions. Ask away in the comments.

You never know what kind of an answer you’ll get.

I did a hangout with Mike Acton yesterday, the topic was: “#AltDevOpinion Why is the #ME3 ending like Javascript in the browser?”, and I think we touched on quite a few points. But we also managed to get into some in depth discussion about listening to players. A skill which I think, has been almost totally lost on the bigger game companies, and sadly, some of the smaller ones as well.

Here it is, for your enjoyment:

There will be another update later on today, with some Emerald Kingdom related release material. Stay Tuned.